FEMINISM

The emotional, sexual, and

psychological stereotyping of
females begins when the doctor
says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley
Chisholm
• Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)
• S/he
• Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature
(and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic,
political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson 83).
This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently
patriarchal (male dominated) and "...this critique strives to expose the
explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women" (Richter
1346). This misogyny, Tyson reminds us, can extend into diverse areas
of our culture: "Perhaps the most chilling example...is found in the
world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often
have been tested on male subjects only" (Tyson 83).
COMMON SPACE IN FEMINIST THEORIES
• Though a number of different approaches exist in feminist criticism, there exist some areas
of commonality. This list is excerpted from Tyson:
• 1. Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and
psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they are kept so
• 2. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined
only by her difference from male norms and values
• 3. All of western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, for
example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the world
• 4. While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender
(masculine or feminine)
• 5. All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate
goal to change the world by prompting gender equality
• 6. Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience, including
the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware of these
issues or not.
• Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of
marginalization such as the exclusion of women writers from
the traditional literary canon: "...unless the critical or historical
point of view is feminist, there is a tendency to under-represent
the contribution of women writers" (82-83).
WHAT IS FEMINIST CRITICISM?

• A type of literary criticism that critiques how females are

commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these
representations are as a categorizing device. They focus on
how femininity is represented as being passive and
emotional – the “caregiver,” and the male is associated
with reason and action – the “doer.”
WHAT IS FEMINIST CRITICISM?

• As an addition to the feminist movement in politics, the

feminist critique of literature seeks to raise the
consciousness about the importance and unique nature of
women in literature, and to point out how language has
been used to marginalize women.
FEMINIST CRITICISM

Specifically, the feminist view attempts to:

1. Show that writers of traditional literature have ignored
women and have presented misguided and prejudiced
views of them
2. Create a critical landscape that reflects a balanced view
of the nature and value of women
FEMINIST CRITICISM

3. Expand the literary canon by recovering works of women

of the past and publication of contemporary female
writers
4. Urge transformation in the language to eliminate
inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic
distortions such as mankind (rather than humanity).
FIRST-WAVE OF
FEMINIST MOVEMENT
(1890’S TO 1960)
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
Vindication of the Rights
of Woman is regarded as
the earliest and the
foundation work of
feminist movement
FIRST-WAVE OF FEMINIST MOVEMENT

The focus of the first phrase

of the movement is on
acquisition of rights that was
reserved for men, such as the
right to work and most
importantly, the right to vote
1932 Soviet poster
for International
Women’s Day
 Second-wave Feminist
Movement(1960s-1990s)
The second-wave feminism saw
cultural and political inequalities as
inextricably linked.
Second-wave feminism was largely
concerned with other issues of equality,
such as the end to discrimination.
 SECOND-WAVE FEMINIST
MOVEMENT
(1960S-1990S)
Carol Hanisch’s essay “The Personal is
Political” is the representation of second-
wave feminism.
“Women’s Liberation” is the slogan of the
second-wave movement
Second phrase of literary Development
•
The second one is the
feminist phase (1880-
1920), when women
advocated for their rights;
and the female
phase(1920-present
emphasizes on the
rediscovery of women’s
texts and women
 THIRD-WAVE FEMINIST
MOVEMENT
(1990S ONWARDS )

Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or

avoid what it deems the second-wave's
"essentialist" definitions of femininity,
which (according to them) over-emphasized
the experiences of upper middle class white
women.
 THIRD-WAVE FEMINIST
MOVEMENT
(1990S ONWARDS )
A post-structuralist interpretation of gender
and sexuality is central to much of the third-
wave's ideology.

Third-wave feminists often focus on

"micropolitics," and challenged the second-
wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good
for females.
IMPORTANT TERMS FOR GENDER AND
FEMINIST CRITICISM
• Patriarchy: a system of beliefs and social practices that supports
male dominance by denying women access to power, privileging
issues/voices that are seen as “masculine” over those that are
“feminine,” and exerting control over women’s bodies and
sexualities.
• Gender: A socially constructed set of expectations for what is
“masculine” and what is “feminine.” (As opposed to “sex,” which is
biological.)
IMPORTANT TERMS FOR GENDER AND
FEMINIST CRITICISM
• Essentialism: The belief that every woman is inherently different
because she is a woman. (Some early feminists used this idea to say
that these differences should be identified and celebrated, but many
feminists now see essentialism as outdated and prone to abuse.)
FEMINIST CRITICAL QUESTIONS

1. To what extent does the representation of women (and

men) in the work reflect the time and place in which the
work was written?
2. How are the relationships between men and women
presented in the work?
3. Does the author present the work from within a
predominantly male or female perspective?
FEMINIST CRITICAL QUESTIONS

4.How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the

presentation of men and women in the work?
5. How do other works by the author correspond to this one
in their depiction of the power relationships between men
and women?
GENERAL PRINCIPLES (TYSON, 2006)

1. Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically,

socially, and psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary
means by which they are kept so.
2. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is
objectified and marginalized, defined only by her difference from
male norms and values, defined by what she (allegedly) lacks and
that men (allegedly) have.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES (TYSON, 2006)
3. All of Western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in
patriarchal ideology, as we see, for example, in the numerous patriarchal
women and female monsters of Greek and Roman literature and
mythology; the patriarchal interpretation of the biblical Eve as the origin of
sin and death in the world; the representation of woman as a non-rational
creature by traditional Western philosophy; and the reliance on
phallogocentric thinking (thinking that is male oriented in its vocabulary,
rules of logic, and criteria for what is considered objective knowledge) by
educational, political, legal, and business institutions. As we saw earlier,
even the development of the Western canon of great literature, including
traditional fairy tales, was a product of patriarchal ideology.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES (TYSON, 2006)
4. While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines
our gender (masculine or feminine). That is, for most English-speaking
feminists, the word gender refers not to our anatomy but to our behavior as
socially programmed men and women. I behave “like a woman” (for
example, submissively) not because it is natural for me to do so but because
I was taught to do so. In fact, all the traits we associate with masculine and
feminine behavior are learned, not inborn.
5. Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and
experience, including the production and experience of literature, whether
we are consciously aware of these issues or not.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES (TYSON, 2006)
6. All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has
as its ultimate goal to change the world by promoting women’s equality.
Thus, all feminist activity can be seen as a form of activism, although the
word is usually applied to feminist activity that directly promotes social
change through political activity such as public demonstrations, boycotts,
voter education and registration, the provision of hotlines for rape victims
and shelters for abused women, and the like. Although frequently falsely
portrayed in opposition to “family values,” feminists continue to lead the
struggle for better family policies such as nutrition and health care for
mothers and children; parental leave; and high-quality, affordable day care.
THOUGH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES EXIST IN
FEMINIST CRITICISM, THERE EXIST SOME AREAS OF
COMMONALITY. THIS LIST IS EXCERPTED FROM LOIS TYSON:

• Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically,

socially, and psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary
means by which they are kept so
• In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is
marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and
values
• All of western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in
patriarchal ideology, for example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as
the origin of sin and death in the world
THOUGH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES EXIST IN
FEMINIST CRITICISM, THERE EXIST SOME AREAS OF
COMMONALITY. THIS LIST IS EXCERPTED FROM LOIS TYSON:

• While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture

determines our gender (masculine or feminine)
• All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism,
has as its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender
equality
• Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and
experience, including the production and experience of literature,
whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not (91).
• How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
•  What are the power relationships between men and women
(or characters assuming male/female roles)?
•  How are male and female roles defined?
•  What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
•  How do characters embody these traits?
• Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this
change others’ reactions to them?
•  What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically,
socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?
•  What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode
of resisting patriarchy?
•  What does the work say about women's creativity?
•  What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the
critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?
•  What role the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary
tradition? (Tyson)
BATTLEGROUNDS
Although the feminist movement is
already over 100 years old, there are
still a lot to be done.
The status of women is still very
low in some countries in the
world
Even in the West, gender equality
is still only apparent
BATTLEGROUNDS

Women in Saudi Arabia who walk unaccompanied,

or are in the company of a man who is neither their
husband nor a close relative, are at risk of arrest on
suspicion of prostitution or other "moral" offences.

And they are disallowed to some modern

activities as basic as driving a car
BATTLEGROUNDS
Orange Broadband Prize is a
prominent literary prize in England

It is established as a protest to the male-

dominant literary world.

70% of the fiction writers are women,

yet female writers are often ignored by
literary reviews and other “serious”
literature venues.
Battlegrounds

How about Taiwan?

Can you think of

some feminist issues
in this island?
GENDER STUDIES
•As a constructivist endeavor, gender
studies examines how gender is less
determined by nature than it is by
culture, and such a cultural analysis is at
the center of the most complex and vital
critical enterprises at the present time.

Many theorists point

out that what is
“normal” sexually
depends upon when
 Judith Butler is one of
the representing
figures of gender
studies
Her work Gender Trouble is
one of the “canons” of
gender studies
Its central argument is the gender is
cultural and artificial as well as
biological.
LESBIAN CRITICS
•Lesbian critics counter
their marginalization by
considering lesbianism a
privileged stance
testifying to the primacy
of women.
Lesbian critics reject the notion of a
unified text, finding corroboration in
poststructuralist and post-modernist
criticism and among the French
feminists.