Feminism

Chris Barker describes seven angles of feminism in his chapter Sex, Subjectivity, and Representation. In his chapter there are seven categories in which to define feminism. At first this may seem a little extreme to divide the area of feminism into so many sections. However, the term is broad enough that this is an appropriate measure to take. The first subheading in the text combines two of the groupings of feminism. He links liberal and socialist feminism together to say that they can be seen as two similar angles. Liberal feminism examines the cultural and socio-economic aspects of gender instead of the biology of the sexes. Barker adds socialist feminism into the same paragraph as liberal because it contrasts the ideas of gender in a society. He says that a socialist perspective sees women as cheap labor for a culture. The next category of feminism given by Barker is the difference feminism. This type of feminism focuses on the equality of the genders within a culture. However, some have argued that this particular type of feminism does not create equality, but overcompensates for the inequality of the past. The next two forms of feminism are black and postcolonial feminism. These angles look at women from other cultures and how they have been influenced not only by male domination, but white domination. Therefore, postcolonial women are oppressed more than their white sisters. This angle of feminism focuses on the idea that postcolonial women have different desires and goals within the feminist fields than white women. The poststructuralist feminism deals with the issue of sex and gender being a “social and cultural construction.” In other words, the two exist simultaneously and therefore one cannot exist without the other. The last area of feminism to examine is postfeminism. Despite all the progress women have made throughout the years to gain equal rights, there is still much to be done. As long as we live in a society with a history of male domination, gender will live with that stigma for a long time. For now, “postfeminism stresses the ability of women to make personal choices.”