Ms. Epley
05-12-2008, 10:34 PM
I wrote this for my women and politics class, but I thought it was pretty interesting and that it would fit here perfectly.
Jennifer Ring’s article “Feminist Theory as Seeing” explains how feminist theory has created a lens for political scientists to see through. It provides political scientists with different views that they had not perhaps been able to see before. For example, a white male who works within the political science arena may have only seen things from his place in society: an insider. Someone else who is an outsider and exists on the margins of society, such as a female feminist, is going to have a different view from the man in the middle of society. If the man looks at things he has previously seen from the woman’s perspective, he is using a different lens. People are often unaware of their own lenses based on their gender, and this is called invisibility of gender.
An example of the different views people can have on one situation, and the way that these views can change, can be seen in the issue of slavery. The traditional view of slavery saw the sexual abuse of female slaves as almost coincidental, and as isolated cases, but not as a part of the system of slavery. They also see the male slaves as bearing most of the suffering because their inability to protect themselves and their families left them emasculated. The black feminist perspective sees this same thing quite differently. They see the sexual abuse of female slaves as a major part of slavery; it happened regularly, was not limited to one area, and was one of many cruel ways of exerting power and control over slave women. It was part of the system of slavery. The black feminists also argue that treating the emasculation of male slaves as extreme suffering is sexist as it portrays existing in the female position as punishment.
Feminist theory is, according to Ring, “a way of seeing” (5). Specifically, seeing through the lens of gender, although of course not all people of the same gender see things the same way, nor can they know ahead of time what they are going to see. Some of these different views are represented in the different feminisms, some of which Ring introduces. Black feminism (womanism), liberal feminism, and radical feminism are all types of feminism that Ring mentions in her article, and they, as well as the many other types of feminism, all have slightly different ideas based around a general idea of feminism. In her explanation of feminist theory, Ring goes on to say, “Perhaps it is most accurate to say that there is a way of theorizing that is compatible with feminist political concerns, but not limited to feminism, nor capable, like a heat-seeking missile, of arriving at inherently feminist perceptions” (12). Part of her inability to provide a concrete definition for feminist theory is due to the fact that it’s hard to define without providing an example, such as that of slavery.
It can also be said that all suffering and oppression are linked. In this way, the oppression of white women is linked to the oppression of black women, is linked to the oppression of poor men, is linked to the oppression of rich men, etc. and it isn’t always practical to try and draw divisions. As with the example of the sexually abused slave women, they are victims, but so are the people who abuse them. The white women who beat the slave women are themselves oppressed, which contributes to them abusing the slave women. While looking at a situation through one lens, you may discover that it is impossible to see the whole picture without looking at it through many lenses.
Jennifer Ring’s article “Feminist Theory as Seeing” explains how feminist theory has created a lens for political scientists to see through. It provides political scientists with different views that they had not perhaps been able to see before. For example, a white male who works within the political science arena may have only seen things from his place in society: an insider. Someone else who is an outsider and exists on the margins of society, such as a female feminist, is going to have a different view from the man in the middle of society. If the man looks at things he has previously seen from the woman’s perspective, he is using a different lens. People are often unaware of their own lenses based on their gender, and this is called invisibility of gender.
An example of the different views people can have on one situation, and the way that these views can change, can be seen in the issue of slavery. The traditional view of slavery saw the sexual abuse of female slaves as almost coincidental, and as isolated cases, but not as a part of the system of slavery. They also see the male slaves as bearing most of the suffering because their inability to protect themselves and their families left them emasculated. The black feminist perspective sees this same thing quite differently. They see the sexual abuse of female slaves as a major part of slavery; it happened regularly, was not limited to one area, and was one of many cruel ways of exerting power and control over slave women. It was part of the system of slavery. The black feminists also argue that treating the emasculation of male slaves as extreme suffering is sexist as it portrays existing in the female position as punishment.
Feminist theory is, according to Ring, “a way of seeing” (5). Specifically, seeing through the lens of gender, although of course not all people of the same gender see things the same way, nor can they know ahead of time what they are going to see. Some of these different views are represented in the different feminisms, some of which Ring introduces. Black feminism (womanism), liberal feminism, and radical feminism are all types of feminism that Ring mentions in her article, and they, as well as the many other types of feminism, all have slightly different ideas based around a general idea of feminism. In her explanation of feminist theory, Ring goes on to say, “Perhaps it is most accurate to say that there is a way of theorizing that is compatible with feminist political concerns, but not limited to feminism, nor capable, like a heat-seeking missile, of arriving at inherently feminist perceptions” (12). Part of her inability to provide a concrete definition for feminist theory is due to the fact that it’s hard to define without providing an example, such as that of slavery.
It can also be said that all suffering and oppression are linked. In this way, the oppression of white women is linked to the oppression of black women, is linked to the oppression of poor men, is linked to the oppression of rich men, etc. and it isn’t always practical to try and draw divisions. As with the example of the sexually abused slave women, they are victims, but so are the people who abuse them. The white women who beat the slave women are themselves oppressed, which contributes to them abusing the slave women. While looking at a situation through one lens, you may discover that it is impossible to see the whole picture without looking at it through many lenses.