This
is my answer to one ‘intellectual’ - and highly educated - person who expressed
yesterday his ‘fear’ of Feminism in Lebanon and the Arab World: ‘you, Feminists,
want women’s power over men. Men will not help you in your fight. Even most
women in our countries, who are impregnated with the Patriarchal System, seem
to like it; or they must be thinking: too much of a risk! You, Feminists, are
all alike!’ Fortunately, I was only drinking a Perrier while having this
conversation. Unfortunately, this statement is not an exception in our context,
even - and especially - in the Academic circle. I often hear the following: ‘There
are no gender stereotypes’; ‘Gender Studies should not exist’; ‘Feminists want
Matriarchy’; ‘Feminists are Lesbians, thus hate men’; ‘Why do you complain?
Women and men have particular functions. Stick to what is being assigned. You
bring children, we rule’; ‘God created men, and gave them women to serve them!!’
etc… In the most ‘refined and advanced’ elitist areas, this is a sample of what
I and other women have to deal with. Being a Feminist, as I see it, as I am, as
others also are, simply = fighting for equality, partnership and a better
management of diversity in a society.
A
little bit of history (included in my upcoming book on ‘Womanhood in Western
Asia’, to be published by Dar el Machreq by the end of this year) is needed
here in order to differentiate the many movements within Feminism.
Feminism is both
an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for
women and the end of sexism in all forms. However, there are many different
kinds of feminism. Feminists disagree about what sexism consists in, and what
exactly ought to be done about it; they disagree about what it means to be a
woman or a man and what social and political implications gender has or should
have. Nonetheless, motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry
provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, economic, and
political phenomena. Important topics for feminist theory and politics include:
the body, class and work, disability, the family, globalization, human rights,
popular culture, race and racism, reproduction, science, the self, sex work,
human trafficking, and sexuality.
The term
‘feminism’ has many different uses and its meanings are often contested. For
example, some writers use the term ‘feminism’ to refer to a historically specific
political movement in the United States and Europe; other writers use it to
refer to the belief that there are injustices against women, though there is no
consensus on the exact list of these injustices. Although the term “feminism”
has a history in English linked with women's activism from the late 19th
century to the present, it is useful to distinguish feminist ideas or beliefs
from feminist political movements, for even in periods where there has been no
significant political activism around women's subordination, individuals have
been concerned with and theorized about justice for women. So, for example, it
makes sense to ask whether Plato was a feminist, given his view that women
should be trained to rule (Republic, Book V), even though he was an exception in his
historical context.
My book involves
two claims: normative and descriptive. The normative claims concern how
women ought (or ought not) to be viewed and treated and draw on a background
conception of justice or broad moral position (men and women are entitled to
equal rights and respect); the descriptive claims concern how women are, as a
matter of fact, viewed and treated, alleging that they are not being treated in
accordance with the standards of justice or morality invoked in the normative
claims. Together the normative and descriptive claims provide reasons for
working to change the way things are; hence, feminism is not just an
intellectual but also a political movement.
My book
is based on a third wave feminist approach. In order to understand what this
approach is about, it is important to present a general overview of the
different waves of feminism:
It is common to speak of three phases of modern
feminism; however, there is little consensus as to how to characterize these
three waves or what to do with women's movements before the late nineteenth
century. For instance, some thinkers have sought to locate the roots of
feminism in ancient Greece with Sappho (d. c. 570 BCE). Still, this book
introduces to Western Asian women who also fought for their rights, long before
Sappho.
However, it was not until the late 19th century that
the efforts for women's equal rights coalesced into a clearly identifiable and
self-conscious movement, or rather a series of movements. The first wave of
feminism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emerging out of
an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. The goal
of this wave was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage.
The wave formally began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 when 300 men and
women rallied to the cause of equality for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
(d.1902) drafted the Seneca Falls Declaration outlining the new movement's
ideology and political strategies.
In its early stages, feminism was interrelated with
the temperance and abolitionist movements, and gave voice to now-famous
activists like the African-American Sojourner Truth (d. 1883), who demanded:
"Ain't I a woman?" Victorian America saw women acting in very
"un-ladylike" ways (public speaking, demonstrating, stints in jail),
which challenged the "cult of domesticity." Discussions about the
vote and women's participation in politics led to an examination of the differences
between men and women as they were then viewed. Some claimed that women were
morally superior to men, and so their presence in the civic sphere would
improve public behavior and the political process.
The second wave began in the 1960s and continued into
the 90's. This wave unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights
movements and the growing self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups
around the world. The New Left was on the rise, and the voice of the second
wave was increasingly radical. In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights
were dominant issues. This phase began with protests against the Miss America
pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 and 1969. Feminists parodied what they held to
be a degrading "cattle parade" that reduced women to objects of
beauty dominated by a patriarchy that sought to keep them in the home or in
dull, low-paying jobs.
Because the second wave of feminism found voice amid
so many other social movements, it was easily marginalized and viewed as less
pressing than, for example, Black Power or the effort to end the war in
Vietnam. Feminists reacted by forming women-only organizations (such as NOW)
and "consciousness raising" groups. In publications like "The
BITCH Manifesto" and "Sisterhood is Powerful," feminists
advocated for their place in the sun. The second wave was increasingly
theoretical, based on a fusion of neo-Marxism and psycho-analytical theory, and
began to associate the subjugation of women with broader critiques of
patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality, and the woman's role as wife
and mother. Sex and gender were differentiated—the former being biological, and
the later a social construct that varies culture-to-culture and over time.
Whereas the first wave of feminism was generally
propelled by middle class white women, the second phase drew in women of color
and developing nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity and claiming
"Women's struggle is class struggle." Feminists spoke of women as a
social class and coined phrases such as "the personal is political"
and "identity politics" in an effort to demonstrate that race, class,
and gender oppression are all related. They initiated a concentrated effort to
rid society top-to-bottom of sexism, from children's cartoons to the highest
levels of government.
One of the strains of this complex and diverse
"wave" was the development of women-only spaces and the notion that
women working together create a special dynamic that is not possible in
mixed-groups and that would ultimately work for the betterment of the entire
planet. Women, due whether to their long "subjugation" or to their
biology, were thought by some to be more humane, collaborative, inclusive,
peaceful, nurturing, democratic, and holistic in their approach to problem
solving than men. The term eco-feminism was coined to capture the sense that
because of their biological connection to earth and lunar cycles, women were
natural advocates of environmentalism.
The third phase of feminism began in the mid-90's and
is informed by post-colonial and post-modern thinking. In this phase many
constructs have been destabilized, including the notions of "universal
womanhood," body, gender, sexuality and heteronormativity. The third wave
feminists have stepped onto the stage as strong and empowered, eschewing
victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not as
objects of a sexist patriarchy. The web is an important aspect of this new
feminism. At the same time, it permits all users the opportunity to cross
gender boundaries and so the very notion of gender has been become more
problematic.
This is in keeping with the third-wave's celebration
of ambiguity and refusal to think in terms of "us-them" or in some
cases their refusal to identify themselves as "feminists" at all. Third
wave feminists tend to be global and multi-cultural and they shun simple
answers or artificial categories of identity, gender and sexuality. Their
transversal politics means that differences such as those of ethnicity, class,
sexual orientation, etc. are recognized as dynamic, situational, and
provisional. Reality is conceived not so much in terms of fixed structures and
power relations, but in terms of performance within contingencies. Third wave
feminism breaks boundaries.
