Feminism was a political socio-political movement in the Western world that began in the nineteenth century. There are three waves of feminism in the area feminist studies. However, it was not until the first half of the twentieth century that the main demands of women were fulfilled in most Western countries, such as the right to vote, own property, access to schools and universities etc. Women found out that that this formal equality had not led to a significant change in their actual social and economic circumstances.
The major key idea of feminism was the address of inequality of two sexes. Simone de Beauvoir wrote a book The Second Sex(1949),which addresses a question “what is a woman ?” and argues that women have always been considered and treated as the “second” sex. In Western history and thought, “human” has always been equated with “male”. Women were defined as “the other” in opposition and contrast to men. In philosophy and art, the woman usually is the object toward which the male subject directs his gaze and his desire.
In addition to this, the feminist highlights the very idea of the definition of gender. Gender is a construct which is derived from the biological process of two opposite sexes. The role is passed down to the gender by the society and hence the construction of masculinity and femininity which inferior the status of a women. They address the constructs of the gender and associated masculinity and femininity and tries to break the construct to support equality of both sexes.
However, Elaine Showalter coined the term “gynocriticism” in Towards a Feminist Poetics to describe a certain construct for “ a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature”. It tries to separate the female experiences from the male experiences in the literary tradition. It studies the “interior consciousness” of the female and explores women’s identity and gender in the society. It engaged in identifying the subjective matters of female experiences and their mode of thinking self and perceiving the world specifying “woman’s language” in different speech and writing.
The most important development in the feminist study was the idea of “ecriture feminine” coined by Helene Cixous in her essay The Laugh of the Medusa. She describes it as a uniquely feminine style of writing characterized by the writings of images, silences , puns and so on. It is attributed to the centuries of oppression of the female voice which is expressed in a verbal language.
Hence , the recent studies and approaches has developed a new concept of feminism is that there are “feminisms” in the different corners of the world. It showcases the fact the nourishment in different sets of culture varies and it is impossible to carry out the same notion of feminism in other aspects of culture. Due to the different ways of living standards and cultural aspects, the concept of “ feminisms” is promoted.
Click Here to know about Feminist Poem The Looking Glass – https://getsetnotes.com/critical-analysis-of-the-looking-glass-poem-by-kamala-das/
Click Here to Know Alice Walker’s The Color Purple – https://getsetnotes.com/alice-walkers-the-color-purple-as-a-feminist-novel/
