Feminism for the 21st Century

Abstract

The 1990s brought a plethora of books on culture wars, correctness, identity politics, and discord among feminists. The first book in this review, Lillian Robinson's In the Canon's Mouth: Dispatches from the Culture Wars, differs from the others discussed here in it is not an edited volume and does not look at divisions among women. This book presents essays and lectures Robinson has written over the last fifteen years on multiculturalism, correctness, culture wars, curriculum change, and challenges to the established canon. Robinson identifies power struggles as the heart of these conflicts since, as she cogently states, when we are talking culture, we are talking politics (xiii). Robinson asks what culture means, what it should mean, whose culture we are talking about, and who is doing the telling. She points out how unlikely it is the stories of women, people of color, gays and lesbians, and minority/ethnic groups will be candidates for canonization. Why? Because of the assumption they constitute the marked variant, whereas the experience of straight white men is considered a universal. Another area she addresses is the political correctness debates. She suggests we use the words fighting racism or fighting sexism instead of political correctness so opponents' agendas would become apparent. For those who call for a focus on the American experience, Robinson illustrates how multiculturalism operates under another assumption: that we have no single national identity or belief system.... Our cultural diversity is the result of a common history we experienced differ-