A brief perspective of Feminism | Book 8 Part 1/3: Feminism, a graphical guide – Mirror

Skip to content

"Feminism is a struggle to end sexist suppression"

In the document, several pieces are written in first person. They are my perspectives and opinions about the context beingbg discussed.

Introduction

Feminism is a struggle to end sexist suppression.

Patriarchy as described by Chris Weedon is power relations where women’s interests are subordinated to men’s interest.

The term “feminism” came into English usage around the 1890s, but women’s conscious struggle to resist discrimination and sexist oppression goes much further back

From earlier times, biological differences between men and women were noticed and projected and aligned to the nature of women.

Aristotle once stated that "Women were women by virtue of a certain lack of qualities". The irony of the statement is interesting especially considering the philosophy of Aristotle. In one way, his concept of a contract-obliging human being can be extended to both contradict his own statement and on some level, even justify the same.

Time line and people

Early thinking about the difference between women and men was based on essentialist ideas about gender which maintained that women’s and men’s differences are a result of biology

Essentialism sees men as able to think logically, abstractly and analytically, while women are mainly emotional, compassionate and nurturing creatures.

Feminists have long fought to dispel such myths about gender.

Early Modern feminist activity aimed at challenging the prevalent social view that women are weak and irrational creatures who should be controlled by men

There were a number of political events which supported such efforts, in particular Queen Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne in 1558 and her long and successful reign as a single female.

Rachel Speght’s A Muzzle for Melastomus (1617) questioned the story of Adam’s fall from the Garden of Eden, taking issue with the underlying assumption that Adam had been seduced by Eve to eat the apple

Lawrence Stone, writing about the political and socio-economic status of women in 17th-century England, suggests that even as far back as the Civil War of the 1640s, women played an important role in religious interpretation by participating in independent churches where they were allowed to debate, to vote and even prophesy.

In 1642, impoverished women working in a variety of trades collectively rebelled and marched into London to petition the Houses of Lords and Commons. They wanted the law to take into account their status of working individuals and to improve the conditions of the working class

They were mocked by Duke of Richmond and he was assaulted by the group and broke his staff (symbol of power)

It might not be perfect to term these movements as similar to contemporary feministic movements.

This might be a fractalian struggle within the mainstream class struggles.

The essential convergence of thought and identites in these cases, I think, had led to the rise of a constructive consciousness among the women.

We can also observe, the natural progression of feminism among different power centres of a society from the family level to the political level.

In 1688, the “Glorious Revolution” saw the rejection of monarchical patriarchy with the overthrow of James II, initiating a fierce wave of publications by literary women such as Aphra Behn (1640–89) and Lady Chudleigh (1656–1710)

I also feel that the consciousness of womanhood is so large, that it might not be able to provide global, singular and individual identity to its allies for a longer period of time. This, I believe, had led to fragmentation and dispersion of the consciousness among other smaller regional conflicts.

In 1652, the Society of Friends was founded in England by Quakers. Quakers do not accept any form of hierarchy between people

This belief in social equality was unique for its time, and was translated into a series of original attitudes towards race and gender. Between 1755 and 1776, Quakers became active in fighting the institution of slavery by creating abolition societies to promote emancipation.

Within the family, Quakers did not differentiate between the social roles of men and women. As a result, many female Friends were highly educated and played prominent roles in politics and education.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, many notable female figures were outspoken about the need to challenge women’s subordinate social position

The consequences of the rise of reason during 18-19th century has led to the awakening of consciousness of women. The age of reason, was able to generalise, identfy and propagate conflicts to change the social, economic and political order.

Conflicts – from ideological to pure oganised physical ones- pave way for change. The society(/polity) should atleast lend their ears for all sort of conflicts to prevent it from escalating to an unmanageable...