Looking back and looking forwards: issues in Western feminist theory and cultural analysis from the 1970s to the present

Chris Weedon

doi:10.18573/ipics.25

Abstract

More that 40 years on since the start of the Second-wave, how can we understand and learn from the history of feminism since 1968? This essay looks at the cultural politics and analysis that emerged in second wave feminism. It outlines the critiques of universalism and ethnocentrism made by Black, 'Third World' and other postcolonial feminist critics. It outlines how, from the mid 1970s onwards, feminist literary and cultural critics began to engage with new theoretical and critical modes with a view to developing different ways of conceptualising, understanding and analysing patriarchy that complexified understandings of female difference and women‘s experience. The essay further considers the emergence of forms of 'third wave' feminism and their relationship to 'postfeminism'. The essay concludes by re-emphasising the importance of understanding the complexity of feminism since the 1960s and argues that ways forward require knowledge of and respect for different positions, combined with supportive on-going debate.

Highlights

Looking Back and Looking Forwards: Issues in Western Feminist Theory and Cultural Analysis from the 1970s to the Present Chris Weedon (Cardiff University, UK)
More that 40 years on since the start of the Second-wave, how can we understand and learn from the history of feminism since 1968? This essay looks at the cultural politics and analysis that emerged in second wave feminism
As Deborah Siegel argued in 1997, postfeminismsuggests that the gains forged by previous generations of women have so completely pervaded all tiers of our social existence that those still ―harping‖ about women‘s victim status are embarrassingly out of touch‘,1 postfeminism is very much a located subject position, a specific way of seeing social relations, that reflects relative class, racial and ethnic privilege rather than established social facts about gender relations in Western societies

Summary

Introduction

Looking Back and Looking Forwards: Issues in Western Feminist Theory and Cultural Analysis from the 1970s to the Present Chris Weedon (Cardiff University, UK). Second wave feminism in its early years and in a range of Western contexts did share a grounding in the politics of the personal, women‘s experience and activism, together with a tendency to attempt to develop general theories of patriarchy, be they radical, Marxist, liberal or psychoanalytic.

Results

Conclusion