Transnational feminists Inderpal Grewal, Julietta Hua and Leti Volpp aim to decenter from a universal common agenda for women’s human rights that is focused on eliminating the institutionalized invisibility of women in the global arena and inducing women’s equality. The universalized representations of the Third World as an ahistorical and homogenous space which arise in Western imperialist culture fails to account for the particular histories and situations of non-Western women. Grewal, Hua and Volpp have problematized and challenged feminists such as Charlotte Bunch and Susan Moller Okin’s understandings of violence through analyzing various case studies. The uncritical advocacy for international women’s human rights is very idealistic in
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According to Grewal (1999) the “women’s rights as human rights” movement is enabled by existing hegemonic geopolitical discourse instilled by the West. The issues affecting women are categorized under a single entity which neglects the differences women across the world encompass (Grewal, 1999). The hegemonic forms of Western feminism through universalizing discourses that promote common agendas for all women globally and to mobilize such discourses through the transnational culture of an international law that can serve the interests of all women globally (Grewal, 1999). Global and liberal feminists such as Charlotte Bunch push for a common agenda that puts women as the centre rather than on the margins of issues (Grewal, 1999). This concept of human rights is founded on the presumption of an individualistic ethic and emphasizes that social formations are homogenous (Grewal, 1999). While we may see …show more content…
Hua (2011) focuses on how narrative conventions of trafficking showcase the discursive and political investment in viewing human rights and understanding violence, victimization and agency. The sex trafficking story reveals more about the national subject invested in finding victims ready for rescue more than the victims (Hua, 2011). The trafficking story through cultural arguments reaffirms the need for outside rescue, which reduces human rights to merely the differential valuation of bodies and naturalizing the ‘backwardness’ of culpable cultures (Hua, 2011). The narrative of sex trafficking emphasizes culture as key to understanding why sex trafficking originates in certain parts of the globe (Hua, 2011). Hua (2011) asserts the narrative convention of trafficking enables culture culpable for trafficking conditions which ignores the ways in which corporations, businesses and law enforcement perpetuates the same conditions. The violence of sex trafficking exists in pitting ‘backward’ cultures against the progress of human rights (Hua, 2011). The media plays a role in constructing Third World countries as backward because of their inability to grasp hegemonic liberal feminist principles (Hua, 2011). The Department of State of U.S. identifies greed and patriarchal attitudes as primary causes of trafficking which help construct cultures as ‘backward’ (Hua, 2011). The
According to Grewal (1999) the “women’s rights as human rights” movement is enabled by existing hegemonic geopolitical discourse instilled by the West. The issues affecting women are categorized under a single entity which neglects the differences women across the world encompass (Grewal, 1999). The hegemonic forms of Western feminism through universalizing discourses that promote common agendas for all women globally and to mobilize such discourses through the transnational culture of an international law that can serve the interests of all women globally (Grewal, 1999). Global and liberal feminists such as Charlotte Bunch push for a common agenda that puts women as the centre rather than on the margins of issues (Grewal, 1999). This concept of human rights is founded on the presumption of an individualistic ethic and emphasizes that social formations are homogenous (Grewal, 1999). While we may see …show more content…
Hua (2011) focuses on how narrative conventions of trafficking showcase the discursive and political investment in viewing human rights and understanding violence, victimization and agency. The sex trafficking story reveals more about the national subject invested in finding victims ready for rescue more than the victims (Hua, 2011). The trafficking story through cultural arguments reaffirms the need for outside rescue, which reduces human rights to merely the differential valuation of bodies and naturalizing the ‘backwardness’ of culpable cultures (Hua, 2011). The narrative of sex trafficking emphasizes culture as key to understanding why sex trafficking originates in certain parts of the globe (Hua, 2011). Hua (2011) asserts the narrative convention of trafficking enables culture culpable for trafficking conditions which ignores the ways in which corporations, businesses and law enforcement perpetuates the same conditions. The violence of sex trafficking exists in pitting ‘backward’ cultures against the progress of human rights (Hua, 2011). The media plays a role in constructing Third World countries as backward because of their inability to grasp hegemonic liberal feminist principles (Hua, 2011). The Department of State of U.S. identifies greed and patriarchal attitudes as primary causes of trafficking which help construct cultures as ‘backward’ (Hua, 2011). The