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Criticism from Radical Feminism
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- Implications for Debate
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- LIBERATION MUST EMPHASIZE POLITICAL ACTION OVER PHILOSOPHY
- WE MUST MOVE BEYOND THE POLITICS OF GENDER DIFFERENCE
Criticism from Radical FeminismThe debate between the liberal and radical wings of feminism is often sharper and more ruthless than the arguments between feminism and patriarchy. Radicals accuse liberals of naiveté and blind acceptance of an unjust social system. They point out that simply giving women the opportunity to “play the game” along with men is really nothing more than giving women the right to behave like men: competitively, ruthlessly, greedily. Real feminism, they contend, is characterized by embracing truly feminine values such as nurturing, cooperation, openness, and life-giving. They contend that women lifted into executive positions or political leadership roles often forget their “sisters” they left behind and devote their lives to perpetuating capitalist patriarchy. In doing so, such women not only bury their feminine nature, but also stop others from becoming liberated. Liberals reply that to call women essentially “nurturing,” “cooperative,” and so on, is to agree with patriarchy’s concept of the passive, motherly woman. In fact, they point out, many women do not want to nurture or cooperate. Many women want to behave like men, at least insofar as they value the social activities that men participate in. The label “feminine,” they remind their radical counterparts, in fact the very distinction between masculine and feminine, was an invention of patriarchy. Liberal feminist are insulted when radicals require them to abandon any attractive qualities of the status quo. They see the revolutionary attitude as infeasible, irresponsible, and elitist. Most women, they point out, have no such lofty or idealistic aspirations, but rather simply want a chance to succeed in life with their skills and merits. Implications for DebateThe subjects discussed here should make it obvious that debaters can find in Friedan a “sensible’ and noncontroversial alternative to radical feminism. Many opponents will appeal to “patriarchy” as the root cause of all problems and call for the “peaceful” feminist alternative. Friedan’s ideas can help debaters show that, far from being truly liberating, such feminism actually entrenches the very situation responsible for women s oppression. Additionally, Friedan’s reasoning behind the demand for abortion rights hinges on the larger question of social equality for women; since men cannot bear children, they have no such hindrances to their public life. Perhaps, then, abortion ceases to be a “moral” issue and becomes a pragmatic requirement for the larger goal of liberation. Most important for debaters, Friedan links women’s liberation to America’s classical liberal heritage rather than to the often misunderstood politics of radical feminism. This will allow debaters who want to advocate women’s rights to do so without fear of alienating the conservative judge. BIBLIOGRAPHYBrown, L. Susan. THE POLITICS OF INDIVIDUALISM: LIBERALISM, LIBERAL FEMINISM AND ANARCHISM (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1993). Esenstein, Zillah R. THE RADICAL FUTURE OF LIBERAL FEMINISM (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986). Friedan, Betty. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1963). . IT CHANGED MY LIFE: WRITINGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1985). . THE SECOND STAGE (New York: Summit Books, 1986). . THE FOUNTAIN OF AGE (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993). Meltzer, Milton. BE1TY FRIEDAN: A VOICE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS (New York: Viking Kestrel, 1985). Voice of America Interviews With Eight American Women Of Achievement (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Information Agency, 1985). LIBERATION MUST EMPHASIZE POLITICAL ACTION OVER PHILOSOPHY1. CONCRETE ACTION, NOT ABSTRACT THEORY, WILL LIBERATE WOMEN Betty Friedan, Political Activist 11 CHANGED MY LIFE: WRITINGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1985, p. 87 We believe the time has come to move beyond the abstract argument, discussion and symposia over the status and special nature of women which has raged in America in recent years; the time has come to confront, with concrete action, the conditions that now prevent women from enjoying the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right as individual Americans, and as human beings. 2. DIRECT ACTION IS THE BEST WAY TO ADVANCE FEMINIST CAUSES Betty Friedan, Political Activist IT CHANGED MY LIFE: WRITINGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1985, p. 91 We believe that women will do most to create a new image of women by acting now, and by speaking out in behalf of their own equality, freedom, and human dignity--not in pleas for special privilege, nor in enmity toward men, who are also the victims of the current half-equality between the sexes--but in an active, self-respecting partnership with men. By doing so, women will develop confidence in their own ability to determine actively, in partnership with men, the conditions of their life, their choices, their future and their society. 3. WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS MUST JOIN WITH OTHER MOVEMENTS Betty Friedan, Political Activist IT CHANGED MY LIFE: WRITINGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1985, p. 144 Our movement is so radical a force for change that as we make our voices heard, as we find our human strength in our own interests, we will inevitably create a new political force with allies and a common humanistic frontier, with new effectiveness against the enemies of war and repression that affect us all as human beings in America. Either that energy so long buried as impotent rage in women will become a powerful force for keeping our whole society human and free, or it will be manipulated in the interests of fascism and death.
1. EMPHASIZING GENDER DIFFERENCES OPPRESSES WOMEN Betty Friedan, Political Activist. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE, 1963, p. 43 The feminine mystique says that the highest value and the only commitment for women is the fulfillment of their own femininity. It says that the great mistake of Western culture, through most of its history, has been the undervaluation of this femininity. It says this femininity is so mysterious and intuitive and close to the creation and origin of life that man-made science may never be able to understand it. But however special and different, it is in no way inferior to the nature of man; it may even in certain respects be superior. The mistake, says the mystique, the root of women’s troubles in the past is that women envied men, women tried to be like men, instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfillment only in sexual passivity, male domination, and nurturing maternal love. But the new image this mystique gives to American women is the old image: “Occupation: housewife.” 2. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN ARE IRRELEVANT TO LIBERATION Betty Friedan, Political Activist. IT CHANGED MY LIFE: WRITINGS ON THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1985, p. 115 There are differences between men and women--I am not denying that. But we will not know what these differences are until women have begun to spell out there own names and define themselves in the human dimension more than they’ve been able to do in the past One of the reasons that women have not done this is that they have accepted the denigrating image society has of them; they have kept it in the form of self denigration. Above all, they haven’t had the actual active experiences that tell a human being who he or she is. We won’t know for quite a while how much of the difference between men and women is culturally determined and how much of it is real. But let’s at least start with the assumption that men and women are human. Women are female, but they are not cows--they are people. There is only one place you can be people and that is in outer society, in human society. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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