Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex; the movement associated with this (Oxford English Dictionary)

First Wave: political, ends in 1920 when women got the vote

Second Wave: cultural and political, 1960s feminist movement essentialist vs. constructivist arguments

Third Wave: 1980s & 90s international movement

1960’s & 70’s : critique of representations of women in male-authored texts

1970’s & 80’s: expanding the canon & recovering of texts by women

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper” & Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

Gilbert & Gubar’s Madwoman in the Attic (1979)

1990’s – Present: women & agency

A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists

from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977.

Three phases:Feminine: 1840-80 women writing like menFeminist: 1880-1920 women advocating for their

rightsFemale: 1920-present women examining

biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic, and cultural differences

Gynocriticism: women need to study writing by women, their “mothers”

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. “anxiety of influence”: Bloom’s patriarchal

model in The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (1973) doesn’t fit woman writer’s experience:

Precursors are male Models as written are angel/demon stereotypes

“anxiety of authorship”: fear of writing at all women taught to be self effacing female authors as madwomen hiding from

publication

Essentialistgender reflects a natural difference

between men and women that is as much psychological, even linguistic, as it is biological

Constructivistaccepting of the idea that gender is made

by culture in history

“An analysis of gender that ‘ignores’ race, class, nationality, and sexuality is one that assumes a white, middle-class, heterosexual woman inclined toward motherhood as the subject of feminism; only by questioning the status of the subject of feminism – ‘woman’ – does a feminist criticism avoid replicating the masculinist cultural error of taking the dominant for the universal” (765).

Womanism is a feminist term coined by Alice Walker

It is a reaction to the realization that feminism does not fully encompass the perspectives of black women

A Womanist is a woman who loves women and appreciates women’s culture and power as something that is incorporated into the world as a whole

Addresses the racist and classist aspects of white feminism and actively opposes separatist ideologies

It includes the word “man”, recognizing that black men are an integral part of black women’s lives as their children, lovers, and family members

Accounts for the ways in which black women support and empower black men

Serves as a tool for understanding the Black woman’s relationship to men as different from the white woman’s due to a shared history of racial oppression

Used as a means for analyzing black women’s literature, as it marks the place where race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect

A philosophy that advocates living in sexual and social equality and in harmony with nature

Humans should reject current male-dominated, warlike cultures and return to the egalitarian societal model of the past –the true path of human cultural evolution

Humans must rediscover and reaffirm the ancient Mother Goddess, who represents the feminine aspect of the divine and the union of nature and spirituality

Most people assume that the only alternative to patriarchy is matriarchies – in other words, if men do not dominate women, then women must dominate men – this is a dominator society worldview

The real alternative to patriarchy is not matriarchy which is only the other side of the dominator coin

The alternative is a Partnership Society

1. Rethink the canon—the accepted “greats” of all-time—to include women authors, poets, directors, actors

2. Examine representations of women in literature and film by male and female authors & moviemakers

3. Challenge representations of women as “other,” as “lack,” as part of “nature” (whereas men are part of “culture” and better than “natural” or “emotional”)

4. Raise the question of whether men and women are “essentially” different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different (subjugating women as “worse” than men in the important ways)

1. Are there “natural” roles men and women fill?2. To what extent are our roles created by culture?

Nature vs. nurture3. Who puts limitations on genders?4. Who grants privileges to a gender?5. Examines these two statements:

A “woman” is/has ______________ (adjective, image, trait, ability…)

 A “man” is/has _______________ (adjective, image, trait, ability…)

6. Should we scrap our created gender roles and stereotypes?7. How does a creator’s gender affect a piece?8. What are the social expectations of men and women in this piece?9. Are the social norms different for men and women?10. How does society value men and women differently?

What about men is valued? What about women is valued?

Essential Questions:How does gender matter/function in this

piece?How are women portrayed/depicted in this

piece? This lens helps examine how gender is a

factor in a piece - the main focus is on how women are portrayed, how they function, behave, are limited/privileged for being women - however, also examines how maleness defines roles & limits men.

subjugate “other” gender roles hegemony oppression gender expectations exploitation relative meaning