Feminisms

1. Feminisms 1. women's positions in patriarchal society and discourses 2. history of feminist movement & writings 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies:Radical Feminism, French Feminism, Post-Feminism, Lesbian Feminism, Taiwanese Feminisms

2. Gender difference • 1. Are men and women born different? Or taught to be different? • 2. How do women challenge patriarchy? essential difference reversing the hierarchy or separation constructed difference challenging or blurring the boundaries

3. Gender/Sex/Sexuality

4. Gender/Sex/Sexuality • Gender: social construction of “femininity” and “masculinity” • Sex: biological differences between “female” and “male”--Does it determine everything? • Sexuality: differences in the choice of sexual identity, sexual partner, sexual behavior. -- “homosexual” and “heterosexual”–fixed by nature, by culture, by choice, or fluid and constructed by social environments?

5. Central Issues in Contemporary Feminisms A. 60’s -70’s -- Women’s Studies: Women’s • 1) biological: body (lesbianism;anti-pornography mov) • 2) social and psychological: experience and social position (last week) • 3) linguistic: writing (last & this week) B. 80’s – Gender Studies • 1) cultural1) genderdifference & 2) gender constructions (this week) • 2)biological-psychological 本 質 建 構

6. Different feminist positions in the Essentialism - Constructivism continuum • Liberalism: equality between men and women in the public sphere • Radical feminism: freeing women’s bodies from patriarchal constraints and oppression • French feminism: write from the body, feminist writings not limited to women. • Post-Feminism: gender as a corporeal style, an "act“ (Judith Butler)

7. French: Feminine ecriture • Biology feminine writing • Against the psychoanalysts’ emphasis on Oedipus complex and the Father. • Against the fixity of male writing and systems of thoughts (e.g. linear logic) • Cixous: phallogocentrism • writing from the body; write in white ink; in the Realm of the Gift vs. the Realm of the Proper (property-- appropriate--the fear of castration)

8. Feminine Writing: an example夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉 我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正 孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨 通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過 自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己 行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星 上的曠野 正孤獨 我正孤獨通過

9. Irigaray: This Sex Which is not one • autoeroticism; plural sexuality; • an alternate discourse that is multiple, fluid, and heterogeneous, • feminine style: 1) mimicry; 2) "self-touching" and "self-affection" – autoeroticism in writing

10. Irigaray: Mimicry + Parody e.g. • Sylvia Sleigh, The Turkish Bath, 1973

11. Kristeva: the semiotic • the feminine as the silence of the unconscious that precedes discourse; • its utterance is a flow or rhythm instead of an ordered statement; • expression is fluid like the free-floating sea of a womb or the milk of the breast. • E.g. Georgia O'Keeffe and Judy Chicago

12. Kristeva: the semiotic e.g. 1 Black Iris III, 1926

13. Kristeva: the semiotic e.g. 2 Cunt as Temple, Tomb, Cave or Flower, 1974 Judy Chicago

14. Feminist Literary strategies • Separatism: critique of patriarchy, focus only on women’s writings (gynocriticism), lesbianism • Empower female characters(Granny W); Celebrating femininity, and feminine writing • Revising tradition: e.g. fairy tales; • Open accusation; social activism, (e.g. Kruger • Mimicry; Parody; conscious use of dual language (e.g. Cindy Sherman) • Compromise: domestication of female desire

15. Issues raised by Radical Feminists • Critiquing Patriarchy: e.g. Kate Millet, Marilyn French (p. 175, 176) • Pornography: (pp. 193-, 199, 200) • Gender re-definition: Androgyny, Separatism (p. 185; 186) • Gender roles: Motherhood as constraint? • Bad sex? Good sex? (p. 207) • Does our body determine our sexuality and does our sexuality determine everything else in our lives? (p. 218)