“Radical pedagogies: how feminism and queer theory are changing education. Feminism in modern society Feminism: attention to yourself
Topic 11. Feminism
1. Basic concepts of feminism
Feminism(from lat. "femina" "- a woman) in modern socio-political life it is customary to call, Firstly, a system of views (or theory, philosophy, ideology), the central idea of which is the civil equality of women and men; Secondly, this concept is used to refer to the women's movement, which is a "product" of feminism.
Feminism is sometimes understood as philosophical concept of socio-cultural development emphasizing the need to take into account women's social experience in ideas about the world, as well as research methodology focused on the identification and articulation of the female value system.
Under "women's movement" understands the variety of forms of organized activity, aimed at implementing the idea of equal rights for women and men, at protecting the social interests of women . However, as history has shown, this activity may not coincide with feminist ideas in everything and be aimed not at a radical transformation of relations between the sexes, which feminism seeks, but at a partial improvement in the position of women within the traditional system of these relations. And yet, feminism and the women's movement are phenomena so interconnected that it is impossible, and indeed incorrect, to consider them separately. The emergence of feminist ideas is the result of certain social needs and expectations. . Once having arisen, these ideas are realized in the activities of people - in this case, in one or another variety of the women's movement. Which, in turn, gives impetus to the meaningful development of the theory and ideology of feminism.
Modern feminism is distinguished by a variety of forms and traditions. To his the most important areas include: liberal feminism, radical(and within its framework - cultural) feminism, marxist and socialist feminism, " the black» feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, postmodern feminism ( post-feminism). Less well-known versions of it are anarcho-feminism, humanistic feminism, conservative feminism. Among the newest feminist streams are called eco- and cyberfeminisms.
Two key concepts - "gender" And "patriarchy"- bind together all this many approaches to the ideas of equal rights for women and men. Closely related is the concept sexism(eng. sexism, from lat. sexus - sex) - a worldview in which the unequal position and different rights of the sexes are affirmed .
When using the concept gender(from English. gender - gender) and its derivatives (gender relations, gender order, etc.) we are talking about social, cultural, psychological characteristics positions of women and men , while "floor" denotes, first of all, the physical, physiological, biological differences between men and women . English sociologist Anthony Giddens explains, for example, that “gender” is it is "not physical differences between men and women, but socially formed features of masculinity and femininity». Gender, he says, means, first of all, "social expectations regarding behavior that is seen as appropriate for men and women."
Unlike other scientific approaches the concept of "gender" considers a man and a woman not in a “natural”, “natural” quality, not as a biological being whose fate is predetermined by its physiological characteristics, but as a social being, with its own special status, special social interests, requests, needs, strategy of social behavior. E. Giddens rightly notes that “the distinction between sex and gender is fundamental, since many differences between a woman and a man are due to reasons that are not biological in nature ».
This outwardly simple conclusion is difficult to comprehend. After all, it has long been considered that the differences in social positions, in the everyday behavior of women and men are determined by their "genes" and "chromosomes", which, by the way, are really not the same. All the genetic material of any person is contained in a cell . It lives in twenty three pairs of chromosomes , the last one is twenty-third - contains sex chromosomes . In women, both elements of this pair are identical. They are designated asXX chromosomes. In men, this pair is made up of different elements. One of them is defined as X-, other like Y-chromosome. Modern science believes that these differences appear when women and men reach puberty and make themselves felt, first of all, in the reproductive sphere .
but many researchers traditionally dispute this point of view. In their opinion, innate biological differences generally determine all the social behavior of men and women . Men stronger, more energetic, more aggressive than women. Women- passive, patient, meek. Therefore, men wage wars, conquer nature, create history and culture. Women are engaged in routine household work and raising children. The obvious asymmetry of "masculinity" and "femininity", from this point of view, is inevitable, it is predetermined by "nature" , and you can't argue with the latter. So, it is not for nothing that the founder of psychoanalysis Z. Freud at the beginning XX in. came to the sacramental conclusion: Anatomy is destiny».
This biologically determined approach to the proper "male" and proper "female" for many millennia seemed the only possible one. As feminists argue, this approach served as the ideological justification for patriarchy — systems of male domination, or dominance, over women. Not without good reason, they prove that the traditional division of roles into “male” and “female”, which is considered to be “natural”, due to natural inclinations, is the result of a certain type of socialization of upbringing and training. It begins in the earliest childhood, when parents communicate with boys and girls in completely different ways, dress them, offer them certain toys and books. At each stage of education, specific attributes of “masculinity” and “femininity” are worked out, which, as a rule, transmit the idea of male social superiority, i.e., affirm and consolidate patriarchy.
Thus, in the most general form, the concepts of “patriarchy” and “gender” intersect, substantiating the legitimacy of the original feminist idea of equal rights for women and men. One of the most difficult questions that arise in this case is the question of why women found themselves in an unequal, dependent position from men, why was patriarchy established? Have there ever been other times and other forms of interaction between women and men?
2.Historical background of feminism
Experts do not have a single opinion, nor any exact data on the nature of gender relations in the most distant past. Alone of them think that at the dawn of history relationships between men and women were gender neutral . Others say that at that time reigned matriarchy. And someone defines this way as dominance of women. And someone, including the most famous American feminist anthropologist Rhian Eisler, argues that matriarchy actually meant partnerships between men and women. This partnership was allegedly destroyed with the advent and development "technologies of war" having approved the superiority of brute force, and at the same time patriarchy .
Researchers consider the materials obtained by archaeologists in the course of excavations of the earliest human burials to be a landmark confirmation of this point of view. The excavations speak of the equal status of the buried, regardless of their gender. But the most important evidence of a high female role in an archaic society is, in their opinion, widespread at that time in the area of ancient Europe, the cult of the Great Mother Goddess. According to R. Isler, in almost all prehistoric myths and writings "the idea of the Universe lives as a generous Mother, ... from whose womb any life comes and where ... everything returns after death to be born again." Rock carvings in caves and numerous finds of female figurines in ancient sanctuaries point to this cult in their own way. They tend to be roughly stylized, with wide hips and are often faceless. Archaeologists dubbed them the ancient Venuses.
Evidence of the equal status of men and women in prehistoric times can be found in legends. retold by some ancient authors. The "golden age" of gender harmony is described, for example, in the famous Hesiod's tales "Works and Days". The same motive prevails in the retold by the great thinker Plato the legend of the death of Atlantis. But these are prehistoric myths.
Strict researchers, accustomed to relying on concrete facts when constructing theoretical constructions, are not inclined to trust them. Therefore, they prove that in the history of mankind there was neither matriarchy nor archaic gender partnership. Primary division of labor between man and woman which occurred at the earliest stages of social development, determined completely different conditions of existence for men and women . It fixed for men the right to the role of the subject of history. Women same become object of male power.
This point of view is shared, for example, by E. Giddens. At the same time, he claims that the universal prevalence of the patriarchal hut is due not to the dominance of male physical strength, but primarily to the maternal functions of women . In his words, “men dominate women not because of superior physical strength or more powerful intellect, but only because before the spread of reliable means of preventing pregnancy women were entirely at the mercy of the biological characteristics of their sex . Frequent childbirth and almost unceasing chores for caring for children made them dependent on men, including in material terms.
None of the above points of view on the nature of gender relations in the prehistoric era has yet received final recognition. Obviously something else. With the beginning of the so-called historical time, about 7-5 thousand years ago , in the moment, when the type of social organization that sociologists define as a "traditional" society arises », patriarchy is a legalized system of gender relations. The division of labor between the sexes is built in this system according to the principle of complementarity, but complementarity of social roles is not at all equivalent. man at the mercy of the outside world, culture, creativity, claims to dominance . Woman - house, but even in the house she is a subordinate creature . Hierarchy of male and female roles fixed quite clearly: he is the subject of power relations. She is the object of his power. Such relationships are defined by sociologists as subject-object, status unequal .
As rightly pointed out R. Isler, arranged in such a way gender relations are the most fundamental of all human relations , even their matrix. They "profoundly affect all our institutions, ... the direction of cultural evolution." The authority of male power, the right of power, established in gender relations, turns into the basis of all authoritarian regimes known to mankind - the power of the leaders of the clan, the "fathers" of the peoples, monarchs, dictators. And while gender inequality persists, there is also the potential for the existence of an authoritarian type of power. This is one of the main postulates of modern feminist criticism.
Within the framework of this criticism, it is argued that the power of an authoritarian type is based not only on the apparatus of physical coercion and brutal violence. Authoritarian power also uses more subtle methods of influencing the consciousness of individuals , deliberately preventing their discontent and forcing them unconsciously to follow certain prescriptions, to take certain roles in the existing order of things. This -
Ø methods of cultural influence, the formation of stereotypes of proper social behavior;
Ø methods of socialization, education;
Ø ideological processing of consciousness with the help of language, cultural patterns.
The most common example lying on the surface, language norms. Let's say practically in all European languages, the concept of “man” is equivalent to the concepts of “husband” and “person”. The concept of "woman" draws only on the value"wife" and is not synonymous with the concept of "man". It means that he is a husband, a full-fledged representative of the human race. She is his wife, and nothing else, no additional features. That is, a woman - socially insignificant person, not included in human society . She is a simple addition, an attachment to a husband, a man. In this way, the norms of the language fix the patriarchal attitude towards male power- up to physical possession, possession of a woman.
Feminist historians rightly point out that on the early stages traditional society, especially in the conditions of slavery, the wife was "the slave of the man - the head of the family, who owned the woman on the rights of private property and could do with her just as he did with any thing belonging to him. In some periods of the history of ancient Rome, the husband had the right to life and death of his wife. A wife who despised marital fidelity could be beaten to death with sticks and stones, thrown in a circus to be torn to pieces by animals.
Eminent philosophers of that time made a significant contribution to the consolidation of this order of things. Pythagoras, for example, confidently declared : "There is a positive principle that created order, light, man, and a negative principle that created chaos, twilight and woman." Aristotle, in its turn, explained : "A woman is a female due to a certain lack of qualities ... the female character suffers from natural inferiority ... a woman is only material, the principle of movement is provided by another, masculine, better, divine."
3. The rise of feminism
The first doubts about the justice of the patriarchal order can already be found in the New Testament, who announced that life and death of a person do not depend on the whim of nature, but only on the will of God . The teaching of Christ, in principle, complicated the view of man, highlighting in him spiritual and physical substances, soul and body. This The doctrine proclaimed what's there in the heights of the mountains, all souls will be equalized, "both Greeks and Jews", both men and women .
But the path to this promised personal equality in Christ is long and steep. In the meantime, an earthly woman is not at all equal to a man. First of all, she is sinful, how sinful is her foremother Eve, the accomplice of the devil, an instrument of dark forces that doomed a person to exile from paradise. but Christianity develops another approach to women - develops extolling the image of the Mother of God, opposing the image of Eve — natural generic femininity , image of the Virgin Mary — femininity spiritual, enlightened, personal and eternal .
Cult of the Virgin Mary with time developed in the Romanesque countries of Europe in the cult of the beautiful lady . This cult predicted the possibility of transforming the relationship between a man and a woman; is he removed from their love the curse of sin , op-rolled the hierarchy in the relations of domination-submission : the knight worshiped and obeyed the lady, she was his mistress. Thanks to this cult love is individualized- the other person and the feeling associated with him are recognized as no less significant basis for individual existence than the existence of a genus or the Divine principle. According to the French social psychologist J. Mendel, this is a sure sign that to XVI in. in Western Europe a completely new type of person is emerging - a person separated from the clan, from his community, an individual arises, with his own self-consciousness , with longing, love and loneliness.
Individualization, autonomy - manifestations of the onset emancipation of the individual(women and men) from the burden of patriarchal customs and traditions, and therefore a sign of the crisis of the traditional structure of gender relations. After all, what is emancipation? This autonomous action of the subject, aimed at his own liberation from the pressure of natural and generic forces.
Emancipation is accompanied , according to the definition of an eminent sociologist Max Weber, "disenchantment", rationalization of the picture of the world . An obligatory part of such rationalization is "humanization" - a meaningful rethinking and a change in the relationship between a man and a woman, which is gradually turning from a relationship of domination / subordination into a relationship of mutual responsibility or " responsible love».
The process of emancipation is accompanied by the emergence two fundamentally important ideas for the modern history of mankind - ideas of human rights and ideas of social contract, which were formulated in the Enlightenment and opposed to traditionalist attitudes to the authority of force, to the right of force. The spread of these ideas provoked the question about the rights of women, about their liberation from male domination.
In Western countries recognition of the issue of women's rights as an integral part of human rights takes place in several stages.
1. For the first time, women declare their claims to the role of full-fledged citizens during the bourgeois revolutions, which can also be called revolutions of "law", "legal consciousness". This - era of the birth of feminism.
2. Then, during industrial revolutions women in droves are drawn into social production which forces them to seek equality already in the sphere of socio-economic relations. This time "first wave" feminist movements that developed under the influence of liberalism and Marxism .
3. In the second half XX c., coming time of cultural revolutions that change the approach to the reproductive functions of women, views on love, the birth of children, family life. This stage is called "second wave" feminism, or neo-feminism, approved influenced by existentialism, psychoanalysis, structuralism and post-structuralism.
At all these stages, spanning more than three centuries, women won back for themselves , conditionally speaking, three groups of rights which could allow them to count on a social status comparable in basic parameters to that of men :
Ø political (civil);
Ø socio-economic;
Ø reproductive rights.
The great bourgeois revolutions were of decisive importance in this process . They proclaimed the advent of the era of human rights, thereby denying the inviolability of the complete and allegedly sanctified by heaven omnipotence of the monarch - over his subjects, men - over women. And in contrast, they declared the freedom and equality of all people before the law. Among the first rebels who challenged patriarchal customs and demanded the same civil rights and freedoms that were granted to men during these revolutions, names are French women Olympia de Gouges, English women Mary Wollstonecraft, americans Abigail Adams. These champions of women's equality were later dubbed " feminists» . Their worldview was formed largely under the influence of the liberal ideology of the enlighteners (Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, Rousseau, T. von Hippel, etc.).
4.Theoretical foundations of feminism
First public manifesto of feminism is an " Declaration of the rights of women and citizens", written in 1791 little known writer Olympia de Gouges. This document for the first time in history, the demand for civil equality of women and men was formulated.
Article one of the Declaration read : "A woman is born and remains free and equal with a man in the face of the law." Article six developed this idea further. It declared: "All citizens and citizens should have equal access to all public honors and positions, to all services, for which there should be no other barriers than personal abilities and talents." Finally Olympia de Gouges prophetically said: "If a woman has the right to climb the scaffold, then she should have the right to climb the podium."
Such a careless statement cost the writer her life. She was sent to the guillotine as a person who despised public order. But the same statement brought her immortality. Olympia de Gouges went down in history as the author of the "Declaration of the Rights of a Woman and a Citizen", written in opposition to the most famous document in modern history, the "Declaration of the Rights of a Man and a Citizen".
What didn’t suit Olympia de Gouges in a document that, seemingly rejecting all the prejudices of its time, unconditionally stated: “All people are born and remain free and equal in rights”? It seemed to her suspicious les homines ”(men, people), addressed to only one half of society. Many French women hoped at that moment that legislators would also recognize women as citizens with legal capacity. The most determined of them even created special women's organization "Society of Revolutionary Republican Women" , which demanded that women the right to vote in elections. This organization can be considered the prototype of the future movement suffragists(from English. suffrage - voting).
But neither the writer's gift of Olympia de Gouges, nor the pressure of the revolutionary republican women did not bring civil rights to French women at that time. Legislators refused to see them as full-fledged citizens. Women - along with children, insane, property insolvent persons - fell into the category of incapable of answering for themselves in the face of the law . Women's organizations were dissolved, Furthermore, women were forbidden to gather in groups in public places. So the French Revolution cooled the ardor of its citizens and crushed in the bud the first shoots of women's social activity, including the desire for collective action through women's associations.
Released in 1804 Napoleonic Civil Code, which began to be considered the standard of bourgeois jurisdiction, confirmed that women do not have civil rights and are either under the guardianship of their father or under the guardianship of their husband . Following the Napoleonic Code, all new bourgeois legislation rigidly fixes the traditional division of male and female roles. men still owns the whole outer world and headship in the house. Women - the world of the home, the upbringing of children and the obligation to obey her husband. This order is the pinnacle of patriarchy . He is recognized not only custom, but also formal law.
The triumph of male power is strengthened by the fact that at this moment there is a separation of the sphere of private life from public life - the public sphere. The law begins to protect privacy from outside interference, which the past centuries did not know, when the leader or the monarch had the right to encroach on everything that was in the territory subject to them. A man, the owner of the house, becomes the sovereign master in his territory . Here he gets the opportunity to straighten up to his full height and turn from a subject into a ruler - an independent citizen. He acquires the skills of citizenship through the suppression of the "other" . This “other” was his wife, who was obliged by law to cultivate his authority in the family, to bow before him, to humbly endure his despotism.
English social philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) being under the strongest influence of the radical democratic ideas of Rousseau, the first made a systematic critique of social orders from the standpoint of feminism - 50 years before the emergence of the suffra jistok movement. Her most significant work Defense of the rights of women "(1792) bears the imprint of Locke's liberal philosophy; in it on the basis of the idea of "uniqueness and uniqueness of the individual", the need to provide women with equal rights with men, especially the right to education, was proved . In addition, the work carried a much more complex analysis of women's issues proper - an analysis that in many ways anticipated modern feminism.
Beginning from the 30s 19th centurythe women's movement is reasserting itself. This time, the impetus for its development comes from industrial Revolution, which literally blows up the traditional way of life in Western Europe. The modernization of this way of life is accompanied by the development of large-scale industry, the growth of cities, and the ruin of small farms. And along with this - the destruction of the former type of family life, the crisis in the relationship between a man and a woman . Two circumstances rendered crushing impact on traditional family relationships:
Ø mass involvement of women in social production;
Ø gradual establishment of birth control.
New large-scale industrial production is increasingly using cheap female labor. Under the influence of the industrial revolution mass female labor in social production turns into a fact of social life . And the fact is far from unambiguous. On the one side, he created an economic opportunity to challenge the traditional hierarchy of male and female roles. BUT with another- turned into super-overloads, super-exploitation of women. After all, no one removed the usual household duties, maternal worries and troubles from them. At the same time, according to the laws then in force the woman could not even manage her earnings - it belonged to her husband . Women were not accepted into trade unions and other public organizations that defended the rights of employees, etc. So whether new grounds have arisen for joint collective performances of women, for creation of women's organizations designed to defend the interests and rights of women.
With their help, women could present their account to society, which forced them to leave the family hearth and start working. With time within the framework of the women's movement, the first demands were made on the state — remove some of their traditional duties from women and take care of children, the sick and the elderly . From this, an idea was formed about the need to expand the functions of the state, about its transformation into welfare State, designed to take care of the common good, the weak and the poor, the disabled and pensioners.
The tasks of the women's movement of the first wave of feminism were:
Ø requirements equal pay for equal work with men;
Ø access to those professions to which they sought to keep them out, etc.;
Ø upholding by working women of their special social, civil, political interests;
Ø mastering the spheres of civil and party-political life;
Ø protection of women's rights to work, its decent pay, to education, to social guarantees for the protection of motherhood and childhood, the sick, the disabled, the elderly .
By the beginning of XX in. women's movement turns into a massive, multicomponent. Actively active in its vein are:
Ø suffixes those seeking to extend the norms of universal suffrage to women;
Ø socialists concerned about the recognition of the right of women to work, to its fair pay, to participate on an equal basis with men in trade union organizations;
Ø radical feminists , promoting the ideas of conscious motherhood and birth control;
Ø women's charitable societies of all kinds and types, including Christian women's organizations.
In order to get on its feet and get stronger, the women's movement was in dire need of ideological support, some theoretical justification that would help it resist the oppression of traditional morality and achieve changes in bourgeois legislation. The task was difficult, since the bulk of ideologists - philosophers, historians, sociologists - were completely convinced of the civic inferiority and failure of women. Both conservatives and liberals alike harped on the natural or "natural" purpose of each of the sexes.
Only a few dared to challenge these dogmas. One of them, social philosopher C. Fourier in his work " Theory of four movements”, which appeared as a result of the author’s reflection on the events of the Great French Revolution, wrote:“ The empowerment of women is the main principle of social progress ».
Another the great uto-piste A. de Saint-Simon, dying, left a mysterious thought as a legacy to his students: “ A man and a woman are a complete social individual ". Both of them developed ideal projects for a harmonious, justly arranged social life, the basis of which, according to their plan, was to be equality of women and men.
Later, the authoritative English thinker John Stuart Mill. His book " Subordination of a woman”was widely known, it was translated into many languages, including Russian. And the feminists themselves were looking for justifications for their activities. Representatives of suffragism were distinguished by the greatest theoretical activity. : EnglishX . Taylor, M. Fuller , american women L. Mott, E. S. Santon and etc.
But a special role in the conceptual understanding of the social significance of the movement for women's equality played at that time Marxists. They are defined the entire complex of demands formulated by this movement as a “women's question” and offered their own answer to it . The main approaches to the women's issue are set out in the famous work F. Engels « The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State". K. Marx shared the concept of the book, it was jointly thought out and, as it were, continued the tradition of C. Fourier and A. de Saint-Simon . However, unlike their predecessors, Marx and Engels wrote not so much about the individual, be it a woman or a man, who should be endowed with all civil rights and freedoms, how much about the masses - the masses of workers . They approached them, explaining that the idea of the "natural purpose" of sex essentially masks a special kind of "relations of production" - the relations of reproduction of the human race . The whole mystery of these relationships is connected not with the "mystery" of sex, but with the fact that they are both natural, biological, and social. And also - these are relations of social inequality arising from an unequal and unfair division of labor, in which the wife and children are in fact slaves of the husband and father . Therefore, any the form of the traditional family automatically reproduces the relationship of domination / submission.
The founders of Marxism argued that industrial Revolution dealt an irreparable blow to such a family. Hired women's work, no matter how hard it was, created the economic preconditions for the independence and self-sufficiency of working women. He started destroy the foundations of the old family and traditional family relationships , dooming women to a bonded existence. This is the positive meaning of hired female labor.
In addition, emphasized the classics of Marxism, the position of women hired workers is a class position. They are belong to the proletarian class . That's why the task of their liberation from social inequality coincides with the task of liberating the proletariat. The destruction of all forms of exploitation and oppression is the common goal of proletarians and women. Only in a society free from exploitation and oppression, equal relations between men and women are possible .
Such, in the most general terms, is the Marxist approach to the problems of women's equality. He corresponded to his time and its evidence. The problem was one. Marxists considered this approach to be the only true one, and therefore resolutely dissociated themselves from all other champions of women's equality. The suffragettes, who sought recognition of the political rights of women, especially got from them. Marxists believed that the demands of the suffragettes in their own way legitimize the bourgeois political system . That is why they attached the label “bourgeois” to these demands, and to “classical” liberal feminism itself. And they waged a fierce struggle with the suffragettes, as with representatives of the bourgeois system, . Up until the 60s. XX in. this struggle split the women's movement, weakening it and causing it irreparable damage.
Nevertheless, the women's movement succeeded, step by step, in winning back the space of freedom for women, changing mores, laws, and traditions. As a result of the slow, "creeping" gains of feminism in the end XIX - first half XX in. women managed to achieve :
Ø the right to education;
Ø for equal work and wages with men;
Ø later - to get the right to vote and the right to be elected, first to local, then to the highest echelons of power;
Ø the right to join trade union organizations and political parties;
Ø the right to divorce;
Ø in some places - for the use of contraceptives and for abortion;
Ø the right to state assistance for pregnancy and childbirth, to parental leave, etc.
All directions of the women's movement, each in its own way, helped women in one way or another to get used to the new role of the subject of history for them. Both the activities of supporters of Marxism and the activities of suffragettes brought tangible results. Under the pressure of the latter, in particular, women were finally given voting right. The first time it happened in New Zealand in 1893, then - in Australia in 1896, in Finland in 1906.
5. The second wave of the women's movement - neo-feminism
But it turned out that obtaining civil rights was only part of the task. Other no less difficult part of it - learn to use these rights. This, too, took time and special efforts on the part of women's organizations. For a while, the painstaking, grassroots activities of these organizations remained virtually invisible. but at the turn of the 60-70s. 20th century the rapid rise of the women's movement began , which was named second wave. The women's movement gained momentum in the course of violent student protests and led to such dramatic changes in the behavior of women that sociologists were forced to talk about the "peaceful women's revolution" as the only revolution that took place. 20th century
The ideological justification for this movement was engaged neo-feminism, whose slogans were aimed not only at protecting the socio-economic and political rights of women, but also at overcoming traditional ideas that the main purpose of women is procreation, that the main meaning of their life is to perform reproductive functions, and therefore the birth of children is their main duty .
Followed by radical feminists XIX in. neo-feminists insisted that motherhood from the category "duties» should be categorized "women's rights. In this context they sought recognition of the right to prevent pregnancy, the possibility of its termination, raised the issue of "conscious motherhood", "family planning". And they spoke about it at the top of their voices, putting forward the slogan: Our womb belongs to us!” The appropriation by a woman of her “womb”, her body, in this approach, was conceived as equivalent to the appropriation of her own destiny.
neofeminism formed under the influence of ideas formulated Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) - French writer and philosopher-existentialist. She was one of those Western feminists who for quite a long time were convinced of the fruitfulness of the Marxist model of women's liberation - liberation through labor and the proletarian revolution. However, despite her initially holy faith in the cause of socialism, she still had certain doubts about the self-sufficiency of the Marxist approach to the transformation of relations between the sexes. It was these doubts that prompted her to write a special work on the status of women - two-volume work "The Second Sex". The book was published in 1949 first in France, and a little later in almost all Western countries. IN 1997 The book was also published in Russia. Three generations of Western women grew up on this book, revering it as a new Bible. IN USA had a comparable influence to it in the 60s. last century book Betty Fridan (1921-2006) "Mysticism of femininity", published in 1963 g. In Russia, it was released in 1994 under the name " The riddle of femininity» .
Without entering into direct polemics with Marxists, S. de Beauvoir shifted the focus from the problem of the collective struggle of the proletariat, as a guarantee of such liberation, to the problem of the personal formation of a woman as a subject. That is, it restored the theme of emancipation in its true meaning. Such an approach was natural for an existentialist philosopher of the atheistic trend, to which S. de Beauvoir belonged. In the system of her views, the concepts of free will, freedom of choice, self-realization of the individual and its true existence occupy the main place. For S. de Beauvoir, the only obvious reality of being is man himself, in whose nature there is nothing predetermined, predetermined, there is no “essence”. This essence is made up of his actions, it is the result of all the choices he has made in his life. A person is free to develop the abilities inherent in him or to sacrifice himself to circumstances conventions, prejudices. Only the person himself is able to fill his life with meaning. .
That's why in the center of her attention — not the "women's masses" and their "collective struggle », a female personality and its "situation" in history, given by physiology and anatomy, psychology and social norms and rules. S. de Beauvoir concentrates his analysis mainly on the topic of interpersonal relations between men and women - relations "One" And "Another" seen through the prism of "true being" - the existence of a person who is able to consciously build his life, fill it with meaning and purpose .
From these positions, S. de Beauvoir re-reads the myths and legends about the "mystery of sex", "the purpose of a woman", "the mystery of the female soul." It is obvious to her that such a riddle does not exist in principle. In the heat of controversy, she formulates his famous thesis: « You are not born a woman, you become a woman". The thesis is extremely controversial, provocative, which will cause a flurry of criticism from both convinced anti-feminists and feminists.
Of course she does not deny the biological difference between a man and a woman in general - "male" and "female" as natural principles . She denies a direct relationship between different levels human life , denies Sigmund Freud with his thesis "anatomy is destiny". And he proves that the biological difference between a man and a woman does not at all imply their social difference, when one is the master, and the other is his slave. This distribution of roles not predetermined, not predetermined once and for all, but imposed by well-defined socio-historical circumstances . It happened at the dawn of history when the sphere of “designing the meaning of life” - the sphere of culture - was assigned to a man, and the sphere of reproduction of life itself - the sphere of “nature” was assigned to a woman. On this basis, over time, stereotypes of public consciousness, identifying culture with a man, and nature with a woman.
S. de Beauvoir emphasizes that since it was male activity that formed the concept of human existence as a value that raises this activity above the dark forces of nature, conquers nature itself, and at the same time a woman, then a man in everyday life consciousness has always appeared and appears as a creator, creator, subject, owner. The woman is only as a part of natural forces and as an object of his power. Against this prejudice, the thesis “you are not born a woman, you become a woman” is directed. S. de Beauvoir seeks in this way to dispel any doubt that Initially, a woman has the same potentialities, the same abilities for the manifestation of free will, for transcendence, for self-development, as in a man. Their suppression breaks the female personality, does not allow a woman to take place as a person.. The conflict between the original ability to be a subject and the imposed role of the object of someone else's power determines the peculiarity of "women's lot". But S. de Beauvoir is convinced that this conflict is being resolved little by little. The desire for freedom prevails over the stereotypes of the traditional behavior of women and men. Confirmation of this is the emergence of major female personalities in history, the development of the ideas of women's equality, the women's movement itself.
Still "The Second Sex" remains the most complete historical and philosophical study of the status of women practically from the creation of the world to the present day. Here, the miscalculations and achievements of the women's movement of the past years are summed up and the basis is prepared for its further development as a collective action that helps the formation of a free, “autonomous” female personality, able to “appropriate” her own life, starting with the appropriation of her “body” .
S. de Beauvoir's contemporaries did not dare to turn this idea into a guide to action. Their daughters dared non-feminists. They are, the spiritual heirs of S. de Beauvoir owe her, first of all, to the fact that they began to evaluate themselves and their lives by new standards - the standards of a free person . The awakening of social female consciousness or, in other words, the awakening in women of the desire to live the life of a full-fledged person is the main achievement of neo-feminism.
Not all neo-feminists turned out to be ready to follow S. de Beauvoir to the end and see in a woman a creature that differs from a man only in her ability to give birth to children. Some of them, for example, French women L. Iri-garei, E. Cixous etc., based on the theory of essentialism (from Lat. essence - essence), defend the idea about special female subjectivity, the specifics of the feminine. On this basis they they talk about the right of a woman not to copy the male standard of social behavior, but to live in history in her own way, in accordance with female nature , in other words, uphold the right to be different from men.
For supporters of S. de Beauvoir , convinced of fundamental similarity, even equality of the personal principle in a person , be it a man or a woman, in principle there is no such female “essence” and cannot be. In their opinion, being a woman is not a calling, not an appointment. A woman should be able to realize herself as a person - in work, in creativity, in self-development..
Supporters "right to distinguish" argued that all previous history and culture was built in accordance with the male vision of the world, with male tastes, preferences - the world is "masculinized» . Therefore, entering history as its subject, a woman must oppose the standards and stereotypes of her men, women's . Without asserting their special view of the world, history and culture, women risk losing their identity and simply disappearing into a “male” society. Supporters of Simone de Beauvouard, "egalitarian"(from French egalite - equality) feminists reproached their opponents for the fact that they bring all their conclusions to the level of sexuality and its manifestations, that for them "the sign of sex is the main and ubiquitous one."
The dispute between these versions of feminism quickly went beyond their "family" Representatives of all human sciences - biologists, physiologists, psychologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, historians, philologists - were drawn into it. This also happened because since mid 1970s. under the pressure of feminists in Western universities everywhere there were centers for "women's" "feminist" studies with special programs . Main the task of such centers — reveal and identify features - or lack thereof - women's "beginning-la", women's view of the world, women's values.
With the development of these studies, the feminist dispute not only was not resolved, but finally led in different directions the confessors of the "egalitarian" and "differentiated" approach to the definition of female identity . Their a way out of the impasse of this dispute was proposed by researchers who built the analysis based on the comparative characteristics of the “male” and “female” principles . At the center of their analysis stood concept of gender. So gender studies emerged, who very quickly won a place for themselves both in the academic sciences and in educational centers. The concept of "gender" in the 80-90s. of the last century were adopted as a research tool by sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, psychologists, economists, etc.
In recent decades 20th centurydespite internal disputes, feminist theory is also experiencing a period of rapid development. As part of radical feminism seriously the concept of patriarchy is being clarified and supplemented . This is what Americans do S. Firestone, K. Millet, French C. Delphi and others. Radical feminism is convinced that gender differences are the deepest and most politically significant divide in society. All societies, past and present, according to this view, are characterized patriarchy - a system that allows , according to the expression Kate Millet, « one half of humanity - men - to keep in check the other half - women ". Radical feminism proclaims the need for a kind of sexual revolution - a revolution that, among other things, will restructure not only political, but also personal, home and family life . Characteristic slogan of radical feminism - "the personal is the political". The point, however, does not go so far as to see a man as an "enemy" - only in its most extreme forms, radical feminism calls on women to completely "remove from male society."
In works D. Mitchell, N. Hodorow, K. Killigan, G. Rabin etc. receives further development psychoanalytic feminism, which focuses not on the special role of the father and the Oedipal complex (which is typical for the founder of psychoanalysis Z. Freud), but on the pre-oedipal period, when the child is in a special way connected with the mother. From the point of view of feminist psychoanalysts, first of all imaginary fear of the mother, laid down in childhood, determines the motivation for the behavior of adult individuals . Psychoanalytic feminism played a certain role in drawing attention to the social nature of not only fatherhood, but also motherhood, and in posing the problems of upbringing (especially by women).
Under the influence of the largest French philosopher Michel-la Foucault, who developed a new "capillary" theory of power, as well as such prominent theorists of post-structuralism as J. Lacan, J. Derrida, R. Barthes, J. Deleuze, F. Guattari, a postmodern feminism or postfeminism. Among its largest representatives include such different researchers as D. Butler, R. Bridotti, M. Wittig, J. Kristeva and etc.
6. Feminism in the beginning 21st century
Today, post-feminism is considered perhaps the most authoritative branch of feminist criticism, although opponents rightly reproach its representatives for incompleteness, internal inconsistency of mental developments, and blurring of the concepts used. However, exactly within the framework of post-feminism, there was a semantic increment to feminist knowledge . Postfeminist managed to offer a new interpretation of "differences" in subjectivity- not as marginality, exclusion from culture, not as deviations from the norm, but as a value. In such a paradigm, any “other” (another subjectivity) receives its full-fledged status in history, and any “other” is recognized as having the right to a full-fledged existence. This approach affirms the versatility, diversity, diversity of social space, which is held in tension not by one central conflict, not by one contradiction - class, racial or national, but by many different conflicts, different contradictions, in different ways. and allowed.
For today's feminism, the concept of "diversity" is basic. One of its largest representatives, an American historian J. Scott emphasizes : “Modern feminist theories do not assume fixed relationships between entities, but interpret them as changing effects of temporal, cultural or historical specifics, power dynamics ... Neither individual nor collective identity exists without the Other; inclusion does not exist without exclusion, the universal does not exist without the rejected particular, there is no neutrality that would not give preference to any of the points of view behind which someone's interests stand, power plays an essential role in any human relationships. wearing ... For us, differences are a fact of human existence, an instrument of power, an analytical tool and a feature of feminism as such.
Operating during this period women's organizations sociologists classify differently: based on their goals and objectives, methods of action, ideological postulates. The most recognized is their basic division into two streams: liberal and radical.
Liberal women's organizations - this reformist, moderate, mass associations seeking equalization of women in rights with men by political methods legally recognized by society. The main activities of liberal organizations are lobbying, petitioning to the judiciary and legislature in order to change laws and institutions in the interests of women.
Radical women's organizations tend to be left-leaning from Marxist and neo-Marxist to extreme left and focus on the activity "at the roots of the grass", achieving the "growth of consciousness" of women on a personal level .
The political context of a given country significantly affects the strategy of women's organizations. US women's organizations operate within an “open” political system with ingrained lobbying rules . Hence their scope and orientation towards the use of their own congressional women's lobby(The Women's Lobby was founded in 1972 at the time of the Equal Rights Amendment).
In Francewith its powerful party system in the same years women's organizations use "party-oriented" forms of activity : they seek the adoption by the parties of special quotas that guarantee the integration of women not only in the electoral process, but in general in the political process; changes in party programmatics, which include demands for gender equality.
In Germanycoexist and strong independent women's organizations , And powerful women's factions in political parties, trade unions . There are also women's interest groups engaged in lobbying. In some countries, for example, in Iceland, Sweden for the protection of women's rights arise and successfully active Women's and Feminist parties .
The women's movement in all its forms has managed to have a significant impact on changing social norms and rules. Under his influence has begun , for example, a real breakthrough for women in politics . Women take over the work of local authorities, become mayors of cities, municipal councilors, deputies of regional councils, deputies of parliaments, heads of government and even presidents. According to the UN at the beginning 21st century. women have led and are leading - as presidents or prime ministers - following countries : Bangladesh, Ireland, Latvia, New Zealand, Australia, Panama, San Marino, Switzerland, Finland, Sri Lanka, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Brazil. Under their leadership was about 10% of the world's parliaments. Women are trying not only to master the entire space in politics, but declare their intention to fundamentally change its rules and content - to make politics more humane, human-oriented .
7. Feminist traditions in Russia
Russia also has its own feminist tradition. The development of the women's movement began in our country about from the middle 19th centuryand was associated with a number of historical features. The point, first of all, is that initially the women's movement was formed here not in the crucible of the bourgeois revolution, but only on the outskirts of it, stretching for a good half century. If the first slogans of Western women's organizations were slogans of civil, political equality for women, then in the demands of Russian women's organizations, the emphasis was on issues of women's labor and women's education. Russian feminists, who at that time call it equality have achieved remarkable results. In particular, exactly with their filing, higher education for women has become a recognized value of our fellow citizens . But the issue of civil, political rights of women was relegated to the background. Perhaps that is why it still remains poorly mastered by the public consciousness.
The first period in the development of the women's movement in Russia — from the reform of 1861 to the revolution of 1905 When summing up its results, then among the undoubted gains of equal rights are called opening of "women's medical courses" at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg in 1871 and Higher Women's Courses at St. Petersburg University 1878 G. Back to top 20th century. in almost all large cities of Russia there were courses for women, both higher and specialized : medical, as well as polytechnic, agricultural, architectural and others. Almost all of these courses owed their origin to private and public initiative and the influence of women. Thanks to them back to top XX in. Russia was in second place in the world (immediately after England) in terms of the number of women who received higher education .
The question of the civil and political rights of women did not arise during this period - no one had these rights under the conditions of an absolute monarchy. Revolution of 1905 changed the situation in the country. Male half Russian society in accordance with the Manifesto of Nicholas II received at that moment certain civil and political rights and freedoms, women did not receive civil recognition. And they began to seek it, including in their demands the slogans of civil, political equality . From now on the second stage in the development of the domestic women's movement is coming, which will last until the revolutions of 1917.
During these years, the women's movement becomes much more diverse, multi-component, and its ideological forms become more complex. but goal all its streams one — equalization of women in civil and political rights with men. On the eve of the 1917 revolution, the women's movement was a significant social and political force in Russia. His achievements provided such a margin of safety for the ideas of gender equality that they forced the new government that arose during the revolution to reckon with these ideas and even include them in the program for building a new society.
By decrees adopted in December 1917, the Bolsheviks granted women full civil rights and freedoms, making them equal to men in the face of the law. . True, simultaneously with the publication of these decrees all independent women's associations were banned . The Soviet government took upon itself the task of upholding women's interests. Thus, a completely new phenomenon arose - "state feminism" or special state policy on women , within the framework of which the “emancipation” of Soviet women was carried out from now on.
The state and the ruling party tutelage-whether formed by them at first " wives-departments", then " women's councils». « The driving belt "of the party was considered and Soviet Women's Committee , created in 1946 . He was mainly engaged in contacts with anti-fascist organizations abroad, and later became an association of "women's councils" . Soviet women's organizations did not raise the issue of gender equality. They are promoted party decisions that spoke of the need to “improve the status of women ". This means that they were not the subject of collective action in the truest sense of the term. Using the concept of the famous Russian historian Yu.S. Pivovarov, it can be said that "subjective energy" of women's organizations, like other civil associations, was appropriated by the party-state . Democracy, human rights, women's rights were illusory concepts in these conditions. . AND this is the second feature of the Russian women's movement. The weak civic potential of women, the lack of awareness of human rights issues, emancipation in the conditions of authoritarian modernization, within the boundaries established by the state - this is the historical legacy that modern women's organizations in Russia have received and which cannot but affect their current activities.
"Perestroika" of the era of M.S. Gorbachev and the liberal reforms launched after it potentially opened up new opportunities for the development of civil initiatives, for actualizing the problems of human rights, including women's rights. And that means - to form an independent women's movement. The first women's groups that declared themselves independent organizations began to appear in 1988-1989. Since then, independent women's organizations have tried in one way or another to become a definite factor in public life. In conditions when the main burden of the social consequences of the reforms fell on the shoulders of women, they sought to help their compatriots survive - acquire new professions, maintain health, solve problems with difficult children, children who are drug addicts, find psychological support and shelter in case of experienced violence, etc. Engaged in legal and gender education of fellow citizens , lobbying for the interests of women at the level of legislative and executive power, gender expertise of legislative acts and other decisions of power . They raised the question of the need to promote women in power structures.
It is important to emphasize that as the activities of women's organizations expand, the process of “de-government” of the very task of equalizing the social status of women begins. Dissatisfied with the position of women in society, their activists intend to take responsibility for their and their lives, for its specific problems. In their associations they try to do what the state cannot or does not provide for doing for them.
At the end of the XX century.only the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation registered about 650 women's associations. To them should be added those organizations that were registered at the regional or local levels, as well as those that were not registered at all. Generally in the regions of the country, according to official statistics, at that time there were about 15 thousand women's associations.
Separate women's organizations (for example, movement "Women of Russia") gained experience in these decades of participating in various types of election campaigns and even experience of parliamentary activities ( faction "Women of Russia" in the State Duma in 1993-1995). Other women's organizations were either looking for forms of interaction with the authorities, developing "social partnerships", or grassroots activities "at the roots of the grass."
The further development of the women's movement in Russia will largely depend on the perseverance of its activists, their ability to influence public life - provided that the authorities see them as allies, not opponents, begin to provide them with at least morale. support, not opposition.
In this way, global feminist worldview , represented by many directions , is an independent and original way of perceiving and explaining the world . In the future, its transformation into an ideology is not ruled out.
Literature
Aivazova S.G. Russian women in the labyrinth of equality. M., 1998.
Ayvazova S.G. Gender equality in the context of human rights. M., 2001.
Aivazova S.G. Feminism // Political Science: Lexicon / Ed. A.I.Soloviev. M., 2007. S.708-724.
Anthology of gender theory / Compiled by E. Gapova, A. Usmanova. Minsk, 2000.
Beauvoir de S. Second half. M.; SPb., 1997. T. 1-2.
Introduction to Gender Studies: Tutorial/ Ed. I.A. Zherebkina. SPb.. 2001.
Voronina O.A. Feminism and gender equality. M., 2004.
Malysheva M.M. modern patriarchy. M., 2001.
Fridan B. The mystery of femininity. Per. from English. M., 1994.
Khasbulatova O.A., Gafizova N.B. Women's movement in Russia. Ivanovo, 2003.
The definition of "feminism" arose much later than the phenomenon itself. One by oneone of the versions, it was put into circulation by Alexander Dumas son, author of the famous novel "Lady with camellias. He allegedly invented it at the end XIX century, when feminism got stronger, became a publica significant fact.
Suffragettes (from the English Suffrage - suffrage) - participants in the movement for granting women suffrage in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. in the UK, USA and other countries.
Mary Wollstonecraft was married to the anarchist William Godwin; her daughter Mary Shelley is the author of the famous Frankenstein.
Betty Friedan is one of the leaders of American feminism. She advocated the full rights of women, from equal wages with men to participation in the political life of the country, and the abolition of the ban on abortion. In 1966, Friedan created the National Women's Organization of the United States and became its president.
From B. Fridan's book “The Mystery of Femininity”: “A man is not an enemy to us, but a friend in misfortune. The real enemy is women's self-abasement", "Most women don't have a wife to take care of the 'minor things'", "Women have nothing to lose but their vacuum cleaners".
Masculinity (from lat. masculinus, male) is a complex of bodily, mental and behavioral characteristics (secondary sexual characteristics) considered as male.
His recognized theorist was thethe changeable Alexandra Kollontai, whom still worshiped by many Western feminists.
Feminism often improves and simplifies the lives of women, but, as in other situations, you need to know when to take a break. But it's not easy for feminists! Striving for victory, they completely forget about any common sense. In recent years, the achievements of feminism seem rather absurd and stupid, causing a violent reaction from everyone who is still friends with the head.
One of the main victories of feminism, which really changed the lives of women, is the right to vote, the right to education and abortion, and the recognition of the illegality of polygamy in some countries.
But modern feminists are protesting for far less worthy reasons, so what they have achieved may seem absurd. For example, defending the right not to shave your legs. The initiative and idea of this action belongs to the blogger Morgan Micken.
She says that she stopped shaving because it takes a very long time. After all, first you need to shave everything in the shower, then rinse your hair and rinse again. In the end, she began to wonder why all this is necessary. When she grew her hair, it became softer, no longer prickly and uncomfortable. And in general, everything seemed very nice. But the girl does not make it her mission to convince everyone not to shave their legs. She just wants to inspire people to follow their choice and feel comfortable.
She succeeded. No one is surprised by unshavenness!
The baton was intercepted!
Girls of different ages appreciated the naturalness. But they not only stopped shaving, but also decided to arrange a whole flash mob to show the whole world how proud they are of their unshaven armpits and legs.
But not all feminist actions are so harmless, sometimes ladies are much more cruel in their desire to reshape society in their own way.
Feminists want the world to cave in to them. Not without the help of well-known companies. For example, Sony sponsored a boot camp for girls who dream of working in the gaming industry. And boys are not allowed. The program is hosted by the Liverpool Girl Geeks. More than 400 girls from Liverpool and the surrounding area will be trained in the basics of development computer games. According to the company representatives, the gender balance has been violated in the field of technology, and efforts should be made to ensure a harmonious and successful future for the industry. The game industry is ideal for girls, it remains only to make them want to become a part of it by giving them
But that is not all.
in short, I understood - REAL feminism is when women and everyone else work at all jobs on an equal basis with men (or even better) and do not ask for any recognition and representation for this, but what the hell, were they given the opportunity to work? - gave them what else they need.
— Daria Sova (@etosova)
Text: Elena Nizeenko
In 2016, there is still no unambiguous attitude to feminism and a clear understanding of its goals and methods. Even people who generally support women's rights often believe that feminism is no longer needed, and we all live in a world of victorious equality. But in fact, a whole bunch of still relevant global problems are related to gender inequality. In many countries, the quality of life still depends on gender: both how much you can choose your own life path, and what further opportunities society and the state provide. We understand what the main problems exist for women in Russia and other countries.
Violent customs
Women from different parts of the world are still subjected to humiliating and deadly procedures. Female genital mutilation seems to be a distant semi-mythical tradition, but they are carried out right on the territory of Russia today. Women are often maimed in childhood: without medical indications, the outer part of the genitals is partially or completely removed. Including in unsanitary conditions, with severe consequences for health and in order to limit sexuality. They are trying to fight these practices: for example, in Russia this year they began, in other countries, like in the Gambia, the procedure is legal.
Girls are given in marriage without asking for consent, including in adolescence; from family; use them for the so-called temporary marriage. Women are killed by their relatives, calling it "honor killings". Sometimes the orders of a certain area are contrary to the law - alas, this is the very case when the position "it's the way it is with us" becomes as if legal. These practices are usually considered religious, although they are not always embedded in a religion.
Modern feminism is fighting, among other things, for women to be able to independently manage their lives and their bodies, and the fight against violent customs is one of its important tasks.
Gender gap at work
In many countries, the ideas of career equality are formally widespread: each person is free to decide for himself how he wants to work and whether he needs it at all. But in practice, gender still has a significant impact on career opportunities. Whales on which gender inequality stands: the wage gap between men and women (its index today is still non-zero in all countries); glass ceiling, and the fact that women and men need to make unequal efforts for the same position.
Russian law prohibits specifying the desired gender of a candidate in vacancies, but some employers still consider men first for the position. And the texts of vacancies for girls can be details that are not related to professional qualities. In some countries, there are still lists of professions prohibited for women; At the same time, according to the World Bank, women in Russia face the largest number of career restrictions in the world - 456 types of work are prohibited for them. The ban on more of them for Russian women, solely with the alleged harm to reproductive health, is largely the result of a policy that puts a woman's priority on childbearing. During the interview and in the process of work, women often experience other difficulties - they face harassment, prejudice, discrimination. In addition, women often have to work taking care of children. Workspaces are often completely unsuitable for mothers.
The attitude “men are naturally more ambitious, more capable and should earn more than women” prevents us from accepting a sound idea: the division into “male” and “female” in a career is far-fetched and only reinforces the unequal distribution of power in society. Feminism pays attention to what systemic laws this inequality works under, how it interferes with work in certain areas, to the skew of positions, in which men have more points at the start by default.
reproductive violence
The decision to give birth or not should belong to the woman herself, but supporters refuse to give them such an opportunity. Opponents of abortion believe that there can be no justification for abortion, and seek to protect, first of all, the unborn child, and not the rights, life and health of the woman herself. But pro-life advocates and state advocates of anti-abortion policy often lose sight of how the state's official rhetoric differs from the reality of motherhood support. The simple idea that there is a gulf between a desired pregnancy and a pregnancy from rape is also often proliferated.
The historical experience of the ban on abortions is that in this case their number is not reduced, but they are carried out illegally and often with tragic consequences. But from sexual education and affordable contraception - yes. In attempts to deprive women of the right to abortion and to force them to give birth to children, the idea that the desire to leave women without the right to choose is violence against them is lost.
rapes
There is a lot of violence in our society, and it is important to find strength in ourselves about it. This is a terrible and everyday problem, but although it is not new, the language for discussing it is only now emerging. From childhood, women are taught measures supposedly to help protect themselves from violence: they are told how dangerous it is to talk to strangers, hitchhike, go out for a walk late at night, travel alone, go to disadvantaged areas unaccompanied, drink alcohol. This is the most difficult quest to avoid rape, which cannot be completed to the end, since it misses the main thing: control over the situation is always on the side of the rapist, and even if all safety conditions are met, the risks of being raped are equally high regardless of the length of the skirt and the time of day.
There are still no exact statistics on rape (victims are often afraid to talk about their experiences), and this topic itself is surrounded by various myths: from the existence of some kind of “correct”, “safe” clothing, to the idea that only a stranger can be a rapist - although very often victims face violence from acquaintances and even close people. Another huge problem with the culture of violence is the shifting of guilt and shame onto the victim (“it’s her own fault”).
Feminism brings the problem of sexual violence out of the shadows, calls to discuss and solve it. It's not easy to take on this, but it's important to get started - building support networks for women, safe spaces where you can talk and get real help. The main thing we need to come to is an unconditional condemnation of violence and an understanding that the problem is acute not only in unstable, non-peaceful and poor regions, but throughout the world.
Sexual exploitation
Trafficking in women and children takes the bulk of the multi-million dollar annual human trafficking. According to the International Coalition to Combat Trafficking in Women, 87% of victims are victims of sexual exploitation. To solve the problem, measures are proposed that have justified or discredited themselves to varying degrees - from the criminalization of clients to the legitimization of prostitution - but the fact remains: trafficking in women is ubiquitous, although often invisible to society, and unacceptable. The current situation threatens not only the freedom of women, but also their physical and mental health- in fact, it functions according to the same laws as working slavery.
Feminism also explores how the prevailing model of society shapes the demand for sex services: in particular, why clients are predominantly male, how demand is affected by a culture of violence, and how the sex trade is embedded in the power hierarchy of the sexes. One thing is clear: the right of women to independently manage their own bodies must be ensured by law and economically, and equality cannot be achieved as long as a woman can be a commodity.
Minority discrimination
The world is permeated different types inequality - anyone can face it. Intersectional feminism deals with the intersection of different systems of oppression - in fact, this approach emphasizes that the rights of all people are important, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental condition. The methods of oppression are standard and monotonous: a person is assigned to a certain category, and then this category is endowed with lesser rights than "universal" rights. Intersectionality explores how different factors - such as skin color, sexual orientation, transgender, disability - can shape the system of oppression of a particular person.
The problem of discrimination in the world is still acute: it can manifest itself both in direct violence against minorities, and in. In the twenty-first century, people are still not equal in rights - therefore, it is important to be aware and adequately evaluate their privileges, as well as to understand that each of us can belong to a minority and become a victim of discrimination. And even if it has never affected anyone personally, this does not mean that the problem does not exist - often it is closer than many people realize.
Limited access to education
There are a number of reasons for gender inequality, and limited access to education is one of them. Women are two-thirds of the total number of illiterate people in the world. According to the UN, often girls fail to get an education due to the fact that parents believe that it is more profitable for them to invest in the education of boys; girls, on the other hand, are supposed to do more housework, and they are more likely to be forced to drop out of school to devote themselves to their families. Lack of education, in turn, does not allow women to go beyond a rather limited range of activities: their task becomes to run a house, prepare for marriage, give birth to children. In fact, this calls into question the fact that women can play other roles than the role of mother and wife, to achieve anything in the public space. And even if the right to education is available to everyone in the country by default, girls can be hindered by unspoken gender barriers and the hostility of the "male" professional environment.
A modern woman tries not so much to keep up with the times, but to keep up with a man, or even try to get ahead. And in politics behind him, and in the army, and in space. And it did not start yesterday, and not even the day before yesterday. The women's Internet portal Beauty Country decided to figure out how poor and unfortunate men react to this phenomenon - feminism And what's next for them...
Feminism through the eyes of a man
It all started in the distance XVIII century, when women for the first time raised their heads high and actively and declared their rights. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then - we, having achieved equality in many areas of public life, began to wear men's suits and men's short haircuts, occupy men's positions and play men's games.
But men's attitude to the feminine feminism, namely, we are now talking about him, even in such a progressive XXI century, it still remains very ambiguous.
Feminism - examples from life
Remember the footage from the movie "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" - well, I couldn't main character allow the woman he loves to hold a higher position and receive a higher salary than he receives. And even due to the notorious male pride, he almost lost the greatest love of his life, True, he changed his mind in time.
Although ... After all, the author of the film does not show us how the relationship of the main characters develops after a quarrel - could Gosha still come to terms with the superiority of his beloved woman ?! Perhaps it does not show because for such a family, the alignment can be the most unpredictable, if a strong woman does not learn to leave her directorial ambitions outside the door.
Feminism in modern life
There are many such examples in modern life. how many successful women, who make stunning careers, spend fabulous sums on their own appearance, remain single, and every evening they come to their empty luxury apartments.
Most men are afraid of strong independent women - their over-success feminist women trample on such a fragile and vulnerable male ego.
Indeed, in everyday life, such women will require the division of household duties in half.. How else? Both work - both should be engaged in everyday life. Such a prospect is not at all included in the ambitious plans of men, moreover, it frightens them, if not to say, scares them away!
Feminism - pluses for men
However, female feminism from the point of view of a man can have obvious advantages. You can and even need to go on a date with a feminist girl without, without banal ones, you can do without compliments, without opening doors in front of her, without giving a hand when leaving the transport, without removing the girl’s outerwear, without pulling up a chair in a restaurant ...
See how convenient! The main bonus awaits a man at the end of a date with a feminist - she will pay for herself, drive herself home, or even drop him home in her own car!
Such a girl for sure will not require stupid romantic confessions under the moonlight, evidence of a strong male love for her, and then during the life of endless vows in this very love.
Feminist girl much easier agree to have sex after the first date, and the point here is not at all a lack of self-respect, but the fact that men do this. So the woman should not lag behind them!
Men don't be afraid! Feminists are women too moreover, they are very beautiful and successful, and just like other women, these militant persons want your love and tenderness! So feminism feminism, and love, affection, tenderness, care and attention are wanted by everyone without exception! Love each durga and be happy!
"FEMINISM IN MODERN SOCIETY
scientific director
Siberian Federal University
She shouted: "Equality!
Give me all my rights!"
He quietly: “Yes, take it. To health.
I give everything, because you're right.
Drive? Yes please.
Whiten, wash, saw, plan.
I give everything, then do not complain
Don't you dare moan and scream.
With passion, woman, redoubled
I took care of everything myself.
Washed, built a house - built.
Taxied, dug and rowed ...
And he, having felt "lawlessness",
Loving the sofa
Thank you for equality
All the women of the world and all countries ...
Feminism has already become an integral part of our lives. Just imagine a world where women do not have the right to receive higher education, they cannot vote and hold leadership positions, they must not wear trousers, short skirts and make-up, and, of course, there can be no talk of any dates with the continuation of the speech - this is destiny "fallen" women. Is it hard to imagine? But our world was such quite recently. By the way, in civilized Switzerland, women were allowed to vote in elections only in the 80s of the twentieth century. So we can not say that feminism has lost its relevance. Moreover, he has not yet reached many places, and the woman is still treated there as a kind of livestock. And about the fact that it’s hard to do everything on your own - after all, even before women were by no means carried in their arms, and they didn’t even let them open their mouths. It has always been difficult to be a woman, at all times. But whether feminism has come to fruition is not yet known. Women have achieved a lot, but what do we see? That now women everywhere are busy with careers and self-assertion. They pushed the institution of mother and wife into the background. So it's not surprising that feminism on the male side is gaining momentum right now. Somehow it happened that women screamed, but they had not yet acquired true freedom from male chauvinism.
At the same time, a huge number of myths about the activities of feminists, their views and ideas have developed in modern society. Did you know that feminists have never staged a public bra burning? In fact, it was like this. In 1968, American students protested against the Miss America beauty pageant: they staged a buffoon coronation of a sheep and defiantly threw ladies' magazines, high heels, curlers and corsets into the trash cans. To heighten the effect, they intended to burn underwear at the same time, but in the end they did not do this for reasons of fire safety. Only the editor of the New York Post really liked the headline "Bra Burner" - indeed, it sounds romantic and intimidating. Thus, thanks to the media, the belief about the pyromaniac inclinations of feminists was born. But what about bras. Bras - a trifle, a special case, "flowers". There are also berries.
“Feminism is when women want to rule the world,” my friend once said. And thus formulated the main stereotype about feminism. In fact, feminism was, and still largely remains, a struggle not for the superiority of women over men, but only against their defeat in legal and factual rights.
Early feminism emerged shortly after the French Revolution. Olympia de Gouges, one of the most striking characters of the era, wrote in her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen": "If a woman has the right to ascend the scaffold, then she must have the right to ascend the podium." She was indeed executed in November 1793, and she was far from the only one. And the French Revolution did not let women on the podium. In the same November, women's clubs and associations were closed, they were soon banned from appearing at public meetings, and a little later, Napoleon, who came to power, enshrined in the constitution that only men could have civil rights.
The beautiful slogans proclaimed in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” applied only to men. Abigail Smith Adams, wife of President John Adams and considered the first American feminist, said: "We will not be subject to laws that we did not participate in making, and authorities that do not represent our interests."
So the first steps towards equality and fraternity, which are written with emotion in the textbooks of history and law, referred precisely to the “brothers”, because the “sisters” were somehow not considered very people. It was against this background that suffragism developed, that is, simply put, the movement for equal voting rights. And if you do not think that women should be banned from voting, then I congratulate you: you are a de facto suffragist (or suffragist). Entire generations of men and women fought for this equality, which today seems self-evident, and fought hard: they disrupted government meetings, held hunger strikes in prisons, and even staged terrorist attacks against state institutions.
There is another misconception… “Well, 19th century, suffragettes, the right to vote and study. Okay, third world countries. But now what women lack in enlightened Europe, what other rights do they want? Yes, they are mad with fat! Actually - no, not with fat. The problems that feminists raise and try to solve cannot be called far-fetched. In particular, violence. On average in the world, up to 70% of murdered women are killed by their sexual partners. In some EU countries, one in four women has been a victim of domestic violence. And this is just what is reflected in the statistics, and it is far from always that beaten and raped women report this “where they should”. Moreover, they themselves do not always adequately assess what is happening to them. For example, many still do not understand that rape by a husband of his wife is also rape.
In 1736, the English judge Sir Matthew Hale made a decision that determined the legal fate of the concept of "marital rape" for two and a half centuries: the wife is given to her husband and cannot refuse him anything.”
It was not until 1991 that the UK Court of Appeal ruled that this principle was no longer up to date and upheld the conviction of a man convicted of wife rape. This decision was supported by the House of Lords, and then confirmed by the European Commission on Human Rights.
Another problem that leaves an unplowed field for the work of feminists, even after the adoption of all the necessary laws, is that sometimes the declared rights remain rights only on paper. Stereotypes of public consciousness that define different attitude to women and men, sit in the blood like cholesterol, and this affects the level of realization of the rights that are so wonderfully spelled out. In addition, in order to realize the rights, you need at least to know about them, and often - and have remarkable courage to go "across".
But some feminists perceive this activity as a kind of game: you can scream “for your rights” to your heart’s content until you smell of kerosene, and just call a big and strong defender for help and hide behind the backs of men. In the film Ghost Dog, a man kills a female police officer with the words: “You wanted equality? You got it." And this is fair. Coming out of the shadows, the women realized that in the sun you can not only warm up, but also get burned.
Many people think that feminists are man-haters. Indeed, if a woman has a beloved and loving husband, why does she need this disgusting thing with the letter “f”? Nevertheless, statistics prove that the idea that feminism is the lot of people with failed personal lives and that it is incompatible with happy romantic heterosexual relationships is a myth that has nothing to do with reality.
This is evidenced by the results obtained by specialists at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, who conducted a face-to-face survey of 242 students and an online survey of 289 older people. Men who have relationships with feminist women reported more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction to researchers. At the same time, stereotypes about feminists were tested - and refuted - in terms of success with the opposite sex, love and quality of relationships with partners, feminists left non-feminist women behind.
And man-hatred of feminism is attributed to the "efforts" of only one of its many directions - radical feminism. Suffice it to recall how in the 70s in Holland, activists on the streets pinched men for ... a soft spot in order to "avenge all the disadvantaged women."
Let's put aside metaphors and hyperbole - what is called "radical feminism" is fascism. Chauvinism, censorship, quasi-scientific anthropology, the search for the enemy, mystical unity with nature, fake pseudo-pagan religiosity, mandatory standards of thought, and even appearance”, writes American anarchist Bob Black.
Another misconception that feminism will soon sweep away other values. “Traditional values are in danger, and feminists are to blame! They systematically destroy our world!” - the impressionable zealots of traditions are afraid. But don't worry: the idea that feminism is a single entity is wrong. In fact, there are probably not so many disagreements in any "-ism", and in the literature there are more than 300 different definitions of feminism.
However, mass thinking prefers to simplify everything, no one is reluctant to understand the difference between socialist feminism and liberal feminism, not to mention such outlandish beasts as psychoanalytic feminism or, God forgive me, completely postmodernist. It's difficult. It is much easier to come up with some collective image of a feminist monster (or angel) and criticize (or praise) it intensely. For example, feminism is accused of "affirmative discrimination" - giving women an economic and legal "handicap", such as electoral quotas, educational and employment benefits, and tax breaks. Sometimes it even comes to the point of absurdity, as in Sweden, where the Party of the Left proposed to impose a “domestic violence tax” on all ... men! That is, a man lives for himself, he won’t hurt a fly, or maybe he himself when his wife falls under the heavy Scandinavian hand, but he must pay for the fight against domestic violence, because a man. How this is not discrimination, the fight against which feminism places on its banners is a mystery. But there is another example: when in Spain the socialists proposed lowering taxes for women and increasing taxes for men, it was the feminists who opposed it.
But still, since people with different views call themselves the same word "feminists", it means that they have a certain point of intersection. This point is the idea of the inadmissibility of discrimination against women and forcing women to a lifestyle determined by gender. The difference is only in the ways to achieve this goal and ideas about how exactly the world of gender equality should look like.
It so happened that in my conscious life I already had time to zealously support the views of feminists, but everything, as they say, comes with age, and, most likely, such a statement was only “youthful maximalism”. The reasons may be different, especially their combination, but this is not the purpose of my essay. Having matured a little, I understood the real vocation of a woman, her true essence as the keeper of the hearth and the foundations of happiness in the house. I am deeply convinced that the fundamental intransigence of the fierce supporters of these ideas arises from their inability to understand the importance of the role of a woman as a woman and to reasonably distinguish between the spheres of activity of women and men. But still, the main purpose of the beautiful half of humanity lies not only in raising children. In addition, you are destined by the Almighty to be a wonderful decoration of our planet, to bring beauty and love, harmony, tenderness, high feelings to the human world. You need to start not with proving your equivalence with a man, but with the awareness of yourself as a full-fledged personality, and not an appendage to your husband. Women must realize first of all for themselves that their soul was incarnated on Earth by no means in order to serve men and children. And in order to realize himself as a unique and talented person. Well, when men notice this personality in you, it would never occur to them to write you down as a servant.
Do not forget about female dignity even in the most difficult everyday situations and remember that it is then that men most of all need your moral support, and having received it from you, they, in the end, will be able to cope with any misfortune to their own joy, and you, your loved ones.
Love a woman for the sin you took out of paradise
And not for the fact that she cooks and washes best of all.
Love a woman for the sadness she hides from you.
For the fact that next to her the load of problems decreases faster.
Love a woman for a mind that is both great and modest.
For children's fun, the noise of a dawn morning in your house.
Love a woman for the night she gives you
And for the desire to help when you are deadly tired.
Love in a woman a dream and an intriguing secret
Do not humiliate beauty with a reproach thrown by chance.