cover next page > title: Contemporary Feminist Theories author: Jackson, Stevi. publisher: Edinburgh University Press isbn10 | asin: 0748606890 print isbn13: 9780748606894 ebook isbn13: 9780585123622 language: English subject Feminist theory. publication date: 1998 lcc: HQ1190.C667 1998eb ddc: 305.4 subject: Feminist theory. cover next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Contemporary Feminist Theories Edited by Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones Edinburgh University Press < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv © The contributors, 1998 Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Baskerville and Futura by Norman Tilley Graphics, Northampton, and printed and bound in Finland by WSOY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 0689 0 (paperback) ISBN 0 7486 1141 X (hardback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v Contents 1 Thinking for Ourselves: An Introduction to Feminist Theorising Stevi Jackson And Jackie Jones 1 2 Feminist Social Theory Stevi Jackson 12 3 Feminist Theory and Economic Change Lisa Adkins 34 4 Feminist Political Theory Elizabeth Frazer 50 5 Feminist Jurisprudence Jane Scoular 62 6 Feminism and Anthropology Penelope Harvey 73 7 Black Feminisms Kadiatu Kanneh 86 8 Post-colonial Feminist Theory Sara Mills 98 9 Lesbian Theory Caroline Gonda 113 10 Theorising Gender and Sexuality Stevi Jackson 131 < previous page page_v next page > < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi 11 Feminist Linguistic Theories Deborah Cameron 147 12 Psychoanalytic Feminist Theory Sue Vice 162 13 Postmodernism and Feminism Patricia Waugh 177 14 Feminist Literary Theory Maggie Humm 194 15 Feminist Media and Film Theory Sue Thornham 213 16 Theorising the Personal Vicki Bertram 232 17 Women's Studies Mary Maynard 247 Notes on Contributors 259 Subject Index 262 Name Index 268 < previous page page_vi next page > < previous page page_1 next page > Page 1 Chapter 1 Thinking for Ourselves: An Introduction to Feminist Theorising Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones Feminist theory seeks to analyse the conditions which shape women's lives and to explore cultural understandings of what it means to be a woman. It was initially guided by the political aims of the Women's Movementthe need to understand women's subordination and our exclusion from, or marginalisation within, a variety of cultural and social arenas. Feminists refuse to accept that inequalities between women and men are natural and inevitable and insist that they should be questioned. Theory, for us, is not an abstract intellectual activity divorced from women's lives, but seeks to explain the conditions under which those lives are lived. Developing this understanding has entailed looking at the material actualities of women's everyday experience and examining the ways in which we are represented and represent ourselves within a range of cultural practices, such as the arts and the media. Thinking as a feminist involves challenging much of what has counted as 'knowledge'. Because we have historically lived in male-dominated societies, women have more often been the objects of knowledge than the producers of it. As a result, much of what has passed as objective knowledge of the world has been produced by men, framed by their particular location in society as menand usually white, middle-class and heterosexual men. Feminist modes of theorising contest androcentric (or male-centred) ways of knowing, calling into question the gendered hierarchy of society and culture. Feminist theory is about thinking for ourselveswomen generating knowledge about women and genderfor women. Yet this immediately raises questions. Who are the 'we' doing the thinking and who are the 'ourselves' for whom we claim to be thinking: women in general or only some women? Are certain women being left out of the picture? Are we not in danger of perpetuating the same faults we have criticised in male thinkersmarginalising women not like 'ourselves', casting them as 'other'? Women are not a homogenous group. This is not merely to restate a truismthat we are not all alikebut to underline the social significance of differences among us. We are differently located within global and local social contexts and differently represented in art, literature and other media. Distinctions of < previous page page_1 next page > < previous page page_2 next page > Page 2 nationality, ethnicity, education, language, family, class, employment, ability/ disability and sexuality are important. These are not merely differences, which can be acknowledged and passed over; these differences are often hierarchical, producing inequalities among women which intersect with gender inequality. Hence, while we need to pay attention to commonalities among women, we cannot afford to ignore these crucial differences. Nor do we all think alike. 'Woman' is not coterminous with 'feminist'; to be a feminist implies a particular politicised understanding of being a woman. Moreover, while feminists may share some common assumptions, these do not necessarily lead us to think in the same ways about these shared concerns. There are many strands of feminist thinking and numerous areas of contention and debate within feminism. Feminist theory has been produced both from the grass roots and from within the academy, although in recent years it has increasingly housed itself inor removed itself tothe academy. This has given rise to concerns that theory is being done by 'hegemonic' feminists from 'hegemonic' countries those of affluent northern Europe and North America. However, even those of us who are similarly located as, for example, white, middle-class professionals and academics, do not necessarily share the same perspectives. Academic feminism is itself diverse, reflecting the differing political affiliations, theoretical traditions and disciplinary backgrounds which feminists bring to their theorising. Feminist theory is not, and has never been, a static phenomenon. This is one reason why it has proved so difficult to capture within classifications such as 'liberal', 'marxist' or 'radical' (Maynard 1995). Diversity and change are interlinked. As feminism has evolved, theorising has taken many different directions and forms. Individual feminists have also changed their views over time and this is evident in the reflexive, self-critical tenor of much feminist work. Feminists are constantly reflecting on their own ideas, changing their stances in response to debates and challenges from other feminists. Hence individual theorists cannot always be pinned down to a single statement of their position, since this is continually being developed and modified. Feminist theory has now grown into a vast field. In the 1970s it was still possible for each one of us to keep track of feminist thought as a whole, to have an overview of it, if not detailed knowledge. This is now impossible. While some feminists, especially in the 1970s, attempted a grand synthesis in order to account for the totality of women's subordination, much theorising since has focused on specific aspects of social life or cultural production, or on specific applications of particular theories. Given that it is now so difficult for a single person to have an in-depth knowledge of the whole of feminist theory, overviews of it are often partial and incomplete. One reason for embarking upon this collection was the dissatisfaction with existing introductions to feminist theory which often failed fully to track change and capture diversity. Hence this volume draws on the expertise of a range of feminists in order to reflect the breadth of feminist theory < previous page page_2 next page > < previous page page_3 next page > Page 3 and shifts within it. Each of the chapters maps the development of feminist thought in a particular area over time and suggests future directions. Each author has provided an overview while adopting her own perspective on the field she surveys. This collection has been written by feminists based in Britain, but each chapter draws on and engages with theory produced elsewhere, especially in North America and Western Europe. While each country has its own tradition of feminist thought, feminist ideas have always crossed national boundaries. In the past, theory has been dominated by white anglophone feminists from Britain, Australia and especially the US. More recently, with the questioning of the dominance of white Western feminism, new voices have joined and challenged the terms of feminist debates, making us more sensitive to differences, international issues and the intersections between the global and the local. The Historical Context The chapters in this volume cover developments in feminist theory since 1970. While there were certainly important feminist thinkers writing earlier in the twentieth century, such as Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan, the rise of Second Wave feminism provided the impetus for a rapid growth in feminist thought. The feminist theory we know today has derived from that period but has developed and diversified through a constant process of debate, critique and reflection. As a result, different strands of theory and new objects of theoretical inquiry have emerged at different times in this process. Hence, some of the