Neo-feminism: Dogmatism of the New Ethics

Abstract

Neo-feminism or second-wave feminism emerged in the USA in the late 1960s in the context of the publications of Betty Friedan, Kate Millett and the rise of various socio-political movements for gender equality. Born as political activism with the main demand of exposing and dismantling the “patriarchal structures”, neo-feminism was gradually instilled into US university campuses where it became the mainstay of “gender studies”. That research was also based on the legacy of French Theory, - a broad set of ideas from French poststructuralist and de-constructivist thinkers (Foucault, Derrida, Lacan), revised by American sociologists, notably Judith Butler. An important element of neo-feminism is its “intersectionality”, a theory of the intersection of different types of oppression in society: patriarchy, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and so on. The study and exposure of patriarchy run parallel to the denunciation of “systemic racism” of Western countries, “colonial consciousness”, “white supremacy” and other systems of oppression theorized by the representatives of postmodern cultural researchers and widely spread in the world. In the US, those theories gave rise to the so-called new social ethics or “Woke” –particular sensitivity to minority issues that became the hallmark of all “progressive” movements. “Woke” ideas, however, increasingly give concern to the majority of the academic community, whose representatives emphasize the anti-scientific and ideological nature of most gender and decolonial studies, as well as the intolerance and strident moralism of the “new ethics”. The article offers criticism of neo-feminism as one of the fundamental elements of the “Woke” culture by Western authors (primarily American and French), who can be defined as representatives of classical liberalism, traditional socialism and paleo-conservatism. They see in the “new ethics” the distortion and degeneration of the ideals of women’s emancipation, freedom of speech, pluralism, anti-racism, democracy and classical freedoms – that is, all the major gains of Western civilization.