FEM 2109 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Postcolonial Feminism, Wage Labour, Intersectionality

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FEM2109
Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practising Solidarity
Chapter One: Under Western Eyes — Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses
by Chanda Mohanty
-discussions about Third World feminism must include two projects:
-the internal critique of hegemonic Western feminism (deconstructing and dismantling)
-the formulation of autonomous feminist concerns and strategies that are geographically,
historically, and culturally grounded (building and constructing)
-the first project produces “Third World women” as a singular, monolithic subject
-colonization is defined as focusing on a certain mode of appropriation and codification of
scholarship and knowledge about women in the TW
-colonization has been used to characterize economic and political hierarchies as well as the
production of cultural discourses within the TW
-it implies a relation of structural domination and suppression of the heterogeneity of the
subjects
-feminist scholarly practices are inscribed in relations of power
-the connection between women as historical subjects and the representation of Woman
produced by hegemonic discourse is an arbitrary relation set up by particular cultures
-this production of the TW difference that Western feminists appropriate, which colonize the
constitutive complexities that characterize the lives of women
-Western feminists writing on TW women must be considered in the context of the global
hegemony of Western scholarship
-this writing has political effects and implications beyond the immediate feminist audience
-the assumption of women as a group with identical interests irrespective of
intersectionalities implies a notion of gender/sexual difference that can bee applied
universally and cross-culturally
-Western writings are uncritically accepted as valid and true which is problematic as they
imply a certain model of power and struggle
-oppression of women under the above discourses is assumed, which produces an image of
the “average TW woman”
-this woman leads a sexually constrained life based on her femininity
-it assumes these women are poor, ignorant, uneducated, tradition bound, domestic, family
oriented, victimized, etc
-this is in contrast (implied) to Western women as educated, modern, and as having control
over their bodies and lives
-this distinction is of the same order as the Marxist distinction between productive wage
labour and the maintenance function of housewives, or of the TW being producing raw
materials in contrast to the real production of finished goods in the West
-these distinctions are made on the basis of a particular privileged group as normal
-“women as a category of analysis”
-refers to the assumption that all women are somehow socially constituted as a
homogenous group
-homogeneity of women is produced not on biology but on the basis of sociological and
anthropological universals
-women are characterized as a singular group based on their oppression
-the discursive consensual homogeneity of women as a group is mistaken for the historical
and specific reality of each woman
-this assumption promotes the idea of the whole group of women as powerless, exploited,
sexually harassed, etc
! of !1 3
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Document Summary

Chapter one: under western eyes feminist scholarship and colonial discourses by chanda mohanty. Discussions about third world feminism must include two projects: The internal critique of hegemonic western feminism (deconstructing and dismantling) The formulation of autonomous feminist concerns and strategies that are geographically, historically, and culturally grounded (building and constructing) The rst project produces third world women as a singular, monolithic subject. Colonization is de ned as focusing on a certain mode of appropriation and codi cation of scholarship and knowledge about women in the tw. Colonization has been used to characterize economic and political hierarchies as well as the production of cultural discourses within the tw. It implies a relation of structural domination and suppression of the heterogeneity of the subjects. Feminist scholarly practices are inscribed in relations of power. The connection between women as historical subjects and the representation of woman produced by hegemonic discourse is an arbitrary relation set up by particular cultures.

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