What
is feminist writing? While it would be difficult to find a straight forward
definition of feminist writing, one could describe feminist writing as a
practice of writing that is undertaken by looking at the world through a
feminist lens and by employing a gender-conscious alternative manner of writing.
However, we will not dwell on definitions here. Instead, this article provides
a description and some examples of feminist writing.
Representations of
Feminist Writings
To
start, let’s look at some of the work written by feminist authors and the
themes or main ideas put forward and how it is written. To simplify things, some
forms of feminist writings are listed below.
- Women-specific
experience:
Many themes can be discussed in this category, but many among them are
about violence against women, in the form of sexual violence, physical
violence, and state violence. Aside from depicting women’s subjective
experience of violence, many works also present arguments of how violence
against women sustains male dominance. The classic Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (Susan Brownmiller, 1975)
is an example. Many also discuss specific laws or policies for women or
those that affect women. Andrea Dworkin's and Catharine Mackinnon's work, Pornography and Civil Rights (1988)
is one example. Self-help books for survivors or those on women’s health
are also examples. For the latter, Our
Bodies, Ourselves which was first published in 1971 is considered as a
feminist classic.
- Historical analysis: This form of writing looks at women's situation throughout different historical periods or at a given time and cultural setting, paying attention to the political environment, economic institutions, as well as class, race, and gender relations. One example is Marilyn French's historical examination of patriarchy in Beyond Power (1985), which uses a variety of disciplines to investigate transformations and power struggles which led to patriarchy being the dominant mode, and another is her four-volume work, From Eve to Dawn: a History of Women (2002, 2003, 2008). One other example is historian, Joan Wallach Scott's critical evaluation of history in Gender and the Politics of History (1988).
- Biographical: This includes
the writings about the life and times of noted individual women who lived a
life struggling against traditional gender norms or those who contributed
to the advancement of women's status. Subjects of interest include women
who made innovations in certain fields but were never given recognition. Life
stories of women living under repressive governments or in conflict
regions are also commonly written as biographies. Feminists are known to
use a particular feminist method of biographical writing that acknowledges
the subjective experience of the author. This is apparent in the work of
Liz Stanley, The Auto/Biographical I
(1992).
- Feminist
criticism:
Here, literary texts are read from a feminist perspective revealing
gendered relations, social construct, and the social, political, and
economic structure at a given context. Feminist literary criticism was
particularly made famous by post-structuralist French Feminists like Julia
Kristeva, Helene Cixous, and Luce Irigaray. "Reading" writings
by women are also undertaken to uncover women’s marginalized voices or to
represent women of a particular cultural period as well as to explore a female
tradition of writing. In her book Laugh
of the Medusa (1976), Cixous goes further to say that there is a
feminine style of writing.
- Feminist
philosophical analysis: It analyzes traditional ideas of rationality,
knowledge, ethics, human nature, and moral arguments which are seen as
being male biased and part of phallogocentrism (privileging masculinity in
constructing meaning and understanding social relations). Philosopher and
mother of contemporary feminism, Simone de Beauvoir, pioneered work in
this field. Putting the sex/gender distinction into philosophical perspective,
that one is not born a woman, but become one, was Beauvoir’s important
legacy for feminist theory (The
Second Sex, 1949).
- Feminist
reinterpretation of religion and spirituality: In feminist
theological writings, some feminist theologians see that the Bible
contains equality and peace, but suffers from androcentric (male-centered)
interpretations, while others see it as justifying women's oppression and perpetuating patriarchy (www.theologynetwork.org/
theology-of-everything/an-overview-of-feminist-theology.htm). As a
response to the latter, feminist theologians, such as Mary Daly, develops
a theology to become the basis for the theory of women's spirituality and
feminist practice. Other writings that deconstruct traditional religious
interpretations are found in the works of feminist Muslims such as Nawal
El Saadawi, Riffat Hasan, Fatima Mernissi, and Irshad Manji.
- Analysis
of social, economic, political and cultural institutions: This analysis examines women's role
and status in society’s institutions and observes structures that support and
perpetuate discrimination and oppression. Such studies can be found in the
work of second wave feminists, including socialist anthropologist, Evelyn
Reed and sociologist, Kate Millett.
- Feminist
theory:
This includes writings which develops grand theories and theses on
women's oppression and its root causes and sometimes showcase debates on
women's oppression between schools of feminism. Examples include the book Women and Revolution (Lydia Sargent
and Heidi I. Hartmann, 1981), Kate Millett's Sexual Politics (1970), Sheila Rowbotham's Beyond Fragments (1979), and
Shulamith Firestone's Dialectic of
Sex (1970).
- Feminist
fiction:
Feminist work of fiction usually tells a story of a female protagonist's struggle in challenging values and norms that confine women to certain
roles and are sometimes believed to be based on the personal experiences
of the author. Classic works include Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) and
Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room
(1977). A notable futuristic and utopian fiction is found in the work of
Charlotte Perkins Gilman in Herland
(1915).
- Feminist
studies uncovering marginalized voices within the movement: These works uncover
white supremacy, class bias, and heterosexism in the feminist movement as
well as its lack of awareness of issues concerning women with disability.
These works include writings of black feminists, such as Patricia Hills
Collins; third world feminists, such as Gayatri Spivak and Chandra Talpade
Mohanty; and feminist disability scholars, such as Rosemarie
Garland-Thomson (http://disabilitystudies.syr.edu).
The Purpose of
Feminist Writing
While
the general goal of feminism is to gain women’s equality and end all forms of
oppression, there are several purposes for writing a feminist piece or for incorporating
a feminist perspective into one’s work.
- To empower readers, especially
female readers, such as by raising their awareness or breaking the silence
about a certain gender issue and by providing options for remedy or
advocacy.
- To change an existing policy or
law which has undesirable implications for women and recommend options to
be adopted.
- To present a social critique contributing
to the aim of deconstructing existing value systems, particularly those which
regulate gender.
- To expose women's experience and
to make women's voices visible, however, recognizing that there is
diversity among women.
- To provide or fill gaps on data
on women because facts and truth are seen to be partial, to distort and not
capture women’s reality; thus impairing planned actions designed to
increase equality or for community development.
- To explore existing styles of
writings by women and/or employ one.
Characteristics of
Feminist Writing
Based
on the above description we can come to a conclusion on some of the essential characteristics
of feminist writing. Feminist writings:
- question how reality is constructed;
- legitimize facts which are
derived by subjective methods of truth collecting;
- are critical of androcentrism in
knowledge production;
- challenge existing values and
norms;
- reflect on women's and men's
experiences when constructing the truth;
- view gender as socially
constructed and being used to legitimize women’s subordination;
- recognize the heterogeneity of
women in regard to class, race, ethnic, sexual orientation, and ability;
- openly acknowledge the political
nature of feminist writing;
- advocate for social change; and
- employ unconventional styles of
writing.
Ending
this article that turned out to be full of lists, I would just like to add that
feminist writing is a form of conscious resistance which shapes human history
and our weapon to transform the future.
