Cultural feminism 1593393 225932883 2008-07-16T02:15:42Z JCDenton2052 6443557 copyediting and NPOV {{Feminism}} '''Cultural feminism''' developed from radical feminism. It is an ideology of a "female nature" or "female essence" that attempts to revalidate what cultural feminists consider undervalued female attributes. <ref name=Alcoff/> It is also a theory that commends the difference of women from men.<ref name=Kramarae>{{Cite book | author=Kramarae, Cheris | coauthors= Spender, Dale | title=Routledge international encyclopedia of women: global women's issues and knowledge | date=2000 | publisher=Routledge | location=New York | isbn=:0415920906 | pages=746}}</ref> 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 politics to “life-style.”<ref name=Autumn_Taylor/> [[Alice Echols]] (a feminist historian and cultural theorist), credits [[Redstockings]] member Brooke Williams with introducing the term cultural feminism in 1975 to describe the depoliticisation of [[radical feminism]]<ref name=Autumn_Taylor/> ==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.<ref name=Ritzer>Ritzer, George. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. ISBN 978-0-07-299759-0</ref> Josefine 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.<ref name=Donovan>Donovan, Josefine. Feminist Theory. 3rd ed. New York: The Continuum International Group, 1985.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | author=Levine, Amy-Jill | coauthors=Blickenstaff, Marianne | title=A feminist companion to the Acts of the Apostles | date=2004 | publisher=T & T Clark | location=London | isbn=0-8264-6252-9 | pages=242}}</ref> Linda Alcoff argues that women are [[Overdetermination|overdetermined]] by what she sees as patriarchal systems.<ref name=Alcoff/> She contends that: <blockquote>“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”.<ref name=Alcoff>Alcoff, Linda. "Cultural Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: the Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory." Jstor. 1988. The University of Chicago Press. Oct.-Nov. 2006 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198821%2913%3A3%3C405%3ACFVPTI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V]. 406</ref></blockquote> 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.<ref name=Donovan/> 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”.<ref name=Alcoff/> Critics of cultural feminism, particularly those belonging to [[men's rights]] groups, assert that cultural feminism is misandric in nature, and also claim that there is no evidence to support that a woman's way is any better than a man's.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} Because cultural feminism is based on an [[essentialist]] view of the differences between women and men and advocates independence and institution building, it has, say its critics, led feminists to retreat from politics to “life-style”.<ref name=Autumn_Taylor>Autumn and Taylor, Verta, and Leila Verta. "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: a Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism." Taylor, Verta; Rupp, Leila J. 1933. The University of Chicago Press. Oct.-Nov. 2006 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28199323%2919%3A1%3C32%3AWCALFA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D].</ref> ==See also== *[[Female chauvinism]] *[[liberal feminism|Liberal Feminism]] *[[Misandry]] *[[radical feminism|Radical Feminism]] *[[socialist feminism|Socialist Feminism]] ==References== {{reflist}} == Further reading == *Balbert, Peter. D.H. Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination. Hong Kong: The Macmillan P, 1989. ISBN 0-333-43964-3 *Verta Taylor, Leila J. Rupp "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism" Signs, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 32-61[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28199323%2919%3A1%3C32%3AWCALFA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D]. *"Jane Addams on Cultural Feminism." About. 1892. Oct.-Nov. 2006[http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=womenshistory&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.pfeiffer.edu%2F%7Elridener%2FDSS%2FAddams%2FCULTFEM3.HTML]. *""I'm Not a Feminist, But..."" Two Peas, No Pods. 24 Oct. 2005. Oct.-Nov. 2006 [http://nopod.blogspot.com/2005/10/im-not-feminist-but.html]. *Roseneil, Sasha. "The Coming of Age of Feminist Sociology: Some Issues Of." Jstor. 1995. Oct.-Nov. 2006 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-1315%28199506%2946%3A2%3C191%3ATCOAOF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K]. [[Category:Feminism]] [[Category:Feminist theory]] [[el:Πολιτιστικός φεμινισμός]] [[hr:Kulturni feminizam]] [[he:פמיניזם תרבותי]] [[ja:カルチュラル・フェミニズム]] [[ru:Культуро-феминизм]] [[sh:Kulturni feminizam]]