Feminism
1st
Wave Feminism
- Emerged during the mid-19th Century and lasted through to
the early 20th Century.
- It’s main aims were gender equality through access to higher education,
voting rights, employment rights and equal laws.
- While it was one big movement there were many different types of feminism
with their own political agendas and methods. The biggest example of this is
the suffragists and the more radical suffragettes. Each group took a different
approach to tackling the problem of getting the governments to listen. For
example some behaved ‘unladylike’ while others dressed in their Sunday best to
protest, offering no resistance.
- They challenged the stereotypes of women, including the ‘cult of domesticity’
which is the ideology that a woman’s place is in the home.
- The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions’ was modelled on the
Declaration of Independence including twelve resolutions, including ‘demand of
suffrage, on the control of wages and earnings, one the guardianship of
children for women and another the right to divorce.’
- The movements affected both Western and Eastern societies together in a
worldwide push.
- It was closely linked to the abolition movements of the 1830’s where slaves
were freed and given rights, even though they were still restricted. Therefore
evolving a strand of feminism for the ex-slaves.
- A lot was placed on the value of women, I would have girls regard themselves
not as adjectives but as nouns. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). This
theme appears a lot in Carter where women are often commodities.
- It was marked by many famous female writers such Virginia Woolf and Simone de
Belvoir.
- Both World War I and World War II meant a severe backlash for women’s rights,
as the focus then became demands of national unity and patriotism.
2nd
Wave Feminism
- Refers to the period dominated by more radical feminism between the 60s
and 70s although can be traced up to the 90s
- It was deep-seated in the context of the civil rights movement and anti-war
protests. After the Second World War people were starting to notice all of the
minorities.
- Strongest in America where social change and protests took up a large part of
the 60s.
- Focused on sexuality and reproductive rights for women as well as the Equal
Rights Act.
- One of the main subjects of Feminism attacks was the Miss America and other
beauty pageants. They made statements about how this was a ‘cattle parade’ and
even crowned a sheep Miss America in protest. It was also an attack on the
beauty culture and many women threw away ‘feminine chains of oppression’ such
as bras, lipstick, high heels and false eyelashes.
- The radical feminism drew a lot of its energy out of the other protesting groups
at the time joining them in their criticism of capitalism and imperialism.
Although sometimes the feminist agenda was eclipsed by these other movements
and in response women’s groups such as NOW and the BITCH manifesto were
created.
- Ways of thinking had changed a lot since the first wave and the new feminists
took to psychoanalytical and neo- Marxist values. Broader critiques of
capitalism and patriarchy were created and the woman’s role of the wife and
mother. Sex and gender were also split into the definitive biological and
gender construct.
- While first wave was world-wide it still mainly concerned white middle class
women, whereas due to the greater social changes brought on by the Second World
War the second wave of feminism brought in women from different backgrounds to
stand for solidarity.
- The Feminine Mystique was a famous book by Betty Friedan in 1963, it talks
about women’s identification and values specifically how women fare
economically. Famously it states “for women to have full independence and
freedom they must have economic independence’.
3rd
Wave Feminism
- 1990’s feminism that tries to appeal to a younger generation.
- Most famous for adopting the images of the 2nd wave male
oppression, makeup, low cut tops, high heels, in a bid to show that they were
in control of how they looked. This image they also exaggerated in many cases.
- Tried to create an image of a strong and empowered woman.
- After the fall of communism and the Berlin wall the third wave feminists
addressed a new world order with new political ideas.
- Areas addressed mainly by this feminism is violence against women,
trafficking, body surgery, self- mutilation and overall objectification in the
media.
- They took power away from derogatory terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘slut’ to
subvert the sexist culture.
Additional Types of Feminism
Amazon Feminism- Focuses on the female hero in fiction and in real life and
rejects the image of women as passive weak and physically helpless.
Cultural Feminism- Focuses on women’s
inherent difference from men, including supposed “natural” kindness, tendencies
to nurture, pacifism, relationship focus and concern for others. Opposes an
emphasis on equality and instead argues for increased value placed on
culturally designated ‘women’s work’. Also known as Difference Feminism.
Ecofeminism- Argues against
particarhal tendencies to destroy the environment and tries to stop this. Draws
parallels between exploitation of women, and exploitation of the Earth and
Mother Nature. Often connected to spirituality and vegetarianism.
Equality Feminism- Focuses on gaining
equality for men and women in all domains (work, home, law. Etc.) Argues that
women should receive all privileges given to men and that while accepting
biological differences believe they do not justify inequality.
Essentialist Feminism- Sees the
biological difference between men and women and argue that men and women are
‘separate but equal’.
Forth World Feminism- Argues against
the process of colonisation and the stripping of countries native customs,
values and traditions.
Individual/libertarian feminism- Focuses
on individual autonomy, rights, liberty, independence and diversity.
Lesbian Feminism- Rejects the
ideology of the nuclear family and heterosexism. Strives for recognition of lesbianism
and works against homophobia.
Liberal feminism- Wants to work
within institutions to gain equality for women without changing the entire
institution. Works against radical feminism.
Marxist/socialist Feminism- Draws
parallels with women and workers placing the blame on the capitalistic
superstructure and suggests a collective change rather than individual efforts.
Material Feminism- Part of the
feminism movement in the first wave of feminism it strived to liberate women
through improving their material conditions through employment, the ability to
own property and social stature.
Moderate Feminism- Believes in taking
small steps towards gender equality and change within institutions.
Pop Feminism- Media feminism based on
caricatures of ‘girl power’ such as Wonder Woman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Charlie’s Angels.
Postcolonial Feminism- Rejects
Colonial power.
Postmodern Feminism- Critiques the
male/female binary and argues against this as the organising force of society.
Deconstructs what is socially accepted and blurs the boundaries.
Radical Feminism- Cutting-edge branch
of feminism concentrating of a swift reform, social change and revolution.
Argues against superstructures such as patriarchy, heterosexism and racism and
emphasizes gender as a social construct, denouncing biological roots of gender
difference.
Separatist Feminism- Denounce men and
separation. Sometimes uses the word ‘womyn’ instead.
Socialist feminism- Blend of Marxism
and more radical approaches.
Third World Feminism- Emphasises
women’s needs outside of the First world context. Suggests that male oppression
of women is similar to the first world domination of third world countries.
First World Feminism- Feminism
directed to the Westernised and First World culture and often overlooks more
world-wide social issues.
Marxism
- Marxism was an ideology created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in
the middle of the 19th Century.
- It gathered many followers in the 20th Century including Vladimir
Lenin, who changed it to suit his Soviet Union.
- Marxism deals with the class struggles, suggesting that the workers and lower
classes are oppressed by the individual ideology of capitalism and the upper
classes.
- It believes in the self- emancipation of the working class from this system
of oppression.
- It is a radical belief in revolution against the superstructure.
- Holds an end goal of destroying class divides into a more equal and fair
society.
Carter’s Previous Work
Angela Carter has wrote many novels, short stories and
dramatic works in many different genres for example gothic, non-fiction,
children’s and more. Many of her stories
are centred on female narrators, such as The Bloody Chamber, The Magic Toyshop,
Heroes and Villains, Love, Night at the circus and Wise children to name but
some.
Excerpt- Heroes and Villains
Marianne had sharp, cold
eyes and she was spiteful but her father loved her. He was a Professor of History; he owned a
clock which he wound every morning and kept in the family dining-room upon a
sideboard full of heirlooms of stainless steel such as dishes and cutlery.
Marianne thought of the clock as her father’s pet, something like her own pet
rabbit, but the rabbit soon died and was handed over to the Professor of
Biology to be eviscerated while the clock continued to tick inscrutably on. She
therefore concluded the clock must be immortal but this did not impress her.
Marianne sat at the table, eating; she watched dispassionately as the hands of
the clock went round but she never felt that time was passing for time
was frozen around her in this secluded place where a pastoral quiet possessed everything and the busy clock carved
the hours into sculptures of ice.
Marianne lived in a white tower made of steel and concrete. She looked out of her window and, in autumn, she saw a blazing hill of
corn and orchards where the trees creaked with crimson apples; in the spring
the fields unfurled like various flags, first brown, then green. Beyond the
farmland was nothing but marshes and indifferent acreage of tumbled stone and
some distant imitations of the surrounding forest which, in certain stormy
lights of late August, seemed to encroach on and menace the community though, most of the time, the villagers conspired to ignore it.
Marianne’s tower stood among some other steel and concrete blocks that,
surviving the blast now functioned as barracks, museums and school, a number of
wide streets of rectangular wooden houses and some stables and market gardens.
The community grew corn, flax, vegetables and fruit. It tended cattle for meat
and milk besides sheep for wool and chickens for eggs. It was self-supporting at the
simplest level and exported its agricultural surplus in return for drugs and other
medical supplies, books, ammunition, spare parts for machinery, weapons and
tools. The sounds of Marianne’s childhood were cries of animals and creaking of
carts, crowing of cocks and the bugles of the Soldiers drilling in the
barracks. In February and March, wailing gulls blew in from the sea across
freshly ploughed fields, but Marianne had never seen the sea.
She was not allowed to go outside the outer wire fence away from the community.
Sheep sometimes wandered away, leaping briary hillocks above abandoned
habitations, and sometimes a shepherd followed them though he would go
reluctantly and heavily armed. The Soldiers kept the roads when they drove away
lorries full of produce but, even so, the Barbarians occasionally hijacked the
convoys and killed all the Soldiers.
‘If
you’re not a good little girl, the Barbarians will eat you,’ said Marianne’s nurse, a Worker woman with six fingers on each hand, which puzzled Marianne for she herself
only had five.
‘Why?’ asked Marianne.
‘Because that is the nature of the Barbarians’ said her nurse. ‘They wrap
little girls in clay like they do with hedgehogs, wrap them in clay, bake them
in the fire and gobble them up with salt. They relish tender little girls.’
‘Then I’d be too tough for them,’ said Marianne truculently. But she saw the
woman honestly believed what she said and wondered vaguely if it were true.
Not the traditional Gothic Female who is pure, trusting and naïve.
Society of
the Time
The Bloody Chamber was published in 1979 after a decade of lots of
different news stories and changes. Below are just a few.
Continuation of the Cold War
- Started after
the Second World War there was still high tension between the Communist state
of Russia and the Democratic USA and other Western Powers. The war had already
seen the world brought to the brink of nuclear war and the Berlin wall was
still standing and the Allied Armies tried to keep the peace in West Germany.
Vietnam War
The War against
America and North Vietnam officially ended in 1975 when all American troops
were withdrawn. The War, which at the start had been in America’s favour,
seemed lost as North Vietnam overran the South. It shocked the world, both with
the horrendous images of war (as it was televised around the world) and the
power of the Vietnamese peasants with guerrilla warfare as well as the loss of
life. From a Marxist perspective this was a win for the workers.
Pol Pot’s Year Zero
In Cambodia the
Dictator Pol Pot gained power and implements his Year Zero. This meant
community farms where many people starved and those who were not workers or had
signs such as wearing glasses or calloused hands were killed.
Recessions
Economic growth rates fell and in Britain this lead to many workers strikes.
Decline of the British Empire
The British Empire had been decaying slowly over the 20th Century
however by the 70’s it was in its last phases of dissolution. With this came a
large change in British attitudes.
Social
- 1970s the
first face lift were attempted, this shows an inherent focus on appearance.
- 1978 the first IVF child was born
Women
- Rise in women in government roles e.g. Margaret Thatcher 1979, first female
Prime minister in the UK
- Aftermath of Second Wave Feminism
- Debates on abortion and women’s rights over their bodies were brought to the
political spotlight
Civil
Rights
1965- the Civil Rights movement signed the Equal rights bill.
However the struggle for completely equal rights continued.
Youth
Suffrage
- Due to the Vietnamese War there was a great surge in the push to lower voting
age.
Popular
Culture
- Many controversial films were made such as ‘one flew over the cuckoo’s nest’
which shines a different light on mental illness and institutions.
- Other films like Grease which involved sexually promiscuous high school girls
and Olivia Newton John, who’s character changes from her innocent and pure self
into a tight jumpsuit and publically smoking. The iconic images were also
influenced the ‘male gaze’.
-Cult
classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, subverted the usual story of
Frankenstein with cross dressing and promiscuity.
-
Whereas films like the Exorcist subvert supernatural religion into a horror
genre that inspired many more.
-
Fiction in the early 70s were reminiscent of old fashion story telling.
-
Racism was a key literary subject of the decade, the main aim to highlight the
change in attitudes.
-
Stephan King became the most popular genre- novelist
-
Punk Subculture emerged during the later years
Critics
Negative-
Patricia Duncker- ‘Carter envisages
women’s sensuality simply as a response to male arousal’
Robert Clark (Company of Wolves)
when the girl strips in front of the werewolf, ‘the point of view is that of
the male voyeur, the implication may be that the girl has her own sexual power,
but his meaning lies perilously close to the idea that all women want it
really, and only need forcing to overcome their scruples’
Lucie Armitt- one of the major
problems facing the reader of these ten stories is that they seem always to be
dissolving into each other.
Susanne Kappeler- ‘Carter's use of
Sade's misogynist works did little other than reinforce degrading patriarchal
representations of women’
Jenny Fabian- Whatever masquerades
and metamorphoses take place within Carter’s fictional world, there is no
escape from the notion that language is a male construct of control http://londongrip.co.uk/2010/10/love-terror-emancipation/
Positive-
Cristina Bacchilega, Postmodern
Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies, University of Pennsylvania Press,
1997
‘The narrator’s sensual style both uses and exposes seduction as a trap’,
‘the Bloody Chamber’s unnamed first person narrator, focalizer, and main agent
is also a “virtuous” yet “willing victim,”
‘In patriarchal economies, women- who represent these “blood reserves”- are
exploited because both profit and pleasure require the spilling of their blood
(Irigary 125). Carter’s stories expose such an economy as a voracious preying
on human life, and especially on lower-class or otherwise marginalized women’s
lives.’
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RwAbsnP8F5sC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Cristina+Bacchilega,+Postmodern+Fairy+Tales:+Gender+and+Narrative+Strategies,+University+of+Pennsylvania+Press,+1997&ots=XxRhd4j1Zs&sig=0wB64RX_iiKUnO33BI5X8wg2pEk#v=onepage&q=company%20of%20wolves&f=false
Helen Simpson- The
stories in The Bloody Chamber are fired by the conviction that human nature is
not immutable, that human beings are capable of change.
The heroines of these stories are
struggling out of the straitjackets of history and ideology and biological
essentialism.
There are a myriad such musical echoes in this collection - herbivores and
carnivores, death and the maiden, the image of a system of Chinese boxes
opening one into another - while certain phrases like "pentacle of
virginity" or indeed "the bloody chamber" crop up repeatedly
from story to story. Images of meat, naked flesh, fur, snow, menstruation,
mirrors and roses (fanged or otherwise) recur fugue-like throughout, giving
these stories an unmistakable family resemblance, different though they are
from each other in approach and register.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/24/classics.angelacarter
Aytül Özüm The
problematized issue in the story is not focused on the young woman’s sexual
arousal, but it is on the fact that women can be as inclined as men for evil. Carter’s
means to affiliate this woman with sexuality or pornography is through the
creation of potential for evil and corruption.
Carter’s tales fabricate new cultural and literary realities in which sexuality
and free will in women replace the patriarchal traits of innocence and morality
in traditional fairy tales.
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ati/Evil/Evil%208/ozum%20paper.pdf
Problems
Marxism
- ‘Politicisation of literary forms’, the idea that literary forms are
inherently determined by political circumstances and is part of the capitalist
indoctrination process. Therefore by avoiding reading you can avoid
indoctrination however by not reading it you are limiting yourself to your own
ideas.
Feminism
- Language. Most languages are male dominated therefore even when trying to
make a point on femininity it is still confined to masculine words.
- Heavy Western Culture Bias
News Articles
Marxism
London bus drivers
begin 24-hour strike action
The Story: Bus drivers in
London have gone on strike as a campaign for a single pay agreement. This is
because among the 18 companies walking out there are over 80 different pay
rates for bus drivers. Most of them feel that their wages can’t support them in
the high London economy and due to the changing shifts the same amount of money
is not guaranteed every week. This can be viewed from a Marxist perspective
because the worker are taking action against the rich companies.
Feminsim
Transgender teenager, 17, leaves heartbreaking suicide note blaming her
Christian parents before walking in front of tractor trailer on highway
The Story: Leelah
Alcorn, born Joshua, committed suicide before Christmas when her parents
wouldn’t accept her chosen gender. In
the note she left on social media she blamed gender constructs and her parents
for not accepting her for who she was and wanted to be. She believed that
society needed to be changed and Gender to be taught at schools. The 17 year
old had identified as a girl since the age of 4 but was constantly beaten down
by her parents who even after her death refused to accept her and called her a
‘good boy’.
From a Feminist perspective this can be seen as old gender constructs and
patriarchy damaging what is now a changing society as well as the emphasis that
as a women she had less power against her parents. It also links in with the
feeling of male and female identity which the media has picked up on, using the
correct pronouns for her rather than the patriarchal constructs that would
traditionally be used in a story like this which would be use the language for
the sex.
