Misandry. Women-empowering. Extremism. These are the words that I usually hear when I asked people around me about feminism. Some people believe that feminism is just for the past. They claim that there is no longer inequality exists between men and women in this society; thus there is not necessary to study about feminism. Women now can go to school, can vote or even can be a presidential candidate as Hillary Clinton. That is true. However, if it did not have any feminist movements in the past, where would women be today? There are many women nowadays feel like they have equal opportunities and are treated equally as men – that is great, but does every other woman in the world feel this way as well? Even it is believed that the patriarchal
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At a time when women are sexualized and objectified in so many cultures, the fundamental purpose of feminist movements is to empower women to have control over their lives and their own bodies. Empowering women does not mean decrying men or establishing matriarchy. The word “feminism” is used upon “egalitarianism,” in which women are not raised in power above men but rather showing society the values as well as improving the status of women. While there are many different respects which feminism relates to such as racism, oppression, genders, etc., however, it seems to have a peculiar relationship with women identity and maternity. Throughout the history of feminism, there have been so many feminist philosophers as well as their articles mentioning about women based on social norms and social expectations. Among that, the book “A woman” written by a famous Italian feminist philosopher Sibilla Aleramo is the most significant literary work – the feminist manifesto, in which people see the desperate struggle of a woman to assert her identity against the criticism of a patriarchal society as well as her complicated experiences of …show more content…
As being said, mother and daughter are always the essence key of women’s scuffle in feminist philosophy. Moreover, it is even harder when putting motherhood and women identity together. Irigaray said, “When I speak of the relationship to the mother, I want to say that, in our patriarchal culture, the daughter may absolutely not determine her relationship to her mother. Nor the woman her relationship to maternity, unless it is to reduce herself to it.” (Irigaray 56). What if mother’s nurturing sometimes suffocates the daughter and she is now treated as all-empowering mother? Is that because a mother privileges the maternal over the feminine? In the article, Irigaray drew a painful image of icy maternal milk to illustrate the relationship between mother and daughter. She wrote, “With your milk, Mother, you fed me ice.” (66). Maternal milk is now not as warm and sweet as it used to be, but makes the daughter feels cold when she swallows it. Mother-daughter relationship is now seen as the relationship between two women and nothing more. They seem to have an individual awareness of their own position in one’s role related to the other. Since the daughter in the reading asked her mom whether there would be love between them, I realized that, in our patriarchal culture, the harmony of mother and daughter is destroyed. The
At a time when women are sexualized and objectified in so many cultures, the fundamental purpose of feminist movements is to empower women to have control over their lives and their own bodies. Empowering women does not mean decrying men or establishing matriarchy. The word “feminism” is used upon “egalitarianism,” in which women are not raised in power above men but rather showing society the values as well as improving the status of women. While there are many different respects which feminism relates to such as racism, oppression, genders, etc., however, it seems to have a peculiar relationship with women identity and maternity. Throughout the history of feminism, there have been so many feminist philosophers as well as their articles mentioning about women based on social norms and social expectations. Among that, the book “A woman” written by a famous Italian feminist philosopher Sibilla Aleramo is the most significant literary work – the feminist manifesto, in which people see the desperate struggle of a woman to assert her identity against the criticism of a patriarchal society as well as her complicated experiences of …show more content…
As being said, mother and daughter are always the essence key of women’s scuffle in feminist philosophy. Moreover, it is even harder when putting motherhood and women identity together. Irigaray said, “When I speak of the relationship to the mother, I want to say that, in our patriarchal culture, the daughter may absolutely not determine her relationship to her mother. Nor the woman her relationship to maternity, unless it is to reduce herself to it.” (Irigaray 56). What if mother’s nurturing sometimes suffocates the daughter and she is now treated as all-empowering mother? Is that because a mother privileges the maternal over the feminine? In the article, Irigaray drew a painful image of icy maternal milk to illustrate the relationship between mother and daughter. She wrote, “With your milk, Mother, you fed me ice.” (66). Maternal milk is now not as warm and sweet as it used to be, but makes the daughter feels cold when she swallows it. Mother-daughter relationship is now seen as the relationship between two women and nothing more. They seem to have an individual awareness of their own position in one’s role related to the other. Since the daughter in the reading asked her mom whether there would be love between them, I realized that, in our patriarchal culture, the harmony of mother and daughter is destroyed. The