Apply a Sociology Theory to a Social Issue

Feminist Theories

MacKinnon

● Difference and Dominance approach ● Legal mandate/Main principle: treat likes alike and unlikes unlike. ● Two paths/branches:

• Sameness path: Be the same as men; grant women access to what men have access to. “...we’re as good as you. Anything you can do, we can do. Just get out of the way.” (245) • Difference path: Sex is a difference; value/compensate women what they are or have become under existing conditions.

● Difference and Dominance ○ Notes

■ 2 routes to equality: be the same or different from men ■ Women either judged by their proximity to men and/or how much

they fit their standard. Or how different their womanhood is to

manhood

■ Woman constantly held to a male standard ■ Something is only sexist if men don’t have it. ■ Jobs are structured as if the worker will not have to take care of

children even though women will have to

■ Women need to be men to get what men get ■ Women value certain things like relationships and care because that

is how men have valued them

■ Women become sex workers when all else fails and it(all else) often does

■ Gender inequality is systematic not just plain sexism

Hill Collins

● Eurocentric masculinist knowledge as a validation process ○ the institutions, paradigms and other elements of the knowledge validation

process controlled by elite white men. ● Two political criteria influence the knowledge validation process:

○ 1. Knowledge claims are evaluated by a community of experts whose members represent the standpoints of the groups from which they originate;

○ 2. Each community of experts must maintain its credibility as defined by the larger group in which it is situated and from which it draws its taken-for-granted knowledge.

● Rather than using Eurocentric, masculinist criteria for assessing knowledge, we should use other criteria. These methods of validating knowledge claims must be acceptable to the group controlling the knowledge validation process.

○ This mainstream epistemology has led to ‘subjugated knowledge’ – expressions of experience through other forms.

● There is an alternative epistemology for Back women to go by - an Afrocentric feminist viewpoint.

○ The Afrocentric feminist epistemology is rooted in the everyday experiences of Af-Am women.

● Dimensions of an Afrocentric feminist epistemology ○ Concrete experience as a criterion of meaning

■ wisdom to assess knowledge, and an understanding of their oppression through race, gender and probably class.

■ "Knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful but wisdom is essential to the survival of the subordinate".

■ lived through the experience about which they claim to be experts are more believable and credible than those who have merely read or thought about such experiences.

○ The use of dialogue in assessing knowledge claims ■ "Dialogue is a talk between two subjects, not speech of subject and

object - it is a humanising speech, one that challenges and resists domination."

■ The use of dialogue has Afrocentric roots aka seeking harmony ● Thus, this use of call-and-response in dialogue means active

participation of all that means that for ideas to be tested and validated, everyone in the group must participate

● Which is opposite of the system we use now of white men controlling that validation

○ The ethic of caring ■ * Emphasis on individual uniqueness, rooted in a tradition of African

humanism; ■ * Use of emotions in dialogues - emotion shows a speaker believes

in the validity of an argument; ■ * capacity for empathy

○ The ethic of personal accountability ■ People are expected to be accountable for their knowledge claims.

AfAms believe it is essential for individuals to have personal

positions on issues and assume full responsibility for arguing their validity. Knowledge claims made by individuals respected for their moral and ethical connections to their ideas will carry more weight than those offered by less respected figures.

● Afrocentric Feminism ○ Notes

■ Black feminism seem as subjugated knowledge ■ Very unique because she combines her experience with what she is

studying

■ Black women/minorities have to convince white men that their work is credible and important

■ Black women excluded in every way and cannot get into influential academic positions

■ Only a couple token black women are allowed into the white man’s club but at significant personal cost

■ Truths have to be subjected to intense scrutiny and “such criteria ask African-American women to objectify ourselves, devalue our

emotional life, displace our motivations for furthering knowledge

about black women, and confront in an adversarial relationship

those w. More social, economic, and professional power (p. 4).”

■ Should not quantify oppression- doesn’t believe in oppression olympics

■ To black people lived experience is more important than scholarly education

Smith

● Standpoint Theory: ○ Both smith and hill-collins develop an approach of developing analysis

based off of a woman's perspective. ○ Standpoint theory suggests that we can use the inequalities of gender,

race, class, etc to see how different locations within the social hierarchy tend to generate distinctive accounts of social relationships

○ It also allows us to understand forms of class relations in our society, so adopting the standpoint of women would reveal how gender relations are structured and are the midpoints by which dominant members can subordinate others.

Butler & Hall

· Although there are some biological differences, other differences are constructed by society · Butler- Sexual identity is sculpted by discursive practices: language, culture, dress · Beauvoir- one becomes a woman · Gender theory- absence of rules. People protest bc they are afraid of disorder · Cultural studies- the changing ways of life of societies and the networks of meanings which individuals and groups use to make sense of and communicate with one another · Encoding/decoding- those in power spread messages through popular culture and how those receiving the messages interpret them

· Power and politics and understanding the forces that shape them