It is undeniable that female empowerment is imperative. More importantly, the establishment of feminist movements has created a platform for women to assemble as a community to combat the patriarchal system that continues to exist in society. Consequently, women uniting to dispute sexism, acknowledges a component that can hinder their progress and success in society. Yet, this idea of feminism is over simplified, it disregards the diverse and intricate experiences women face in actuality. Therefore, the consequence of generalizing the feminist political practice results in an assumption that women uniformly experience a single oppression, this ignores the reality of the multiple oppressions women can encounter.
As with every other feminist theory, there are several critiques against Radical feminism that still apply today. First, Radical feminism focuses too heavily on essentialism – who’s to say what constitutes a female body? Next, the Radical feminist theory homogenizes women, as if we are all the same, which we clearly aren’t. Like several other feminist theories, Radical feminism also is somewhat racist and fully Eurocentric. Radical feminists marginalize certain types of women, while liberating others.
«We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved.» Miss Watson’s speech shows that even though many of us believe that current generation lives in truly emancipated era, this is not true. Even though we live in the era of gender and racial ‘equality’ the issue of sex inequality is still ‘on’ and still not resolved. Emma Watson’s speech has inspired many women as well as men. It also has inspired me to shift my focus from the influence of David Hume’s text on the E.H. Carr, to the role of feminism and women during the period of Enlightenment. This essay claims that even though advocates of ‘loose’ women, David Hume in this case, were active throughout the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment failed to be era of feminism Firstly, let me address the question of the location of the Enlightenment and the oppressed women in this work.
“But I’m stronger, strong enough to rise above” (metrolyrics) is an obvious sentence to advocate woman to be strong. “I love myself in the beat of the drum” (metrolyrics) was a way that told woman to love themselves and that is a condition to being independence. “All the women in the world, stand up come together now” (metrolyrics) in the last part of the song, the lyricist encourage woman together and unity to facing the problem. “Women’s empowerment is the process of challenging existing power relations of gaining a greater control over the sources of power” (Srilata 130) while apply that theory to the song, the lyricist encourage women to unity and being stronger to challenge the existing empowerment environment. “Power is well dispersed across various sections of people” (Usha 123) because of power is scattering, the lyricist recount woman to unity so that the power can enhance in order to archive the condition of female empowerment.
Even before I named myself a feminist, or a lesbian, I felt compelled to bring together, in my understanding and in my poems, the political world 1. Towards the close of 1950s an autonomous women’s movement was gaining momentum. The feminists held economic exploitation, terrorism, colonialism and imperialism responsible for women’s oppression. Exploitation of women within the family, in married life, in the heterosexual relation and in childbearing were also considered oppressive. The feminist wanted to break free the stereotype sex roles forced on
Since the core purpose of feminism was already fulfilled, some wanted to focus on other types of discrimination that women had been experiencing. Up to this day, gender-based discrimination still transpires in the society. Since the previous goals no longer apply to the present-day-society, a redefinition of its purpose was made. However, this redefinition was not viewed highly. Through the years, feminism has been molded by societal stereotypical perceptions that are brought upon by feminism goal transformations.
The speech was delivered as a political movement and it specifically addressed the women of that time period. The context of the text was to support women’s rights by encouraging women to better themselves as wives by valuing intelligence and culture over beauty. The audience that this speech is targeted towards is women. She specifies women as the audience by tailoring her speech towards women and appealing to their emotions, situations, and circumstances. For example, she says, “I could not believe that God gad created so many homely women, and suffered all to lose their beauty in the very maturity of their powers, and yet made it our duty
The main issues addressed by the activists of “new” feminism are violence against women, human trafficking, body image, self-mutilation and the so-called “pornofication” (vulgar sexualization) of the media (Krolokke 2006). The third wave criticizes earlier feminist waves for their attempts to provide universal solutions for complex issues and standardized definitions of womanhood, thus failing to include some groups, especially teenage, non-heterosexual and transgender women or marginalizing others (women of different ethnic backgrounds, women of color). It also reappropriates the artifacts of femininity, such as lipsticks, body hugging clothing and high heels, earlier rejected by the radical second-wave feminists as symbols of male oppression. This new position was expressed in the statement of one of the prominent third-wave activists, Pinkfloor: “It’s possible to have a push-up bra and a brain at the same time.”
It may be good that feminism is reaching women everywhere, but global feminism brings a whole set of problems with it. One of the major problems with global feminism is prioritizing feminist issues, one way to define different prioritizations is looking at feminism as first world and third world. While first world feminist look to change reproductive rights and legal equality, third world feminist look for more basic obstacles such as underdevelopment and colonialism. This divide had split the international feminist movement until the 80’s where feminist had agreed they need to fight a new threat, “Neoliberal economics, the decline of the welfare state, and the emergence of fundamentalist movements led to new thinking” (136 mghadam). Globalization had brought on a new burden to women’s rights, the increase of capitalism relied on the increase of cheap labor involved abysmal working conditions.
Mass media represent a powerful force in modern societies as they shape public discourse and influence public opinion by transmitting social, political and cultural values. For decades, women’s representation in mediated popular culture has been a central problem because of the gendered ideologies it circulated. From the 1880s to the 1970s, American women’s magazines played a significant role in disseminating the dominant ideology and patriarchal order, perpetuating the myths of female disposability and domesticity, maintaining traditional images of femininity. They promoted the idea of women’s emotionality, vulnerability and beauty ideals. Such magazines as The Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, The Woman’s Home Companion McCall’s,