|
Cultural feminism developed from radical feminism, although they hold many opposing views. It is an ideology of a "female nature" or "female essence" that attempts to revalidate what cultural feminists consider undervalued female attributes.〔 It is also a theory that commends the difference of women from men. Its critics assert that because it is based on an essentialist view of the differences between women and men and advocates independence and institution building, it has led feminists to retreat from practicing public politics to a focus upon individual "life-style".〔 Alice Echols, a feminist historian and cultural theorist), credits Redstockings member Brooke Williams with applying the term "cultural feminism" in 1975 to describe the depoliticisation of radical feminism.〔 It was in use earlier as a pejorative. Frances Chapman, writing in ''Off Our Backs'', condemned the literary magazine ''Aphra'' as having "served the cause of cultural feminism."〔Frances Chapman, "goodbye", ''Off Our Backs'', Vol. 1 No. 19 (March 25, 1971), p. 14.〕 To socialist feminist Elizabeth Diggs, writing in 1972, "cultural feminism" ''was'' the label she used for radical feminism.〔Elizabeth Diggs, "What Is the Women's Movement?", ''Women: A Journal of Liberation'', vol. 2, #4 (1972), pp. 11-12, 20.〕 In 1974, editors of ''The Lesbian Tide'' asked: "()s dyke-separatism a logical extension of cultural feminism?"〔"A Kiss Does Not A Revolution Make", ''Lesbian Tide'', Vol. 3 Issue 11 (July 1974), p 10.〕 As these varied uses reveal, no single definition of the term existed even among participants in the women's movement. ==Cultural feminist ideas== Cultural feminism commends the positive aspects of what is seen as the female character or feminine personality. It is also a feminist theory of difference that praises the positive aspect of women. Early theorists like Jane Addams and Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued that in governing the state, cooperation, caring, and nonviolence in the settlement of conflicts society seem to be what was needed from women’s virtues.〔Ritzer, George. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. ISBN 978-0-07-299759-0〕 Josephine Donovan argues that the nineteenth century journalist, critic and women's rights activist, Margaret Fuller, contributed to cultural feminism. She says that Fuller's ''Woman in the Nineteenth Century'' (1845) initiated the cultural feminist tradition. It stresses the emotional, intuitive side of knowledge and expresses an organic world view that is quite different from the mechanistic view of Enlightenment rationalists.〔Donovan, Josefine. Feminist Theory. 3rd ed. New York: The Continuum International Group, 1985.〕 Linda Alcoff argues that women are overdetermined by what she sees as patriarchal systems.〔 She contends that: "Man has said that woman can be defined, delineated, captured, understood, explained, and diagnosed to a level of determination never accorded to man himself, who is conceived as a rational animal with free will".〔Alcoff, Linda. "Cultural Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: the Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory." Jstor. 1988. The University of Chicago Press. Oct.-Nov. 2006 (). 406〕 While cultural feminists argue that the traditional role of women provides a basis for the articulation of a more humane world view, other contemporary feminists do not believe that this transformation will happen automatically. They do not believe that the differences between women and men are principally biological.〔 Alcoff makes the point that "the cultural feminist reappraisal construes woman's passivity as her peacefulness, her sentimentality as her proclivity to nurture, her subjectiveness as her advanced self-awareness".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cultural feminism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|