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Feminist Theory

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By alishapatel91
Words 1121
Pages 5
In this unit, class, race, and sexual orientation have been overlooked in both the tradition and early feminist conceptions of the self. The two authors that have emphasized these topics are Monique Wittig and the Combahee River Collective. Monique Wittig writes about how gender should be destroyed in order to reach ‘freedom’. The Combahee River Collective help readers see the standpoint of black feminists and how it shapes us, as a society.
Wittig introduces the fact of ‘destroying genders.’ Wittig wants more of non-categorized term for sexes rather than having a ‘woman’ and ‘man’ label. That is what she means by having freedom—the freedom from being labeled and categorized under stereotypical circumstances. “Women have been compelled in mind and body to an idea of nature that has been established for them.” This statement is saying that women are brought up knowing certain facts and rules about their status and authority in life. Wittig also believes that sciences that use these definitions should also be rejected. She sees that sexual orientation is categorized which leads to not having freedom. She also comes up with a Marxist perspective. She states there are two results for women that are lead from Marxism: the natural order of men and women and the disagreement between men and women were hidden behind a “natural division of labor”. It would be a great deal of threat to the Marxist society if women united as one. Wittig also denotes that gender covers that women are a class, and that is problematic for Marxism since Marxism is based on idea that the lower socioeconomic class should unite as one and rebel against the upper class. Abolishing a gender is problematic, also because completely destroying a gender will create even more subclasses. Wittig wants women to realize that they are a subclass and if they unite, that would divide the lower

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