FEMINIST CRITICS

AND THEIR THEORIES

 A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN (1792)
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

 Earliest work of feminist philosophy.

 It was a response to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord's 1791 Report to French
Assembly which argued that women should only receive domestic education.
 Challenged the idea that women exist only to please men. She argued that women must be
given equal opportunities in education, work and politics.
 She doesn’t express that men and women are equal in all respects but demands equality in
particular areas of life.
 She urges women to balance their emotions with reason as they are exploited by their
excessive sensibility. She speaks against sexual double standard blaming men to encourage
women to indulge in excessive emotion.
 THE SECOND SEX (1949)
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

 A historical account of women’s marginalized position in society

 In the first section “Facts and Myths”, she highlights the myths created about women through
narratives, texts etc. and attempts to deconstruct them
 In the second section “Lived Experience”, she talks about the atrocities women face day to day.
 She discusses the binary opposition where men are defined as positive force as central,
independent, superior etc and hence women are the opposites.
 Right from the primitive societies women are mistreated and treated as private properties which
encouraged men to institutionalise oppression of women.
 Religion as moral excuse and oppression still continues in the aspects of reproduction, sexuality,
and labour.
 THE LAUGH OF MEDUSA (1975)
HELENE CIXOUS
 Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it.”
 French title “Le Rire de la Meduse” 1975 and translated by Paula Cohen and Keith Cohen in 1976.
 She argues that women must write for and about themselves to fight the male dominated society and eliminate
the oppressive effects of patriarchal control of rhetoric.
 Coined the term “Ecriture Feminine” which means feminine writing characterized by feminine logic that is
opting for openness, inclusiveness digression which is opposed to masculine mode that is authoritarian, elitist,
hierarchical.
 She commands women to write about their self and bodies while focusing on individuality, particularly the
individuality of the body in order to claim the authority of their self and bodies and redefine self identity in the
context of history and narratives.
 Logic of Anti-Love: self hatred and self dislike of women or to each other.
 A critique of phallogocentrism(privilege of masculine in understanding meaning and social relations).
 THE DIALECTICS OF SEX (1970)
SHULAMITH FIRESTONE

 Prominent work of Radical Feminism

 She states that the role of feminism must be “not just the elimination of male privilege but
of the sex distinction itself” so that the genital difference no longer have cultural
significance.
 Biological divisions of labor in reproduction is the root cause of male domination.
(women’s vulnerability during pregnancy)
 She argued that the end the system of biological family meant end of women’s biological
reproductive role. Procreation through artificial means of gestation.
 In raising the children she suggests a different child rearing social units.
 THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE (1963)
BETTY FRIEDAN

 Talks about condition of women in 1950’s in America like increase in birth rate, decrease in women
attending college, widespread trend of unhappy women.
 Women’s fulfillment expected to be found in marriage and housewifery as magazines of the time
portray women either happy housewives or unhappy careerists.
 Criticizes Sigmund Freud who saw women as childlike and as destined to be housewives, “the
position of women will surely be what it is: in youth an adorned darling and in mature years a loved
wife”.
 Criticizes Functionalism where women were confined to their sexual biological roles as housewives
and mothers. Doing otherwise will upset the social balance.
 Discusses Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and notes that women are trapped stuck at a basic
psychological level, expected to have fulfillment in their sexual roles alone. They need meaningful
work to achieve fulfillment.
THANK YOU