Feminist Theory 6 ALREADY PASSED
first-wave feminism - ✔✔✔The feminist movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth century
focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage.
second-wave feminism - ✔✔✔The feminist movement starting in the 1960s, particularly in America,
where women campaigned for social and economic rights in addition to the more basic rights they had
won during first-wave.
third-wave feminism - ✔✔✔Refers to the 1990s and beyond and the individual empowerment of
women, and glorification of individual achievement
MacKinnon - ✔✔✔Author who wrote "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State"
Convergentist theory of feminism - ✔✔✔Theory of state: Theories of oppression must converge
because all are linked
Divergentist theory of feminism - ✔✔✔Theory which states: Theories of oppression must be
diverse/autonomous to account for specificity of each form of oppression. There may be irresolvable
conflicts between different identities/loyalties; any single theory will privilege some and marginalize
others.
Combahee River Collective - ✔✔✔A Black feminist Lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to
1980. They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key
document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of
identity as used among political organizers and social theorists.
Combahee River Collective Statement - ✔✔✔Document which focuses on the intersection of race and
gender (the "double burden") to establish a woman of color feminism. Identifies traditional feminism as
a potential threat to the majority of back women (black women are at the 'bottom of the system'). They
, also focus on identity politics- coming directly out of one's own identity to fight oppression. Identifies
the psychological toll of being a black woman, and racism within the white women's movement.
identity politics - ✔✔✔the practice of organizing on the basis of sex, ethnic or racial identity, or sexual
orientation to compete for public resources and influence public policy
interlocking systems of oppression - ✔✔✔Statements such as "we were told in the same breath to be
quiet both for the sake of being 'ladylike' and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people"
(Combahee RCS) demonstrate the concept of...
Smart-ugly - ✔✔✔Concept of smartness in a woman becoming unattractive in that it is refusing one's
natural position of femininity
femaleness = femininity = attractiveness to men = sexual attractiveness = sexual availability on male
terms - ✔✔✔MacKinnon's theory of femininity
Carby - ✔✔✔authored White Woman Listen article that we read. Black feminist of Welsh and
Caribbean descent writing out of England, insisting that white women also have to understand what
they contribute to the hegemonic power of whiteness.
Family, Patriarchy, Reproduction - ✔✔✔Carby's 3 "Feminist" Concepts Challenged by Attention to Race
and Colonialism
aligning themselves with the male colonial history of oppression - ✔✔✔According to Carby, white
women have been...
consciousness raising - ✔✔✔making people aware of values and commitments that they previously
took for granted, according to MacKinnon the central method of feminism
first-wave feminism - ✔✔✔The feminist movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth century
focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage.
second-wave feminism - ✔✔✔The feminist movement starting in the 1960s, particularly in America,
where women campaigned for social and economic rights in addition to the more basic rights they had
won during first-wave.
third-wave feminism - ✔✔✔Refers to the 1990s and beyond and the individual empowerment of
women, and glorification of individual achievement
MacKinnon - ✔✔✔Author who wrote "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State"
Convergentist theory of feminism - ✔✔✔Theory of state: Theories of oppression must converge
because all are linked
Divergentist theory of feminism - ✔✔✔Theory which states: Theories of oppression must be
diverse/autonomous to account for specificity of each form of oppression. There may be irresolvable
conflicts between different identities/loyalties; any single theory will privilege some and marginalize
others.
Combahee River Collective - ✔✔✔A Black feminist Lesbian organization active in Boston from 1974 to
1980. They are perhaps best known for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key
document in the history of contemporary Black feminism and the development of the concepts of
identity as used among political organizers and social theorists.
Combahee River Collective Statement - ✔✔✔Document which focuses on the intersection of race and
gender (the "double burden") to establish a woman of color feminism. Identifies traditional feminism as
a potential threat to the majority of back women (black women are at the 'bottom of the system'). They
, also focus on identity politics- coming directly out of one's own identity to fight oppression. Identifies
the psychological toll of being a black woman, and racism within the white women's movement.
identity politics - ✔✔✔the practice of organizing on the basis of sex, ethnic or racial identity, or sexual
orientation to compete for public resources and influence public policy
interlocking systems of oppression - ✔✔✔Statements such as "we were told in the same breath to be
quiet both for the sake of being 'ladylike' and to make us less objectionable in the eyes of white people"
(Combahee RCS) demonstrate the concept of...
Smart-ugly - ✔✔✔Concept of smartness in a woman becoming unattractive in that it is refusing one's
natural position of femininity
femaleness = femininity = attractiveness to men = sexual attractiveness = sexual availability on male
terms - ✔✔✔MacKinnon's theory of femininity
Carby - ✔✔✔authored White Woman Listen article that we read. Black feminist of Welsh and
Caribbean descent writing out of England, insisting that white women also have to understand what
they contribute to the hegemonic power of whiteness.
Family, Patriarchy, Reproduction - ✔✔✔Carby's 3 "Feminist" Concepts Challenged by Attention to Race
and Colonialism
aligning themselves with the male colonial history of oppression - ✔✔✔According to Carby, white
women have been...
consciousness raising - ✔✔✔making people aware of values and commitments that they previously
took for granted, according to MacKinnon the central method of feminism
