Academic attainment and feminism?

[suwoo]

I have wanted to start this thread all day but have been scared that it is stupid or I will be flamed. I want to ask if people feel there is a correlation between academic attainment and feminist principles. Is that a valid question?
I had no idea that I was a feminist. I knew I had these thoughts and principles but didn't know what they were or the significance of them until we did feminist literary theory this semester- it was like an epiphany and my whole world made sense

Had I not gone to uni at the grand old age of 35, maybe I would never had these revelations.

What do you think? Those of you that identify as a feminist, what level of education do you have?

Yes, thanks, I'm just starting in on the Dworkin you linked me to on the other thread. It's good!

I think maybe the problem here is that you've perhaps come up against postmodernists who said something that was a bit crap, but postmodernism is only a little bit of literary theory, so for most people like me, we wouldn't think of 'narrative' as an offensive term. I certainly didn't intend it like that. I thought Dworkin's relation of the women's experiences and her explanation (see, I'm running into problems with this alternative terminology when I try to avoid 'narrative', because I don't want to say she 'interpreted' them and I'm not really keen to say she 'explained' - she really did just narrate!) was really powerful.

A metaphor is a narrative structure.

Not an essential one, though, mele.

It was meant to be a quip.

sorry.

And yes, I've read the thread.

I didn't say people's lives were constructed as narratives, though.

I know I need to learn from you and others on this board about feminist theory, don't get me wrong. But I was a bit gobsmacked to read 'I think you're probably not aware of the extent that postmodernism has entered literary theory LRD.'

Btw, I didn't reduce radical feminism to 'authors you like', but we've already been over this.

"Some of us see feminism as tool to examine literary texts, and to go no further than that."

"I've never taught, or been taught, feminism in that way so I guess I just didn't understand where you were coming from. In all my experiences these theories have been ways of understanding the world so one might change it."

I am reading the Dworkin you linked me to. I'm very grateful.

But, here is where I struggle.

Dworkin tells narratives.

I think they are important.

You say they are all a load of rubbish, and you tell me they are 'postmodernist'.

This, apart from not being true, would suggest you disagree with Dworkin, but I know you don't.

So, I could go on reading Dworkin, and understanding her as best I can, but I suspect I do need to talk it over with people on here sometimes. That's what I'm doing now.

It just seems that I am making my argument based on Dworkin, and you're still telling me it's wrong ... now I've read some of Dworkin, you're no longer saying I'm wrong because of her, but because I don't understand literary theory's involvement with postmodernism. But, well ... I think I do. I think you probably don't quite as much. It's not making a lot of sense, all in all.

I have already said, when you suggested the term 'stories', that I don't like it, because it implies fictionality. 'She reports the truth of women's lives' is good, I think. But I'm not sure where 'report' and 'narrate' differ.

I've read Terry Eagleton, I do have an undergraduate degree in English. But I also have, er, an undergraduate degree in English, so I did go a little beyond postmodernism as the be-all and end-all, too.

Well thank the Lord we got there in the end.

Yep, I'm happy using another term, but call it 'reporting' or what you like: no getting away from the lit. crit. there!

I know men who like 'our' theorists and I am starting to see why for myself too.

She's a lawyer, isn't she? Good training, I'd think.

FrozenNorth

I'm interested in what it means to 'be a
psychologist but not an evolutionary one'

Does it mean you don't believe in evolution? Or don't believe that it is possible to know (anything?) about how the way that people think and act has been shaped by evolution? Or that you disagree with some/all of the current findings and methodology of research in this area? Or that you've decided it must be wrong because you think it conflicts with your values?

Why are you only asking for information re: why it (evolutionary psychology) is not compatible with feminism?Why not ask for information on whether it is compatible? Otherwise you are just asking for information to shore up an answer you've already defined.

I don't see why they should not be compatible. There is nothing that scientists have or could find out about how human beings evolved (and how that is reflected in modern day human traits) that would convince me that people should not have equal rights (it's an is/ought thing...)

Just to go back to critical lit theory quickly, I would say you absolutely can use post modernism and deconstrution theories in a political and feminist context, and we actually need to produce feminists with these skills, Sure post modernists have a tendency to disappear up their own asses and make your eyes bleed, bnut it is a useful toolset.( I was lucky we had a robust feminist, particularly 2nd wave component when I studied in the early 90s).

Why is this important?

1. Because of the meta narratives of patriarchy excluding feminist thought - as discussed about Dworkin et al
2. Because we live in an increasingly media fixated/dependant world...and it is important to reveal on a structural level how narratives are constructed affects the meaning( think how we typically accept a film to have a Hollywood style beginning, middle or end as being a 'proper' film),.
3. To reveal what has been excluded from literary and media products, and what that means.

Why is this significant, because we live in a codified media dependent world that is systematically and pervasively us how to live work, conduct relationships, mother and duck... it is all about power...and we need the tools to reconstruct alternate social and cultural discourses (for example, how would feminist create a viable, visible alternate female sexuality).