Sociological theory explained, explored, evaluated.

1. Sociological theory explained, explored, evaluated.

2. FUNCTIONALISM The modern world has less moral cohesion than earlier societies had. Society is an integrated system of social structures and functions. DURKHEIM SAYS: * Society controls the individual, we are constrained & controlled by it. * We can study society scientifically & this is why his work is still relevant. * The opportunity to carry out research is what makes sociology different from philosophy, which just sits around thinking about life. * We tend to think that racism, pollution & recession are caused by individuals. Durkheim says it’s actually society that causes things like these. SOCIAL FACTS are all the social structures (like law), norms and values that exist to control us all. These are external constraints that affect us all, e.g. Tuition fees. MATERIAL SOCIAL FACTS are directly observable, like demographics & populations (Census). NON-MATERIAL SOCIAL FACTS are things like culture, norms & values that are put there by socialization. Durkheim 1858-1917. * Durkheim identified types of NON-MATERIAL SOCIAL FACTS; MORALITY – society’s health depends on strong morality; without it people would behave like animals & be at the mercy of their instincts. Durkheim said morality sets people free. COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE – shared understanding of norms & beliefs which were stronger in primitive societies. COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS – ideas, myths, symbols & role models that embody our cultural norms. * The DIVISION OF LABOUR in society affects how we all get on. In earlier societies, everybody farmed & had similar lives & experiences. In modern society, our lives are all quite different, but we still pull together because we depend on each other. MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY is a term Durkheim used to describe earlier societies where people were unified through shared experiences, similar activities & responsibilities, were very religious & rigid & had strict laws which meted out severe punishments. ORGANIC SOLIDARITY describes societies with very different jobs & roles which encouraged co-dependence, moral individualism (judged by your own standards – not everyone else), restitutive law (where offender pays for harm), less religious & rigid. * DYNAMIC DENSITY caused shift from MECHANICAL to ORGANIC solidarity – this means the population increased while there were fewer resources (food & energy) to go round. This created more competition & the idea that some didn’t deserve to have things. We had to find new ways to resolve conflict through co-operation and greater efficiency, so people took on a wider variety of roles to give us what we needed. * Durkheim thought sociology could diagnose whether a society was healthy or sick & he thought crime was normal & functional. He blamed ANOMIE for sick societies – where people become isolated & badly behaved because they don’t feel any bond with or loyalty to, their community. * MORALITY, SOCIAL SOLIDARITY & JUSTICE were important to Durkheim because in societies where people have less in common, it would be easy for people to be defined as superior over others. This is why we need social justice to make sure everyone is treated equally. * DURKHEIM studied SUICIDE not because he wanted to explain why it happened, but to explain the differences in rates between different countries. He put this down to different countries having different levels of SOCIAL FACTS like integration & regulation which produce different SOCIAL CURRENTS (a bit like a national atmosphere, if you like). * CULT OF THE INDIVIDUAL. Durkheim thought we have two things going on in our heads; 1. isolated individuality – how we feel about ourselves, on our own; 2. our social being – what others think of us. He called this Homo Duplex. This is the idea that individuals have become sacred in our society – this is why we can’t get our heads around suicide. A defence of the rights of the individual is a defence of our society – so where does this leave the French now that they’ve banned the burka? CRITICISMS: 1. studying everything with scientific method is totally unrealistic, all studies are a series of interpretations by the researcher. 2. There is no evidence to suggest that in the absence of collective conscience, humans become like cave people. 3. Durkheim’s functionalism is morally prescriptive and conservative which isn’t good for social change. 4. It doesn’t address conflict; what causes it and what to do about it. 5. Struggles to be relevant to modern society, which is far more complicated than in Durkheim’s day.

3. STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM The social world is defined by principles of reciprocity in give-and-take relationships. A function is a complex of activities directed towards meeting a need or needs of the system. Parsons Parsons said there are 4 main aims of social systems; A.G.I.P. (a greasy, indigestible pizza). How we change to meet needs of modern society. How we use our personalities to get what we want in life. GOAL ATTAINMENT ADAPTATION PATTERN MAINTENCAE INTEGRATION How we take on norms, values and culture. How we use the cultural system (like schools) to pass on culture from one generation to the next. * PARSONS focused on how societies EVOLVED over time. * SOCIALIZATION & SOCIAL CONTROL allow the social system to maintain balance & equilibrium – to keep us all on track. * Divided functions up into LATENT & MANIFEST functions – LATENT functions related to what was the intention behind an act and MANIFEST is what actually happened. SO – banning the burka in France might have the LATENT FUNCTION of integrating Muslim women more closely into French culture, but it might have the MANIFEST FUNCTION of making them feel excluded. CRITICISMS: 1. Parsons doesn’t really examine the historical roots of society. 2. His theories are based on American society, so they’ll not be entirely applicable to British society. 3. Bless him, he can’t deal with conflict and just focuses entirely on harmonious relationships. 4. Parsons’ work has a really conservative bias because of what it ignores (conflict & inequality) and what it focuses on (family values).

4. CLASSICAL MARXISM Workers of the world unite!! You have nothing to lose but your chains! Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self-interest backed by force. Karl Marx 1818-1883 * This is a STRUCTURAL,CONFLICT theory – it believes society is capitalist, full of conflict between the classes & one which affects every bit of our lives. * It’s still relevant to modern society because it provides an analysis of inequality under capitalism & the history of capitalism. * CAPITALISM is a social & economic system based on making money. * Marx used the DIALECTIC to explain how our history is full of contradictions between people, which are sorted out only to produce new contradictions. Workers & capitalists have always had a scratchy relationship because it’s based on the exploitation of the workers by the capitalists. It’s a bit like a marriage in a way, that goes through ups and downs; they build up into huge rows and then are resolved until the next time. * Marx started with LABOUR and how it is fundamental to our survival and our identity; through labour we all have a purpose. How many times have your parents come in from work and asked you “What have you done today?” 1. Labour is the embodiment of our purpose in life; 2. there is a clear relationship between our needs & objects; 3. this results in changes to human nature – we have new needs & a new language. * ALIENATION is where the relationship between human labour & human nature is perverted by capitalism because our labour is owned and controlled by capitalists & is no longer an expression of our principles and purpose. * Our labour, under capitalism, becomes a means to an end – wages. We are now alienated from our purpose & therefore alienated from our own human nature. Capitalists employ workers & own their labour as well as everything they produce, so to survive, workers are forced to sell their labour. People feel only truly free in their animal functions – drinking, eating & sex. Is rampant capitalism to blame for ‘Binge Britain’, the obesity epidemic and the mess of prostitution, STIs & teenage pregnancy? * So our own labour is used not to satisfy our own needs but in making money for capitalists, in boring, repetitive, low-paid, low-status work for many of us. We’re kept apart from our fellow workers – cube farms. Conversation between a small boy & B&Q cashier: “I want to be a librarian when I grow up cos I love reading. What did you want to be when you were little?” She replied “Well it wasn’t to work ten hours shifts on a cash till!” This woman is ALIENATED!! *Under capitalism, competition between workers is encouraged (commission for example), distracts us from our exploitation. * Under capitalism, human potential is wasted, we are numbed & turned into drones; even the greetings & smiles of shop assistants & MaccyD’s workers are scripted, programmed & completely controlled. SCARY. * Capitalism is presented to us as if it’s normal & natural, not as the web of power & decisions made by rich & powerful people that it is. For instance, the cuts. The links between human suffering & economic downturns are seen as irrelevant & trivial. * COMMODITY FETISHISM is a term used by Marxism which means materialism. “The people recognise themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.” Marcuse, 1964. It’s how the commodities (things) created take on greater value & enslave us as we work harder to be able to afford them. So we are exploited both as workers and as consumers. * A society dominated by objects whose value is inflated to derive more profit produces categories of people: the BOURGEOISIE & the PROLETARIAT. The BOURGEOISIE benefit from the exploitation of the PROLETARIAT. * Marx initially welcomed CAPITALISM’s promise to rid the world of hunger, rigid tradition & material deprivation but when it got greedy and let the people down, Marx decided it must be overthrown and be replaced by COMMUNISM. * The base or INFRASTRUCTURE of CAPITALIST society is unfair & exploitative. To keep it in place & prevent uprising of the masses, the SUPERSTRUCTURE used law, religion, education and so on to implant capitalist values into our heads at a young age. CRITICISMS: 1. Communism failed all over the world & of those that are still communist, they’ve embraced capitalism (China). 2. There’s a problem with relying on the PROLETARIAT to kick off the revolution; they’re not keen on leading & it’s always middle class academics that call for class struggle – the PROLETARIAT tend to be very conservative (for example – the EDL). 3. It ignores gender, in fact, Marx was a bit of a sexist pig; “Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.” Men’s labour depends on the unpaid labour of women; rearing & maintaining the future & present generations of workers. 4. Marxism focuses entirely on production and not on consumption. Many people are employed in very creative jobs that are there to come up with mad new products for people to buy. 5. Marx had this idea that humanity would improve the more it exploited natural resources – this has resulted in a massive ecological crisis. 6. Marxist theory cannot be applied to conflict in society based along racial & ethnic lines.

5. NEO-MARXISM People create the social worlds that ultimately come to enslave them. The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. Antonio Gramsci 1891-1937 Capitalism today is a way of life as well as an economic system. Its concepts of commercialism, consumerism & profit making permeate all aspects of everyday life, from culture and sport to working life & leisure. Making money, shopping & aspiring to the lifestyles of the rich & famous are the very values & motivating forces of life in Western society, while the giant corporations of Ford, Sony & McDonald’s seek to entice all of us to buy more & consume more as they seek new markets & new profits. Ideological control, argued Gramsci, not military might nor economic dominance, is the highest form of hegemony, a form of consent rather than coercion - & Western societies today have taken capitalism to their hearts as well as their heads & it will take a great deal of persuading to convince them that socialism is a better way of life. HOW IT’S DIFFERENT FROM CLASSICAL MARXISM: * It focuses less on the capitalist economy and more on capitalist culture and how it keeps the PROLETARIAT in the dark about their exploitation. * FALSE CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS is a key aspect of Neo-Marxist theory. It refers to how the PROLETARIAT are kept unaware of their exploitation under capitalism. The SUPERSTRUCTURE does a very effective job of making us think capitalism is normal & fair, which stops the PROLETARIAT from kicking off. The media, in particular, keeps us in the dark about what’s really going on. It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits in the newspaper. Jerry Seinfeld. * We now have an IDEOLOGICAL BATTLEGROUND where those who want to expose exploitation are pitted against those who want to conceal it. * Neo-Marxists use the term HEGEMONY to refer to how the BOURGEOISIE dominate our culture with their norms & values. This makes sure that the PROLETARIAT don’t challenge them, ever, and that we accept their rule without question. Do you remember the big noise about Wikileaks? It was because those in charge didn’t want us to know what they’d been up to; things like torture, for instance. * Gramsci saw revolution as absolutely essential to overcome this cultural domination & as a way for the masses of ordinary people to live lives free from exploitation & deception. CRITICISMS: * Neo-Marxism is useful because it tries to make classical Marxism relevant to the social world. * It provides a useful platform for examining conflict in relation to ethnicity and race in modern, multicultural and global societies. * BUT they reduce economic factors down too much in favour of culture and ideology. We’re in a recession and the economy has never been so relevant to examining society. Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. Ludwig Börne.

6. WEBER’S THEORIES. The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world. The modern world is an iron cage of rational systems from which there is no escape. Max Weber 1864-1920. * Weber’s theory recognised both the value of STRUCTURAL & ACTION theory. While society did have the power to control us all, ultimately, it was created by us & can be destroyed by us, too. He liked to mix MICRO & MACRO theory to see which external forces people are vulnerable to. * Weber is probably THE most influential sociologist. He fused history with sociology to come up with his ideas. * He was really into the concept of VERSTEHEN which is where he said sociologists should use their empathy to understand human action. They must put themselves in the shoes of the people they’re studying to understand why they behave as they do, but absolutely NOT to judge. * Weber was also really into CAUSALITY by looking at what’s caused our society to be the way it is by looking back in history. This is why he fished around in religion to find out some of the factors in the development of modern capitalism. As a result he does use a MULTI-CAUSAL approach. For example, Weber makes it clear that the Protestant Ethic of Calvinists was one causal factor in the development of modern capitalism. * IDEAL TYPES are another tool cooked up by Weber in order to organise social phenomena into categories so that sociologists can take slices of social reality and compare them to real examples. For example, is Scientology a sect or a cult? See, it makes you think... * VALUE-FREE SOCIOLOGY – Weber thought it was completely wrong to bring your values into your research, but they could shape what you decided to study in terms of what is considered important in your culture. * SOCIAL ACTION is where individuals think about what they’re doing because they want to achieve a particular thing. He identified four basic types of action: 1. RATIONAL ACTION is performed to achieve something material, like money. 2. VALUE RATIONAL ACTION achieves emotional or spiritual reward. 3. AFFECTUAL ACTION is emotional response. 4. TRADITIONAL ACTION is customary behaviour like marriage or Christmas. (Really Vain And Tarty). * CLASS, STATUS & PARTY is a really important aspect of Weber’s theorising. Categorising people into class groups is not straight forward. If we define it using economic power, Katie Price is upper class. If we define it using education & status, she probably wouldn’t be upper class. CLASS refers to a group of people in the same social situation. STATUS refers to a social estimation of honour & rank. PARTY is concerned with how much power someone has. So, class is MULTIDIMENSIONAL. * Weber didn’t like capitalism & wanted to see it dismantled. He thought we should question the legitimacy of someone’s right to rule us and so came up with his STRUCTURES OF AUTHORITY in which he identified LEGAL, TRADITIONAL & CHARISMATICAUTHORITY. LEGAL AUTHORITY was exercised by OFFICERS in BUREAUCRACIES, which are working environments centred around offices where work is carried out (administered) with high efficiency, rational authority over people, it’s precise, stable, stringent, calculating & hierarchical. George Ritzer used these ideas to carry out an analysis of the Holocaust. IBM computers, normally found in offices up and down the country, actually created a system to categorise & record prisoners. TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY is centred around long-held beliefs, particularly religions, which Weber argued was a barrier to rationality. Finally, CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY was held by a person whose followers thought they were exceptional. CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY was a form of revolutionary force because it changes the minds of people & he wanted to know what happened to movements when the leader dies. * Weber was most interested in FORMAL RATIONALITY where we constantly think about how we can earn more, be more and have more. But he saw FORMAL RATIONALITY as an iron cage that enslaves us. FORMAL RATIONALITY is about calculating the best outcomes for ourselves (saving money in the sales, for instance), efficiency, predictability, control & using non-human technology to achieve all this. * As a consequence of FORMAL RATIONALITY, the world is now less enchanting, less magical and less meaningful. We know everything because of science. This is all completely different to SUBSTANTIVE RATIONALITY which is where everything we think we know is based on values, magic & faith in the un-seen. FORMAL RATIONALITY has more or less eclipsed SUBSTANTIAL RATIONALITY in the modern world (although Postmodernists wouldn’t agree, particularly over the New Age). Of course, famously, he showed how FORMAL RATIONALITY eclipsed SUBSTANTIAL RATIONALITY in his study of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. CRITICISMS: 1. He wants us to use VERSTEHEN – but empathy is a conversation which is full of value judgements. 2. He criticises RATIONALITY & BUREAUCRACY but offers no alternative for how we could organised ourselves. 3. He’s really pessimistic! There are lots of benefits to RATIONALITY – a better standard of living, for one.

7. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM In their social lives, people tend to put on a variety of theatrical performances. GH Mead 1863-1931. * SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM is an ACTION THEORY, a MICRO perspective, which argues that individuals shape society & that sociologists must concentrate on MICRO interactions between people & to find out individual perceptions on life (reality). * People use & interpret SYMBOLS to survive & communicate, such as language, gestures, clothing, body language etc.. * Every object & action is given meaning on the basis of individual perception. A wooden base with four legs on it could be a chair, a weapon, a piece of art, a tool, something to prop a door open, a signal...it depends on how you see it. * Our survival depends on our ability to classify everything in life in terms of food, non-food, threatening, non-threatening etc. These classifications do need to be shared by everyone else in society in order for us to co-operate & safeguard each other’s survival. * We all have a ROLE in society, but this isn’t just about what role(s) we play in society. ROLE TAKING also involves using empathy to get inside someone’s head so that we truly understand them. Signals such as crying, shouting, swearing, being very quiet etc will tell the observer what they’re dealing with. But where does this leave someone on the Autism Spectrum? * THE SELF – our notion of our own self is developed during childhood. Our sense of self is what makes us different from animals. It begins with the PLAY STAGE where children play roles that aren’t their own & take on their behaviour. * This is followed by the GAME STAGE later on, where children become aware of their relationship to other people & how they need to behave. An example would be in football or netball. * Being self conscious is an essential part in being human because it provides the basis for thought (your inner conversation), survival & communication. Without it, you simply wouldn’t understand what was going on & not understand what was expected of you. By being aware of others’ reactions to us, we hold up a mirror to ourselves to understand what kind of people we are & make changes if necessary. * Our behaviour is controlled to a certain extent by a constant inner conversation between ourselves and the ‘generalized other’ – our perception of the opinions & expectations of everyone else. “What will people think?” * Throughout our lives, appropriate behaviour is suggested to us by our culture. This is why role models are so important. * People will act according to expected roles in society, but people still have the choice of whether to accept or reject it. This is because 1. cultural norms aren’t hugely specific (look at the variety of clothes); 2. there’s a huge choice of jobs & roles; 3. some roles encourage a diversity of behaviour; 4. people can join subcultures if they want to & 5. sometimes people are unable to play an expected role so a new solution has to be found. People influence their society & are influenced by it, in return. CRITICISMS: 1. Interactionists examine face-to-face interaction without taking into account the historical & social context. For instance, Asian people are being Stopped & Searched more regularly than ever before, probably because of the current moral panic about terrorism. 2. They fail to look at why we have the norms we do & where they’ve come from. 3. They fail to look at why we conform to norms to the extent that they constrain us & make us miserable.

8. FEMINISM This is a structural theory: the life you have depends on the gender you are born into. This is also a CONFLICT theory – it examines the power struggle between men and women. Get me out! • Feminism pays attention to the subordinate position of women in society. • There are five broad approaches or varieties of feminism which reflect differences in feminist opinions (a lot like ‘mainstream’ sociological perspectives like Marxism, Functionalism and Interactionism). We have: Marxist Post-modern Liberal Radical Black RADICAL FEMINSM A sexual revolution begins with the emancipation of women, who are the chief victims of patriarchy, and also with the ending of homosexual oppression.Read more: A sexual revolution begins with the emancipation of women, who are the chief victims of patriarchy, and also with the ending of homosexual oppression. Patriarchy is the key issue in radical feminism. • Women are exploited by ALL men – the ones they know AND the ones they’ll never meet. • Society is patriarchal: dominated and rules by and for the benefit of men. • The family is the main institution of women’s oppression. • Only revolution can release women from oppression. • Some radical feminists think women are oppressed because of their biology. Shulamith Firestone advocates the use of reproductive technologies that would allow babies to be grown outside the womb and could allow women to have hysterectomies so their lives wouldn’t be blighted by periods. • Some radical feminists see women’s oppression as due to a culture which advocates rape and male violence as a way for men to maintain power. • Separation from men socially & sexually (lesbianism) is the only way to achieve independence & freedom from men. • Some are female supremacists & want matriarchy to replace patriarchy. They blame men for war, destruction of the environment etc. • Radical libertarian feminists argue gender is a social construction and irrelevant. Some have raised children in an androgynous way to prove the point. • CRITICISMS: • Ignores other forms of oppression due to race and social class. • Ignores positive relationships with men & demonises marriage. • It isn’t workable to demand separation from men. • It sees men as just bad, that they can’t be trusted as dads and friends etc.

9. Liberal Feminism Not only is the division of labour by sex not universal, but there is no reason why it should be. Human cultures are diverse and endlessly variable. They owe their creation to human inventiveness rather than invincible biological forces. Ann Oakley, 1974. • They argue that both men as well as women are oppressed by rigid gender roles. • No-one wins with gender inequalities, both men’s and women’s potential is suppressed by rigid expectations of them. For example, really, men should be encouraged to have close relationships with children instead of having the word “PAEDO!!” screamed at them. • Socialization and discrimination limits men and women to very narrow expressions of gendered behaviour. If a bloke wants to have a long, blond perm – he should be able to do so without having his ‘masculinity’ questionned. Similarly, if a woman wishes to become a shot-putter, she should be able to do so without having her femininity and sexuality questionned. • The main aim of Liberal Feminism is the creation of equal opportunities for both men and women. They don’t want a revolution, they just want society to be rid of sexism and limiting stereotyping. CRITICISMS: 1. The beliefs of Lib Fems are based on male norms and values, such as competition and achieved status – encouraging women to be like men. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/9379203.stm Just have a look at this link to see what they mean. UN-believe-ABLE!!! 2. Emphasises public at the expense of private life, substitutes relationships for power. Katie Hopkins (the famous man-eater from The Apprentice), famously argued that her job was more important than her children. 3. It’s rejected by Black Feminists and Postmodern Feminists for assuming all women have the same issues. Marxist / Socialist Feminism • Women are exploited by capitalism through their unpaid labour in families – home is where the exploitation is. Workers & consumers are maintained (fed etc) and reproduced by women. • Historically, this is caused by the development of private property – men took charge of this & married women to guarantee the paternity of children who would inherit this property. Women lost power. • Marxist Feminism sees women as having a lot in common with the working class and urge them to co-operate with working class men and women in order to challenge capitalist oppression. • They also seek revolutionary change in the form of a communist society, where all property will be communally owned and remove the power related to private property. • CRITICISMS: • Marxism is a male theory which doesn’t adapt well to women’s lives because it ignores culture, violence and sexuality as well as neglecting issues around race and ethnicity. • Communist societies have exploited women more than capitalist ones; they never reached positions of authority and seriously had their fertility messed with (think; China’s one child policy and Russia’s all out love affair with abortion).

10. Black Feminism Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Sojournor Truth at a Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. • Black and White women have different experiences due to the existence of racism as well as sexism – this makes Black women’s lives twice as hard as White women’s. • There are Black women role models, such as Sojourner Truth, who identified the idea that slavery was at the root of the fundamental differences between Black and White women. • This still happens today, where White women are able to go out into the corporate world while their children are nannied by women from the developing world and their ironing is done by yet more women from the developing world, whose race and ethnicity barrs them from full participation in an elitist world. • Mainstream feminism has always focused on the experiences of White, middle class women. • Black and Asian women in developing countries have had barbaric issues to contend with – such as female genital mutilation, mass rape and the HIV epidemic. Meanwhile, White, western women are concerned with equal rights at work. • Masculine bias in Black social thought and a racist bias in feminism has left Black and Asian women with no alternative but to create an academic discipline for themselves. • Race, class and gender impact on women’s lives in the form of racism, poverty and sexism and the disadvantages that come with all of these. • CRITICISMS: • Black feminism emphasises race way over sex or class in its analysis of Black women’s lives (but perhaps because that’s the most visible aspect of Black women’s identity??) • It fails to address the oppression of White women who are of a different ethnicity to the majority of a population – for instance, it would be interesting to examine the experiences of Polish women in Southport and look at how they struggle with poverty and discrimination in their everyday lives.

11. Postmodern Feminism “ Up till now (once upon a time), female embodiment seemed to be given, organic, necessary; and female embodiment seemed to mean skill in mothering and its metaphoric extensions. Only by being out of place could we take intense pleasure in machines, and then with excuses that this was organic activity after all, appropriate to females. I’D RATHER BE A CYBORG THAN A GODDESS. Donna Haraway. “ • Women are exploited by many different things in postmodern society because all women are very different and have very different identities. • There are different varieties of women all with different pressures and different levels of power. • The focus in postmodern feminism is very much on language and in unravelling the sexist ways in which language frames our thoughts. For example, why do we curse by referring to genitals? • This is potentially where the much maligned political correctness movement comes from. • Postfeminists argue that the English language is structured in terms of opposites: male / female; white / black; good / bad; true / false; beautiful / ugly. • The word hysterical comes from the same semantic field as ‘womb’. A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the womb. To be hysterical is to be illogically and irrationally emotional and it is clearly shown to be a female state. • Women are treated as the insignificant ‘other’. For instance, women’s football. • Helene Cixous (a French postfeminist), calls language phallocentric. (Phallus is a generic word relating to the male genitalia). She argues this shapes how we think about and express our experiences. Cixous also believes this prevents women from fully speaking out, unlike male comedians and politicians. • Cixous says women naturally think and act in cycles, while men are linear (in a straight line). • However, Haste says women have become more sexually autonomous (free) and can meet their desires. She also argues that the feminine view of the world can blend with the masculine. • CRITICISMS: • What sexual autonomy?! Female chauvenist pigs; plastic surgery; laddism; the pill … women are having a male view of their sexuality imposed upon them – the ‘male gaze’. • This perspective loses sight of actual and acute oppression such as that faced by self-immolating women in Afghanistan, and reduces all of women’s woes down to phallocentric language.

12. Postmodernism. Life was once predictable, things were well structured – mapped out for us, we knew who we were – a clear identity, we had firm beliefs about the nature of things. NOT ANY MORE. The key features of Postmodernism: * Truth is relative – it’s just an opinion of what’s right. * Consumerism is all – we construct our identity through our clothes, music etc. * Transformation of the self (‘pick ‘n’ mix’) – we can concoct our image from media inspirations; look at ASOS – they can help you dress like Mischa Barton. * Disillusionment with the idea of progress – many people are turning their backs on technology & going back to nature (e.g. number of applications for allotments have shot up). * Uncertainty – trends shift and change all the time, we can’t be sure what life’s going to be like in another ten years. * Fragmentation of social life – community isn’t as solid as it used to be, we are more private now (sitting in watching TV programmes about made-up communities) & people are more different (multiculturalism / age / sexuality). * Incessant choice – of media, products, careers, identities… * Globalisation – we live in the world, rather than just the UK. * The impact of ICT on social life – social networking, email, internet etc. LYOTARD: Science has helped destroy the metanarratives of religion and ideology. They’re too simplistic to explain life properly. We should focus on playing language games to explore the many narratives that exist and know that they are just stories to help us see the world in particular ways. Knowledge is no longer a tool of the authorities – we have choice/freedom to believe what we want. Actions and ideas are now judged on how useful they are..rather than how true they are. BAUDRILLARD: ‘we are constantly surrounded by an ecstasy of communication and that communication is sickening’. We are now just customers whose desires are created by the media. We pursue the images attached to the products; ‘simulacra’ - make believe goods which bear no relationship to the real world. We live in hyper-realities in which appearances are everything. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING ! DERRIDA: argued that modernism was characterised by logocentrism; an obsession with consumption. Post-modernists rejected this and argue that trying to tell the ‘big story’ now is impossible. Social structure is in a state of flux where all meaning is now relative and socially constructed. As a consequence reality is fragile and confusing.