Feminist intra/internationalism, dualisms and method: A response to Louise Ryan's “A Question of Loyalty”

Abstract

In a recent article for this journal, Louise Ryan (1997) uses me as her theoretical foil in an argument about Irish feminism and nationalism. She argues there are “implied dichotomies” in my earlier account of feminist nationalism written for this journal (West, 1992). I will first lay out Ryan's criticism as I understand it, show how she attributes cultural arguments solely to me that belong to others, and discuss how Ryan's use of dichotomy exemplifies dualistic thinking and illuminates problematic methodologies for theory construction on gender relations.