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-rejects all purely abstract thinking.
-instead of abstraction, it holds that philosophy should deal with the lives and experiences of individuals and their historical situations
-draws a fundamental distinction between essence and existence.
-existentialism argues that existence precedes essence and starts its philosophical work from individual and particular existence. This doctrine is the source of its name.
-is characterized by its concern with individuality and concreteness.
-Belief in the freedom of human beings is the most fundamental thesis of existentialism, which claims that the possibility of choice is the central fact of human nature.
-Existentialism takes human freedom as the basic subject-matter of its philosophical analysis.
-Freedom is more important than happiness or comfort in existentialist philosophy
Simone De Beauvoir: saw the human condition as defined foremost by the freedom to choose, as humans are born with no fixed essence or nature. Despite this freedom, however, it is external social forces that undeniably shape transcendent possibilities for self-creation. She talks about how the myth of women becomes their nature. Her famous axiom is "one is not born, but becomes a woman."
Frankenburg: Draws attention to the ways our perceptions of whiteness aren ot something that we are born with. Rather, it is based on our material existence. |
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-Frankenburg says that "the concept of social geography came to represent a complex mix of material and conceptual ingredients for as much as white women are located in racially marked physical environments, we also inhabit "conceptual environments" or environments of ideas, which frame and limit what we see, what we remember, and how we interpret the physical world.
-Silvera's article also relates to this because she talks about how her experiences in Africa rendered lesbian women invisible. |
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-Eugenics is the "applied science or the biosocial movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population," usually referring to human population
-Sayce and Perkins article
-Twentieth century Eugenics (from Virginia to Scandinavia) aimed to rid society of the 'burden' of people who were 'inadequate'---by stopping them from breeding.
-The right to Forcible sterilization (United states)
-Underlying the argument of the time was the presumption that it is socially desirable to prevent the creation of new human beings who might be mentally ill or feeble-minded. They might diminish the gene pool, they might contribute to crime and prostitution, and they might be expensive.
-Many European countries developed similar sterilization programs.
-Euthenasia program, where people with disabilities were shot or given lethal injection, became the next step in Germany
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| The "messiness" of feminism |
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| -On page 7 and 8 Heywood and Drake talk about this. Basically they say that third wave feminists understand that there is never going to be only one answer. They understand that what I do might oppress you, and how everything is intertwined. They say we can still have solidarity with each other even though we have different experiences. |
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-Ecofeminism basically looks at how the oppression of women and the environment are interconnected.
-Vandana Shiva says that "to be an ecofeminist is basically to be a feminist and ecological at the same time. Without an ecological perspective for dealing with patriarchal oppression, the easiest way to define women's liberation is to say women must move into men's domain to be fully human [the household not viewed as productive]. But, if you look at the story of that domain from an ecological perspective, it becomes very clear that the model of men acting destructively is not the best model to begin with"
-ecological feminists say for every growth that's visible what is the destruction that is invisible (vandan shiva)
-for every technology you must look at how destructive it is, what are the condition it is produced under, etc. . . (vandan shiva) |
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-According to Eli Clare Ableism is disability oppression; being seen as childlike, put in homes, lack of housing, etc, are all products of ableism.
-Eli Clare talks about different models of disability:
1. The medical model: Disability is biological. It is curable or treatable.
2. The charity model: We should feel sorry for them. Disability is a tragedy that should be hleped through generous giving. It pathologizes disability.
3. Supercrip model: Believe that disability can be overcome. Avatar is a sort of supercrip model. Thinks that some people with disabilities are so inspirational. They are like superheroes.
4. The moral model: Moral weakness. Views them as weak and inferior. If you tried harder, or were a better person, or prayed more you wouldn't be disabled.
-All of these models define disabled bodies as wrong which results in ableism. |
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-Stepan shows the relationship between science and citizenship and reveals how scientific 'facts' are historically contingent (things change throughout history) and generally reflect the interests and values of the dominant group in society.
-Sayce and Perkin also talk about historical contingency when they say, in regards to Eugenics, that "underlying the argument of the time was the presumption that it is socially desirable to prevent the creation of new human beings who might be mentally ill or feeble-minded. They might diminish the gene pool, they might contribute to crime and prostitution, and they might be expensive. |
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-The question is equal to whom (white, middle class, straight men)
-Stepan begins by outlining the central paradox of the feminist movement: “Women continually evoke the irrelevance, and next the relevance, of their sexual difference” (27).
-It is the “equal but different” rhetoric: In the realm of reproductive freedom, feminists have argued that women need to have access to birth control and abortion in order to participate as full citizens in the world – control their fertility and have autonomy of the body.
-Demands for equality – requires that the standard of citizenship is measured by looking at the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities of white heterosexual men experience – and requires that feminists and civil rights advocates have had to enter the rhetoric of citizenship in the language that constructs it; this language, however, and the ideology that it carries is structured with a particular view of the citizen (the universal individual in Stepan's article) |
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-Femininity (also called femaleness or womanliness) is the set of female qualities attributed specifically to women and girls by a particular culture.
-This relates to Wright and Clarke's article. They talk specifically about heterosexual femininity but they also discuss how articles talk about women as stereotypically feminine; wearing make-up, giggling, talk about them being unbruiserlike off the field, having long hair, a lot of discussion on appearance.
-Lebesco also talks about this when she discusses female body ideals-how women are expected to be skinny. |
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