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Transcript

Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism

by Maxine Zinn and Bonnie Dill

Vol XCIII, No. 311

Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

Tension in Contemporary Difference Feminism

Introduction

  • “Gender skepticism”
  • “The subject of feminist politics, to the extent that it is assumed to be representative of womenkind, is a paradigmatic gender identity in which all women are united. However, to the extent that this subject does not represent all women, it also functions as a gender prescription that legislates an essential gender identity and excludes those women who do not have the 'correct' gender identity” (Wesselius 223).
  • “Difference has replaced equality as the central concern of feminist theory” (qtd. in Zinn and Dill p.322, 1996)
  • “uneasy alliance between women of color and other feminists” (Zinn and Dill p.322, 1996).
  • The article addresses both sides of the argument, the importance of recognizing difference and the possible shortcoming of it.
  • If we acknowledge everyone’s differences, we will be acknowledging everything
  • Primary organizing principles (also known as social construct…go beyond ideas of gender, into race, class, etc) vs. individual characteristics

What is Multiracial Feminism?

Addressing Differences & Commonalities

  • The dominant voice in feminism then and now more or less is white middle class women
  • Since the 60’s, women of color took issue with unitary theories of gender because of the exclusive nature of it
  • “widespread concern about the exclusion of women from feminist scholarship and the misinterpretation of our experiences…out of the very discourses, denying, permitting and producing difference” (Zinn and Dill p.321, 1996).
  • Speaking from the need to challenge systems of domination (Zinn and Dill p.321, 1996).
  • “women whose lives are affected by our location in multiple hierarchies” (Zinn and Dill p.321, 1996).
  • Multiracial feminism defined by Zinn and Dill
  • “This perspective is an attempt to go beyond a mere recognition of diversity and difference among women to examine structures of domination, specifically the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender” (Zinn and Dill p.321, 1996).
  • Article sought to investigate and analyze other forms of domination linked to gender.

Feminism embodying the examination of how individuals experience dominance through the socail constructs of race, class, gender, ethnicity, tradition, and culture unique to the individuals own environment to increase awareness of commonalities and differences.

  • "one size does NOT fit all"
  • came from Socailist feminism
  • takes issue with how generalized and universalized the experiences are portrayed
  • acknowledges that race is one of the most important aspects that changes and alters the way we interpret our lives socailly and live
  • finds problematic how black and white are viewed as the two major races and everything else falls under the "prism of cultural differences"

Video Feature

The Distinguishing Features

Questions

1. How does domination link to gender in the context of this article?

2. Is recognizing differences in feminism problematic?

3. How does race affect the way we view the progression of feminism as a whole?

4. Why do you think it is important to acknowledge and include white women in the issue of racial order in society and not just minorities?

5. Do men play a significant role in multiracial feminism?

6. What are some solutions to the "matrix of domination?"

1) Gender is constructed by "a range of interlocking inequalities."

  • "matrix of domination"

2) It emphasizes "different forms of privilege & subordination throughout social order."

  • Women & men both affected

3) "Power is a cornerstone of women's differences...which is connected in systematic ways."

  • Race is one key element

4) It "explores interplay of social structure and women's agency."

  • Women exercise agency to shape their own lives.

5) It uses various tools at hand.

  • "Building complex analysis, avoiding erasure, specifying location"

6) It "brings understandings together drawn from the lived experiences of diverse and continuously changing groups of women."

Other Examples of Multiracial Feminism

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