UTOPIA, FANTASY, AND POLICY

A Note on Feminist Utopian Thought

What comes to mind when you hear the word utopia? A hippie commune of the 1960s? An old English sci-fi novel? Maybe a fantasy island? Generally speaking, the term utopia means ‘a perfect society’.

The French Revolution had its vision of a perfect society which was based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. However, as if there was a plot twist, it did not bring about the revolution it had set out to. It certainly didn’t for women; liberty and equality remained only for the few.

Later in history the world witnessed socialist utopias turned into oppressive states at the hands of totalitarian governments. Again, like a plot twist, the pursuit of women’s liberation took a turn for the worse as the ruling bureaucracy reinterpreted the role of women and the socialist family.

Themyscira Paradise Island, home of the Amazons

http://www.comicvine.com/themyscira/4020-56187/images/

History has demonstrated that political elitism, interest, and power are at the heart of utopias, making utopia complex in character: self-contradictory and full of tension; a paradox. The utopia can be about a vision of equality, while at the same time decisions are in the hands of the few people who claim to fight for that vision. While the vision could be about freedom, at the same time the minds of many become imprisoned by a compulsory way of thinking.

In its extreme, some view that utopia will—out of fear of the Other—produce a zombie-like collective which will eventually destroy itself. This is based on the notion that through perfecting itself the society will ultimately dismantle as uniformity and oppression become the norm. From this anti-utopia perspective, the self-destructive nature of utopianism as a paradise in disguise is inevitable. Using the Soviet socialist experiment to support the view that utopia is a failed project, the death of utopia was proclaimed by those sharing this view.

From another point of view, utopia is seen achievable through a linear process culminating in the postindustrial society. With the deification of scientific progress following the Industrial Revolution, utopian ideas became increasingly irrelevant for those supporting this view of progress. The future was considered no longer imaginary and was deemed within reach.

Both perspectives favor the end of utopia. However, these views—which are often sustained to support a political-economic end—rest on the notion of one universal utopia. On the contrary, as I discuss below, various utopian ideas play an important part in human development. I begin first by drawing on the case of feminist utopian thought as an example of “the Other” utopia which has gained relevance in policy development.

Feminist Utopia and Policy

Feminist utopian thought is found in utopian fiction novels and feminist theories. Utopia is a term meaning ‘a good place’ and at the same time ‘no place’. The term was famously coined by Thomas More in his novel of the same title in 1516 about a society on an imaginary island in the Atlantic. This novel made quite an impact on the literary world and popularized utopia as a literary genre throughout 16^th–19^th century Europe. Utopia fictions reflect what is lacking and what should be fulfilled in society; they serve as a critique of the present and provide a vision of how the future should be.

As a critique of patriarchal society, feminist utopian novels in Europe and America developed in the 19^th to the 20^th century. Reoccurring topic of interests in feminist utopian novels include the family, motherhood, biological and social reproduction, sexual division of labor, social relations, social organization, citizenship, and social justice. Feminist utopian writers disturb convention by rejecting the “naturalness” of patriarchy. One of the foremothers of this literary genre is Charlotte Perkins Gilman who is author of the pioneering Herland (1915), a novel about an all-female egalitarian society where women procreate parthenogenetically and are no longer at the mercy of their biological capacity nor at the mercy of men.

On the nonfiction side, second wave feminism represents an epoch of the vast development of feminist radical visionary theories of postpatriarchal societies.  Feminist theorist Shulamith Firestone in her book, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970), developed what she envisioned as a society that would free women from their biological-rooted oppression, such as child bearing and rearing as well as domestic labor, through the development of technology and the transformation of caring ideals.

wikipedia.org

As fanciful as feminist utopian ideas may seem to be then or even now, they raise issues that are relevant to the real world that we live in today. Many gender-related policies have their root in feminist utopian thought which has influence the way policy is framed. For example, feminist utopians link reproduction to production, labor, human development, human rights, citizenship, technology, and the environment. They link gender norms to social injustice and political, cultural, and legal transformation. They look at care and unpaid labor as critical areas for social change and economic transformation.

In general we find the issues above manifested in policies concerning political quotas, women’s participation, poverty reduction, maternity rights, incentives for care work, the redefinition of caring roles, and the criminalization of gender violence. Many of these issues have found their way into UN conventions and national legal instruments. They have also been translated into planning as well as policy goals, locally and globally, such as through their incorporation into mid- or long-term national, regional, or international development agenda. For example, Scandinavian countries have been developing political agendas and policy approaches that are guided by principles of equality, including gender equality, where social reproduction is an area of policy focus and transformation.

Revisiting Utopia

Utopia as discussed here is not about waiting for a messiah or the coming of a golden age. Utopia is about bringing forward human agency. People had fought for what they saw as a better society—for democracy, egalitarianism, equality, justice; putting it simply, for utopia:  not a perfect place but a better place. Utopia, however, should not be seen as being one and universal. Instead, we should acknowledge many utopias—utopias of different cultural groups and the utopia of nonprivileged groups, which are often suppressed by the utopia of a dominant group.

There is a western bias in the interpretation of utopia where there is the presumption that progress is measured by industrialism, information technology, and materialism. Feminist scholars argue that the concept of utopia suffers from white colonialism which treats “non-white utopias” as dangerous. Thus, we should be aware of hegemonic utopias which deny the presence of different utopias. It was noted by scholars, nevertheless, that such bias is apparent in earlier western feminist utopian thought. However, contemporary feminist utopian thought acknowledges that various utopias (or heterotopias, in Foucault’s term) should coexist and inform policymaking, not to achieve a final state of progress but to negotiate their future in order to achieve a better state.

Utopia is well and alive if it is seen as a process of achieving transformative change and not of arriving at a predetermined destination. The existence of universal education, universal social protection, and of accessible basic health facilities in some countries today all started from a vision transformed over time and which will continue to transform. In many parts of the world today, however, they still remain a vision.

Utopia should not be viewed as stagnant. Instead, it should be seen as dynamic. To achieve universal health coverage may still be part of the utopia of some countries but was once part of the utopia of other nations who are now in an ongoing inclusive process of improving the implementation of their health policies, which may subsequently redefine their utopia.

As political reforms lead to new political elites and vanguards, voices of the most marginal—e.g., the poorest women—should always inform policymaking. It is this challenge of bridging different groups in policymaking that must find support by way of political action. A feminist utopia as a blue print for political action should be founded on inclusion and diversity, rather than uniformity and suppression.

On the other hand, the view that utopian ideas should be cast out—because utopian societies will turn into time bombs that will eventually lead humanity to self-destruction—is often used politically to prevent the rise of certain socio-political possibilities which may lead those in power to their deathbed. We need to be aware that suppression of different utopias will result in unchallenged uniformity and blind conformity, which at its worst will lead to political and cultural tyranny at the cost of civilization. 

Sources

Berlatsky, Noah (2013) ‘Imagine There’s No Gender: The Long History of Feminist Utopian Literature.’ The Atlantic [online] <http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/imagine-theres-no-gender-the-long-history-of-feminist-utopian-literature/274993/> [25 July 2015].

Birzer, Bradley (2014) ‘The Utopia of Thomas More.’ Conservative Thought and Policy [online] <http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/ctp/2014/08/the-utopia-of-thomas-more/> [5 June 2015].

Cannon, Julie Ann Harms and Adrian De La Rosa (2012) Utopian Feminism and Feminist Pedagogy:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Everyday Classroom [online]

<http://www.lsus.edu/Documents/Offices%20and%20Services/CommunityOutreach/JournalOfIdeology/Utopian%20Feminist%20Pedagogy_%20Charlotte%20Perkins%20Gilman%20and%20Everyday%20Sociology.pdf> [22 May 2015].

Conservapedia (2015) Utopia [online] <http://www.conservapedia.com/Utopia> [26 July 2015].

Griffiths,  Virginia Anne (2005) ‘Contemporary Feminist Utopianism and the Transformation of the Political,  Discursive Democracy in Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time and the Norwegian Women’s Shelter Movement.’ <https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/13756/26581.pdf?sequence=1> [15 August 2015].

Halsaa, Beatrice (1988) ‘A Feminist Utopia.’ Scandinavian Political Studies, Bind 11 (New Series) (1998) 4 [online] <https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/scandinavian_political_studies/article/view/13012/24821> [21 June 2015].

Judith (2015) ‘Feminist Economic and Utopia: She Works Too Hard for the Money.’ Lady Economist [online] <http://ladyeconomist.com/2015/02/09/feminist-economics-and-utopia-she-works-too-hard-for-the-money/> [21 June 2015].

Kilminster, Richard  (2014) The Debate about Utopias from a Sociological Perspective Vol. 3, Issue 2 [online] <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/h/humfig/11217607.0003.203/--debate-about-utopias-from-a-sociological-perspective> [26 July 2015].

Kolakowski, Leszek (1982) The Death of Utopia Reconsidered [online] <http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/documents/a-to-z/k/kolakowski83.pdf> [19 June 2015].

Miles, Malcolm (2006) ’The End of Utopia: Imminent and Immanent Liberation.’ Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal, No. 3, Autumn/Winter 2006: 105–113. [online] <http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/3065.pdf>[26 July 2015].

Milojević,  Ivana  (2002) ‘Definitions and Histories of Utopia.’ In Futures of Education: Feminist and Post-Western Critiques and Visions. Phd Thesis, School Of Education, The University Of Queensland [online] <http://www.metafuture.org/articlesbycolleagues/IvanaMilojevic/Ivana%20Milojevic%20Definitions%20and%20Histories%20of%20Utopia%202002.pdf> [1 June 2015].

Rüsen, Jörn (2008) History and Utopia [online] <http://www.nnet.gr/historein/historeinfiles/histvolumes/hist07/historein7-intro.pdf> [26 July 2015].

Stein, Karen F. (2013) ‘Inclusion and Exclusion in Some Feminist Utopian Fictions.’  In Women's Utopian and Dystopian Fiction. Sharon R. Wilson (ed.) Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press: 112–132 [online]

<http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=eng_facpubs> [20 June 2015].

The Gifford Lectures [n.d.] 3. The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science [online] < <http://www.giffordlectures.org/books/if-youre-egalitarian-how-come-youre-so-rich/3-development-socialism-utopia-science > [26 July 2015].

Viera, Fatima (2010) The Concept of Utopia. Cambridge University Press [online] <http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/CziganyikZsolt/VieiraTheConceptofUtopia-1.pdf> [June 6, 2015].

Welser, Tracie Anne (2005) ‘Fantastic Visions: On the Necessity of Feminist Utopian Narrative.’

Graduate Theses and Dissertations [online] <http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1909&context=etd> [5 May 2015].

Workers Power (2013) ‘Breaking the chains of Stalinism: Women of the Eastern Bloc’ [online] <http://www.workerspower.net/breaking-the-chains-of-stalinism-women-of-the-eastern-bloc> [3 August 2015].