Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- THE CASE FOR POSTMODERNISM AS SOCIAL THEORY
- CONTESTING FOUNDATIONS: THE CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION
- HUMAN STUDIES AS RHETORIC, NARRATIVE, AND CRITIQUE
- POSTMODERN SOCIAL ANALYSIS: EMPIRICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
- 14 Post-structuralism and sociology
- 15 Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism
15 - Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- THE CASE FOR POSTMODERNISM AS SOCIAL THEORY
- CONTESTING FOUNDATIONS: THE CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION
- HUMAN STUDIES AS RHETORIC, NARRATIVE, AND CRITIQUE
- POSTMODERN SOCIAL ANALYSIS: EMPIRICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
- 14 Post-structuralism and sociology
- 15 Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or, the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism
Summary
That feminism needs theory goes without saying (perhaps because it has been said so often). What is not always clear is what that theory will do, although there are certain common assumptions I think we can find in a wide range of feminist writings. We need theory that can analyze the workings of patriarchy in all its manifestations – ideological, institutional, organizational, subjective – accounting not only for continuities but also for change over time. We need theory that will let us think in terms of pluralities and diversities rather than of unities and universals. We need theory that will break the conceptual hold, at least, of those long traditions of (Western) philosophy that have systematically and repeatedly construed the world hierarchically in terms of masculine universals and feminine specificities. We need theory that will enable us to articulate alternative ways of thinking about (and thus acting upon) gender without either simply reversing the old hierarchies or confirming them. And we need theory that will be useful and relevant for political practice.
It seems to me that the body of theory referred to as poststructuralism best meets all these requirements. It is not by any means the only theory nor are its positions and formulations unique. In my own case, however, it was reading poststructuralist theory and arguing with literary scholars that provided the elements of clarification for which I was looking.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Postmodern TurnNew Perspectives on Social Theory, pp. 282 - 298Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
- 28
- Cited by