SOCIOLOGY

Post-modern feminism

Submitted by:
Vaishnavi Gaur
78/19
Semester: III
Section: B
 CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION
 POST-MODERN FEMINISM
 A FEW EXAMPLES OF POST MODERN FEMINISM
 CRITIQUE OF POST MODER FEMINISM
 INTRODUCTION
Patriarchy has been a deep rooted phenomena in every culture and society. With patriarchy,
came the notion of “inferiority” of women. They were not granted citizenships, right to vote
or participate in any decision-making of the political structure of the country. This went
unnoticed at least till 18th century. After French Revolution, there was a certain kind of
sensitisation amongst the masses. With this the concept of feminism came into existence.
Feminism is the movement claiming equal economic, political and social rights for all
genders in the society. There were three major waves of feminism. The first wave seek to
ensure political rights for women. First wave feminism as defined by Walby is “First wave
feminism was a large, multifaceted, ling-lived and highly effective political phenomenon” .
Second wave ensure equal economic and social rights of women whereas third one focused
on sex liberation. All the waves of feminism made massive achievements. As Ramanzanoglu
(1989) has further underlined, the various approaches, which include radical feminist
perspectives, which have focused on gender and sexuality, as well as psychoanalysis and
feminism perspectives, and post-modernism, have common features, which include an
understanding of an unsatisfactory relation between men and women which needs changing.

The post-modern feminism is a body of scholarship that questions and rejects traditional
essentialist practices, as established in and by modernity. The general premise of postmodern
social theory is a rejection of the western ideal of establishing universal grand narratives as a
means of understanding and explaining society. Postmodern theory directly challenges claims
of a unified subject, which is then presented as representing an objective point of view, in
essence, a “view from nowhere.”

Post-modern theory of feminism is a result of three major theories.

1. Post-modernism

2. Post-structuralism

3. French-Feminist theory.
 POST-MODERN FEMINISM THEORY

Postmodern theory and practices recognize differences, making room for all to contribute and
thus having a “view from everywhere” and eliminating the practice of positing one way or
one understanding as representing or being “truth.” The combination of postmodernist theory
and feminism allows for a questioning of essentialist approaches within and outside of
feminism, an expansion of feminist scholarship as well as contributing the lens of “gender”
and other issues inherent to feminism to the body of postmodern scholarship.

As mentioned before, this theory is grounded in three major theories which have emerged
simultaneously: Post-modernism, post-structuralism, French-feminist theory.

Structuralism was developed in 20th century by the Swiss linguist theorist Ferdinand de
Saussure. This theory focused on the point that the thoughts are not natural but are
constructed by the language as language gives meaning to everything. Therefore,
structuralism studies signs, communication and symbols. Prominent structuralists are Karl
Marx, Levi-Strauss, de Saussure, Lacan, Piaget and Freud. To address this they developed a
lawful and explanatory method. This was however questioned in 1970s as it was developed
that language can have many interpretations. Thus, the historical, social and political aspects
of the world need to be considered. Derrida also highlights how logocetrism defines the way
we think. He suggests one maybe structured to think within these dichotomous pairs but there
are various meanings that might not fit in these categories. Deconstruction also helps in
destabilizing the fixity of the current social order and express the perspective of marginalised.
Further, multiple discourses and subjectivity helps in post-structuralism.

Post-modernists use the concepts of difference, deconstruction and criticism of

logocentricism. The concept also highlights that the meaning is not historically constructed
rather they are universal. These were put forth by structuralists in Enlightment era. This
philosophy believes that there can be many discourses which should be viewed in historical,
social and political context. Hence, they advocate multiplicity, diversity and pluralism. The
criticisms towards the “grand theories” associated with modernity, from Marxism and
feminism to the questioning of the modernization and dependency theories, as we have seen,
lead to a growth from mainly the 1990’s onwards of what many have termed as the end-of-
millennium consciousness. This can be better identified by the application of the term “post”
in front of key systems of thought, from “post-industrialism” to “post-modernism” and “post-
feminism”.

French feminism as it is known today, is an Anglo-American invention coined by Alice

Jardine to be a section in a larger movement of postmodernism in France during the 1980s.
This included the theorizing of the failure of the modernist project, along with its departure.
More specifically for feminism, it meant returning to the debate of sameness and difference. 1
It was coined by Toril Moi. The belief of French Feminists there is no identity for a woman
but that "the feminine can be identified where difference and otherness are found."

This theory has also majorly departed from Judith Butler’s critique of work of Simone de
Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan, as well as on Luce Irigaray's argument that
what we conventionally regard as 'feminine' is only a reflection of what is constructed as
masculine.

 Frug suggested that one "principle" of postmodernism is that human experience is located
"inescapably within language". Power is exercised not only through direct coercion, but also
through the way in which language shapes and restricts our reality. She also stated that
because language is always open to re-interpretation, it can also be used to resist this shaping
and restriction, and so is a potentially fruitful site of political struggle. Frug's second
postmodern principle is that sex is not something natural, nor is it something completely
determinate and definable. Rather, sex is part of a system of meaning, produced by language.
Frug argues that "cultural mechanisms ... encode the female body with meanings", and that
these cultural mechanisms then go on explain these meanings "by an appeal to the 'natural'
differences between the sexes, differences that the rules themselves help to produce".2

Post-modern feminism is also known as intersectional feminism. They emphasized on need

of equality of women amongst women. They take into consideration race, creed caste of a
women. they intend to identify feminist perceptive of society, examine the way social world
affects women, analyse the role played by power and knowledge relationships in shaping the
women’s perception of the social world, devise the ways through which social world can be
changed. As Sabina Lovibond writes, ‘it is difficult to see how one could count oneself a
feminist and remain indifferent to the modernist promise of social reconstruction’. This
approach is necessary for many reasons. Women as one category fails to encompass the
1
Gambaudo, Sylvie A. (2007). "French Feminism vs Anglo-American Feminism: A
Reconstruction" (PDF). European Journal of Women's Studies. 13: 96–97. doi:10.1177/1350506807075816.
2
Frug, Mary Joe (March 1992). "A Postmodern Feminist Manifesto (An Unfinished Draft)". Harvard Law
Review. 105 (5): 1045–1075.
sufferings of women throughout the world. The emergence of post-modernism paralleled in
many ways the development of post-colonial thought, with post-modernism’s emphasis on
fragmentation, play and rejection of universal truths opening a door to diversity and the focus
on multiple identities and subject positions. The emergence of post-modernism paralleled in
many ways the development of post-colonial thought, with post-modernism’s emphasis on
fragmentation, play and rejection of universal truths opening a door to diversity and the focus
on multiple identities and subject positions. An important component of this late phase of the
feminist movement has undoubtedly been the articulation of “post-feminist” discourses which
have mainly rested on notions of girl power, individualism, choice and play inserted within a
predominantly capitalism worldview, negating in many ways the conquests of previous
feminist movements which have rejected the need to continue to fight for gender equality.

Postmodern feminists seek to get away from any absolute assertions of what a feminist
should be, since they try to avoid "phallogocentric thought," or thought that centres around an
absolute word. They write about both feminist theory and practice. Three of the main
postmodern feminists, Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva, base their thought on
Simone de Beauvoir's existentialism, Jacques Derrida's deconstructionism, and Jacques
Lacan's interpretation of psychoanalysis.

Simone de Beauvoir stressed women's "otherness," with the idea that women are second to
men. Postmodern feminists take her idea that woman is other, but say that this is actually an
advantage because of the possibilities that being outside of the male-dominated world has.
Deconstructionists like Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida believed that the entire system of
thought in the Western world was wrong, and that we should get away from essentialist
thinking, such as concepts like self-identity and truth. Jacques Lacan's interpretation of the
Oedipus complex is such that unlike boys, girls are left without being able to fully internalize
the symbolic order of the world. This is because both girls and boys split from their mother in
exchange for masculine language. Boys identify with their father, and thus internalize the
symbolic order of language, while girls are unable to fully identify with the father because of
their anatomy. Because they lack feminine words there is no place for women in Lacan's
social order & endash; they have a repressed existence at the margins. Jacques Derrida
criticized logocentrism, phallocentrism, and dualism as they appeared in the social order. He
defined the gap between reality and language as difference, which is a term that postmodern
feminists appropriated.
A FEW EXAMPLES OF POST MODERN FEMINISM
In the post-modern feminism internet, media and social media has played an important role in
uplifting the women and giving this movement a push, it needs. The internet separates the
women from their material selves and has been considered as a promising new platform. As
per the feminist activist Faith Wilding, “there is a tendency though among many cyber
feminists to indulge techno-utopian expectations that the new e-media will offer women a
fresh start to create new languages, programs, platforms, images, fluid identities and multi-
subject definitions in cyberspace; that in fact women can recode, redesign, and reprogram
information technology to help change the feminine condition.” With cyber feminism
becoming the norm, it is increasingly important to consider who controls the discourse and
how it relates to race, class and other social structures. Transnational and postcolonial
feminists, such as Chandra Talapade Mohanty, opines that western feminism has always tend
to homogenise and try to make the experiences same for all women. Mohanty writes,
“Western feminists appropriate and “colonise” the fundamental complexities and conflicts
which characterise the lives of women of different classes, religions, cultures, races and
castes in these countries. It is in the process of homogenisation and systemisation of the
oppression of women in the third world that power is exercised in much of recent Western
feminist discourse and this power needs to be defined and named.”

Even in India, several feminist scholars provided the intellectual representation but cling to
Western ideas. They failed to address the needs of the minority and hence they are sorely
represented. For instance, with the Shah Bano case, which sought to discuss the controversial
maintenance of aggrieved divorced Muslim women, despite having a strong intellectual
representation, women’s groups failed to garner unanimous support on the issue because they
were unable to envisage the predicament and limitations of Indian Muslim women. The issue
turned political instead of remaining one of women’s rights, and several women’s groups
held polarising views, further fragmenting the support for it. Consequently, the passing of
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, represented the massive
failure of the Indian government to enforce equal rights for Muslim women. It also
showcased the inability of women’s groups to mass mobilise and arrive at a consensus on the
cause. Digitisation, to a certain extent, allows for wider feminist discussions to occur,
overcoming spatial limitations and redefining what activism and social movements can look
like. It provides an outlet for new opportunities for the empowerment of other marginalised
women. For instance, in 2013, acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal gathered 27,000
signatures through an online petition, ‘StopAcidSale’, to curb the sales of acid and took the
issue to the Supreme Court. The campaign gained nationwide attention and allowed several
other acid attack survivors to voice their support for the ban on acid sale. In 2013, the
Supreme Court ruled in favour of the plea and introduced restrictions on the sale of acid, and
recognised it as a crime under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code, which categorises acts
voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means.3

Another study of women's movements on social media by Sujatha Subramanium, who

interviewed a Dalit feminist activist, noted, "In Kerala, the voices of subaltern groups are
very prominent on social media, especially sexual minorities and Dalit groups. On social
media, all of us are publishers. Only some communities get the space to get published in
mainstream media. Social media allows marginalised voices the possibility of being heard in
the public discourse.”

CRITIQUE OF POST MODERN FEMINISM

3
Shruti Jain, “The Rising Fourth Wave: Feminist Activism and Digital Platforms in India,” ORF Issue Brief No.
384, July 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
Tong (2013) has summarised the different critiques of postmodern feminism in the following
manner. Feminist criticise postmodern feminist for their idea of diversity. Though, few
feminists support their idea of diversity but most of them view it as potential threat to
feminist community as a whole. They argue that in the absence of an essentialist philosophy,
political action cannot be taken. Postmodern feminist have been criticised for being overtly
academic. The language and the ideas are used in a specific manner that no one is able to
understand what they are trying to do. Hence, they are called as “feminism for
academicians”. Gloria Steinem says "I always wanted to put a sign up on the road to Yale
saying, 'Beware: Deconstruction Ahead'. Academics are forced to write in language no one
can understand so that they get tenure. They have to say 'discourse', not 'talk'. Knowledge that
is not accessible is not helpful. It becomes aerialised.”4

Liberal feminists, who have been preoccupied with policy formulation and the improvement
of women’s status within the structures of western thought and society, generally write as if
postmodern critiques have little or no applicability for their own work. The possibility that
‘modernization’ and ‘progress’ may be unattainable goals in a postmodern world has rarely
been considered, much less articulated, by liberals working within these structures. Marxist
feminists have also expressed considerable opposition to postmodern ideas. Sylvia Walby
argues that ‘postmodernism in social theory has led to the fragmentation of the concepts of
sex, race and class and to the denial of the pertinence of overarching theories of patriarchy,
racism and capitalism. . . . [The postmodern critique of grand theory] is a denial of significant
structuring of power, and leads to mere empiricism.’ Linda Hutcheon argues that
postmodernism threatens feminism’s transformative agenda: ‘Postmodernism has not
theorized agency; it has no strategies of resistance that would correspond to the feminist
ones.’ Thus, according to her, it has nothing to add and much to detract from feminist
political agendas.” Third World women are presented as uniformly poor, powerless and
vulnerable, while western women are the referent point for modern, educated, sexually
liberated womanhood. This analysis both distorts women’s multiple realities and reduces the
possibility of coalitions among (usually white) western feminists and working class and
feminist women of colour around the world. This approach would encourage recognition of
differences and ambiguities without sacrificing the search for a ‘broader, richer, more

4
Ms. Isha Naaz& Dr Swati Banerjee, Feminist Theories 7: Postmodern Feminism,
http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000032SW/P001714/M021048/ET/150046455811-
PostmodernFeminism-Text.pdf
complex, and multi-layered feminist solidarity, the sort of solidarity which is essential for
overcoming the subjugation of women in its “endless variety and monotonous similarity”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Matos, Dr. Carolina, 2013, Postmodernism, equality and feminism: current
contemporary issues, London.
 Naaz , Isha & Banerjee, Swati, 2012, Gender and Social Work, Mumbai,
http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000032SW/P001714/
M021048/ET/150046455811-PostmodernFeminism-Text.pdf
 Shruti Jain, “The Rising Fourth Wave: Feminist Activism and Digital Platforms in
India,” ORF Issue Brief No. 384, July 2020, Observer Research Foundation.