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    Sandoval US Third World Feminism PDF

    Uploaded by

    Vala Meza

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    ens yin Mach Jy and Novae by he Uwe of Test GENDERS (sco 80) bred array a cms ony 202 Te ss S05} mone ne S21 . ‘Tit cnn page pat Assi, Texas onda acotora mang aces © THB by he Urey of Teas Press 2000 Cora, Asin x T8722 Submissions Subscriptions ear co USA outside USA our tanta Inorscuns 3 ee Scuby we pron We oe sce: tans Be he focertoes'eurgcowatyand Single Coplaa vA age use Sceayaccocene exon ems fe fuse be eosred fo publcaton sould te Bab pages psc, re con wet Se ate tes shoud be pes double soace ‘noun ret in Erion shod bo ‘eioroaed oy tartans, a peated 10 sippy apna cn fst usin nee By he pian Porton he espa ity ftneautor Sandon cooy Asibcgton tm vee a bk th ra an Svc ons Press. Son TOD, ant, 1878713. Copyright Clearance Center cies ni ana toe ot hae -usrrzaton petcepy aries ins fd wit sonny parson, a poites by Sections 10F "oe ot te Unto Sates Savy Law is en by te ‘vray of Tosa Presa. Capos bey tha permite by Sec nee 107 and 108 may he muri perwiiad thal the hase Yee ot epar $3.0 per cory pad we Copy Clearance Center 27 Coenen Congress Street Salern, MA 01970 This consent does not ax seem Seana e perenne See aes = (ou ot $100 per eony Business Correspondence beer nde cecosry tous eet st he Une Tewos Por he Urey of Ysa tA Te Unvery Tene Sytem ote Unt Cage Bosser | Gaeta teas Press oe | mse net tc Atl in Suds, rr, ya Lie Arn Pra | Binur seorocs B8) MIRA Boggy of Eten Langage and Lie MLA irate! BOs ‘Dr Sues a Wn Atacand Wore Sues Absoac iru equrents of ean Kater! Sanaa hr tb Succes Pemarecn Par Pa ery Maras ANS! 259 81084 Gerterts [0 speN& 44) 1-24 U.S. Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World’ By CHELA SANDOVAL, The enigma that is U.S. third world feminism has yet to be fully confronted by theorists of social change. To these late twentieth-century analysts it has re mained inconceivable that US. third world feminism might represent a form of historical consciousness whose very structure lies outside the conditions of Possibly which regulate the oppositional expressions of dominant feminism, In enacting this new form of historical consciousness, US. third world feminism Provides access to a different way ul cunceptuallzing not only US. feminist con. sciousness but oppositional activty in general; it comprises a formulation capa. ble of aligning such movements for social justice with what have been identified 8 world-wide movements of decolonization. Both in spite of and yet because they represent varying internally colonized Communities. US. third world feminists have generated a common speech, a theoretical structure which, however, remained just outside the purview of the dominant feminist theory emerging in the 1970s, functioning within it——but only as the unimaginable. Even though this unimaginable presence arose to reinvig. orate and refocus the politics and priorities of dominant feminist theory during the 1980s, what remains is an uneasy alliance between what appears on the surface 10 be two different understandings of domination, subordination, and the nature of effective resistance—a shot-gun arrangement at best between what literary critic Gayatri Spivak characterizes as a “hegemonic feminist theory’? on the one side and what | have been naming “U.S. third world fem nism” on the other | do not mean to suggest here, however, that the perplexing Situation that exists between U.S. third world and hegemonic feminisms should bbe understood merely in binary terms. On the contrary. what this investigation reveals is the way in which the new theory of oppositional consciousness con. sidered here and enacted by U.S. third world feminism is at least partially con. {ained, though made deeply invisible by the manner of its appropriation, in the terms of what has become a hegemonic feminist theory. US. third world feminism arose out of the maltix of the very discourses enying, permitting, and producing difference. Out of the imperatives born of Recessity arose @ mobilly of identity that generated the activities of a new GENDERS Numer 10, Sonne 1991 PAGE (GENDERS citizen subject, and which reveals yet another mode! for the gel-conscious, Po cae ap sitical opposition. in this essay I wil lay out US third word fort: duction oe Gesiga for oppositional poical acivly and consciousness he Oi ae cis mapping ins new design. a mode is revealed by wich social aot can chart the points through which ciffering oppositional ideologies f= 2c ae of thei varying trajectories, This Knowledge Lecomes impor art se ie begins to wonder, along with late twentieth century cultural eres wet gs Fredric Jameson, how organized oppositional activiy and Conscre such 28 tbe made possible under the co-opting nature of the so-called "post modem” cultural condition * ae cox pul forth inthis ossay are my reaticulation ofthe theories embed dat nthe great oppositional practices of the later half ofthis century espe ety in tne United Siates-—the Civil Rights movement, the wornen's movernet. cia ie rave, and gender liberation movements. During this period of greet are meity, t became cleat to many of us that oppositional social movernerts social ac ening rom inlernal divisions over strategies, tactics. and ave wich Neneft by examining philosopher Louis Althusser's heory of "idenogy wot PiGological state apparatuses." In tis now fundamental essay, Aus, a ut the principles by which humans are called ino being a8 cltrrt sore ino ack_oven when i resistance—in order to sustain and ete Soo rt gocial order. In this sense, for Ahusser, al cizens ende icoe, tr ccrmection® Ausser’s postuations begin to suguest, nowever. Tm logical supieietasions’’ do become genelaled whercby indwvidusls apd Treat appostion are abl to effectivolychalenge and Yansio” he Cure Soar crear ofthe social order, but he does not speciy How or on what terms such challenges are mounted Tre ssecfemmenting Athussers propositions. | want 10 apy his genera) Henry oat tne particular cual concerns raised wirin North American Wo- of ierogy ments and develop a new theory of deolagy wich considers cot, set ewer only. in ts subordinated and resistant yet, approprted sees ejubject of Althusser’ theory of idoology-—but in is more eles versions Meistnt oppositional manifestations, In practical terms, the theohy i a eentiyng forms of consciousness in oppostion, which con be Go toc ot sordnated by those classes sell-consciously seeking allecine OP> ora a tances in elation to the dominant social ordet The idea here, et aoe onzen can learn to identi, develop, and contol he means CH ese. marsha he krowiodge necessary to "prea wih Geology” wet 0. and fom within ieology, = an idea which lays the phvosopT at ea rons enabling us to rake the vital connections between He Sort ial ougparale social and poltical ame which dive yet utimaley, Ae ingly sparremenie fom within, From Althusser's pont of view. then, Ihe We trai propose would be considered a “science of pposiona) eeseoe Ya reptgenites. five. principal categories by which “opposions! coiccets i organized, and which are poittcal elective means conte ominat order of Powe. characterize them as “equal MS CCHELA SANDOVAL PAGES ern igeucen tees ‘iousness are kaleidoscoped into view ‘whe ‘he Mi Reaarerne yeoretical Model which retroactively clarifies aetna eG tion that maneuvers, poetically transti eas Spectalors and practioner. Oierental consciousness ste pissin ote cna in one of the great oppositional movements of the lat i Pea ee wave of the women’s movement. What eme yes nla is an outline of the oppositional : poate Beans consciousness, many of these thi i coon ey Sa Se eg bar ee ys rid feminism, these four historic i me ano coesl ikea Bars cee tance ouside of ose determined by the social order sel. My cont ion fat hegamoni lent ois of eistance epresent oly other ls rea pina rd expressed within all liberation iereree . systemalize in theoretical for te ve sciousness as it comes emt nein ok monic ao eel need eee bearer ees vs essay, | present the outline com Sn plied e going beyond them to produce a mor eralivaor Tara eed oppositional consciousness. w° general eory and is ?en tense and rife with ants Bai a perinatal 1‘ GeNoERS ness and activity outlined in this essay but which has remained largely unaccounted for within the structure of the hegemonic feminist theories of the 1980s. Differential consciousness is not yet fully theorized by most contemporary an- ysis of cullure, but its understanding is crucial for the shaping of effective anc ‘ongoing oppositional struggle in the United States. Moreover, the recognition of iflerential consciousness is vital to the generation of a next “third wave” wor- fen's movement and provides grounds for alliance with other decoionizing move- ments for emancipation. My answer to the perennial question asked by hegemonic feminist theorists throughout the 1980s is that yes, there is a specific. US. third world feminism: it is that which provides the theoretical and method- ‘ological approach, the “standpoint” if you will, from which this evocation of a theory of oppositional consciousness is summoned A Brief History From the beginning of what has been known as the second wave of the wom- fen movemant, US. third world feminists have claimed a feminism at odds with that being developed by US. white women. Already in 1970 withthe publication a Sisterhood 15 Powerful, black feminist Francis Beal was naming the second wave of US. feminism as a "white women's movement” because it insisted on bxganzing along the binary gender division maleltemale alone.® US. third world feminists however, have long uridersiouu that one’s race, culture, or clase often denies comfortable or easy access to either category, thal the interactions be- tween social Categories produce other genders within the social hierarchy. AS farback as the middle ofthe last century, Sojourner Truth found it necessary to femind a convention of white sutfragettes of her female gender with the shetor- {cal question “arn't | a woman? American Indian Paula Gunn Allen has written (of Native women that "the place we live now is an idea, because whiteman took fil the rest"? In 1971, Toni Morison went so far as t0 write of US. third world women that “there is something inside us that makes us different from other people. Its nol like men and itis not tke white women." That same year Chicana Vela Hancock continued: “Unfortunately, many white women focus on the maleness of our present social system as though, by implication, a female dominated white America would have taken a more reasonable course" for peo- ple of color of ether sex.'? “These signs of a lived experience of difference from white female experience in the United States repeatedly appear throughout USS, third world ferinist writ ings. Such expressions imply the existence of at least one other category of ender which is reflected in the very titles of books written by U.S. feminists of olor such as Al the Blacks Are Men, All the Women Ave White, But Some of Us ‘hte Brave” or This Bridge Called My Back," titles which imply that women of ‘olor somehow exist in the interstices between the legitimated categories of the social order. Moreover, i the tille of bell hooks’ 1981 book, the question “Aint 4 Woman” is transformed into a defiant stalement,"* while Amy Ling’s feminist ‘analysis of Asian American writings, Between Worlds," or the title ofthe journal (CHELA SANDOVAL, PAGE: 5 for US. third world feminist writings, The Third Woman."” als Ne re nition of a new category fr octal Keni Ths inbetween apace, fie fied Gender category, is also explored n he wr#ings of such wel- known authors ae Maxine Hong Kingston. Gloria Anzlaua, Aude Lorde, Ale Walor and Cherie Moraga. a of whom aigue that US. third word feminists represen a cert kind of human—new “mestizas,""* “Woman Warriors” who live and are gen- Geted “between and among” the Ines," "Setr Outsiders who hab a ew psychic terrain which Anzaidua cals "he Borderlands la nueva Frontera 1960, Aucte Lorde summarized the US. white women's movement by say that “today. there i a pretense to a homagenaly of experience covered bythe word SISTERHOOD in the white women's movernent. When white feminist call for ‘unity: they are misnaming a deeper and real need for homogenety" We began the 1980, she says, with “whe women” agtsing “to onus upon ther oppression as women’ whe contruing “to ignore difeence." Chicana soiek. a! Mate ce Ze erat ths poston 01086 esnyn Ste Seving that “here row exists n women’s studies an increased awareness 0” sarabiy of wonantoed yl fr US. mls cor “sh work olen lcied o,f Sontcace or ema! nowadge st uvcaged and ch he hegerni in che 1805 esponded tos oer indo lena heretical atvy? The pubtcaton of Ths Stage Caled My ac n made the presence of US. thrd word feminism impossible to (gre on the samo torme of had been troughou the 1970s, Bul suo te wilaige aed theoretical challenges of U.S. tra world feminsis were margnalzed I the category of what Allison Jaggar characterized in 1983 as mere "description,"”? anther essays deterred to what Hester Essense in 1385 caled the special ore of pootry white the shit in paradigm Tear Telered to 86 “alert consciousness." and which i epresentdin the brane of US. thd wor fom ina Fas been bypassed and gored. cy te eghios, US. tro wore leminism had become. theoretical problem. an inescapable mystery tbe sotved for hegemant fminiam, then pernaps a theory of cence but i Pore Yom Epecou subs rts mal he lo prove n gral how tha sytena eres fe here mpicters US ‘The Great Hegemonic Model During the 1860s, hegemonic feminist scholars prociced the histories of fm "is Consciousness which they beled fo ply the modes of exchange oper. aing within the oppostional spaces of the women's movement. These Temi histones of consciousness ar oon presented as yployies. systematic acs fications of a possible forms of ernst pans These constructed ypologes have Tas become the oficial slones by which the while womens movers understands iset ands imierventons i istry In what flows | decode ese Stories and ther relations fo one another fom the perspectve of US he word feminism, where they are Tevenled as sets of maginary spaces, soialy om PAGe® GeNOERS structed to severely delimit what is possible within the boundaries of their sep arate narralives. Together, they legitimize certain modes of culture and Consciousness only to systematically curtail the forms of experiential and theo- retical articulations permitted U.S. third world feminism. | want to demonstrate how the constructed relationships adhering between the various types of hege- monic feminist theory and consciousness are unified at a deeper level into a Great metastructure which sets up and reveals the logic of an exclusionary US. ‘negemonic feminism. ‘The logic of hegemonic feminism is dependent upon a common code that shapes the work of such a diverse group of thinkers as Julia Kristeva, Tor! Moi, Gerda Lema, Cora Kaplan, Lydia Sargent. Alice Jardine, or Judith Kegan Gar-

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