Specifics of Modern Ukrainian Feminism (Sociophilosophical Section of the Problem)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the specifics of modern Ukrainian feminism as a theoretical discourse and practical experience. As a theory, feminism is presented in a wide cross-sectional range of research (in history, philosophy, psychology, literary studies, political science, cultural research, pedagogy, etc.) from gender studies to essays on women's history. Observing the thirty-year progress of feminism in Ukraine and not delving into the discussion of, relatively speaking, "aboriginality" / "foreignness" of feminism for Ukraine, we can draw certain conclusions about the peculiarities of its progress in this area. It seems that this specificity consists in two parallel processes that directly relate to feminism. Namely: the development of the so-called "open" pro-Western type of feminism and a parallel process – the formation of the "disguised" feminism, adapted to the level of mass consciousness of modern Ukrainians. The "open" feminism is actively developing in Ukraine primarily in the academic environment, and in this respect it, as an emancipatory movement, coincides with Ukrainian democratic nationalism as a process of national liberation of Ukrainians. The "disguised" Ukrainian feminism, using traditional vocabulary and mythology, fills them with a fundamentally new meaning. The most striking example of such transformations is the phenomenon of berehynstvo (female guardianship). Based on the analysis, the author concludes that the specificity of modern Ukrainian feminism is its "dual nature": "openness" of the Western type of feminism, most characteristic of academic feminist discourse in Ukraine and "disguise" of feminist practices that "fit" the stereotypes of mass consciousness of modern Ukrainians’ traditional mythological ideas. The originality of these processes, their adequacy to the current state of development of the Ukrainian society, which, in the end, allows us to call it "Ukrainian feminism", is also noted.