Theories of Feminism

1. Theories of Feminism • Just as people hold many different political views, some of which may be contradictory, people may also ascribe to different or multiple forms of feminist thought.

2. Liberal Feminism • Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, most feminists in office, NOW officials • Attempts to reform or use existing political structures to advance women's interests along a civil rights model. Argues that women deserve the same privileges, protections, pay, and opportunities that men do.

3. Cultural Feminism • A great variety of female artists, musicians, teachers, activists, etc. A very big tent. • Attempts to recover lost or marginalized women's works and traditions and create a culture that nurtures and supports women's experiences and values. Music, literature and other arts form a large part of this endeavor. Argues that existing institutions and the values they represent are male-dominated.

4. Separatist Feminism • Mary Daly • Argues that at this historical moment women's primary responsibility is to care for each other and combat patriarchy, and that this is best achieved by creating female-only spaces and relationships. Especially during the late seventies lesbian separatists were sometimes taken (often by others) to be the most radical or pure form of feminism.

5. ‘French’ Feminism • Hélene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva • Draws on recent French intellectual traditions to examine the role that language plays in creating subjectivity and maintaining gender asymmetries. Explicitly critiques many of liberal feminism's presuppositions, although it supports its political advances.

6. Psychoanalytic Feminism • Nancy Chodorow, Julliet Mitchell, Jane Gallop, Kaja Silverman, Toril Moi • Argues that the Freudian tradition, especially in its most recent formations, provides the best framework for understanding how language shapes subjectivity and gender definitions. Draws on moments in Freud's work where he analyzes traditional heterosexuality and gender roles as arbitrary rather than "natural."

7. Materialist Feminism • Susan Willis, Donna Harraway • Indebted to Marx and Engels, this feminist thought attempts to relate women's subordination to historical and class factors like the division of labor between men and women. Tends to focus on collaboration rather than identity politics.

8. Womanist • Alice Walker, Barbara Smith, bell hooks • Womanism brings a racialized and often class-located experience to the gendered experience suggested by feminism. It also reflects a link with history that includes African cultural heritage, enslavement, women's culture, and a kinship with other women, especially women of color.

9. Eco-Feminists • Rosemary Reuther, Mary Daly, Susan Griffin • Ecofeminism regards the oppression of women and nature as interconnected, and eco-feminist theorists have extended their analyses to consider the interconnections between sexism, the domination of nature (including animals), racism, and social inequalities.

10. Anti-Pornography Movement • Catherine McKinnon, Andrea Dworkin • Argues that pornography is the most extreme instance of a culture that objectifies women as a means to oppress them, and uses rape as a form of terrorism. "Pornography is the theory and rape is the practice."

11. Pro-Pornography Artists and Theorists • Gayle Rubin, Susie Bright, femaleperformance artists • Argue that the anti-porn movement has a naive view of representation and has vitiated women's sense of sexual agency. Does not want to censor porn, but to create better porn that reflects women's desires, body types, and diversity.

12. “Queer” Theory • Gayle Rubin, Judith Butler, Michael Moon, Eve Sedgwick • Examines the ways that marginalized sexualities subvert, parody, and disrupt dominant gender and power relations. Especially interested in how drag, camp, etc., complicate or disrupt perceived oppositions like those between "male" and "female," "gay" and "straight," etc.