FEMINISM

fem·i·nism /ˈfeməˌnizəm/ noun

the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of
the sexes.

By: RESTERIO, GACUMA, DELUSO, DAYON BFA 3A

 What is Feminist Theory?
Feminist theory is a major branch of sociology. It is a set of
structural conflict approaches which views society as a conflict
between men and women. There is the belief that women are
oppressed and/or disadvantaged by various social institutions.
Feminist theory aims to highlight the social problems and issues that
are experienced by women. Some of the key areas of focus include
discrimination on the basis of sex and gender, objectification,
economic inequality, power, gender role, and stereotypes. Feminists
share a common goal in support of equality for men and women.
Although all feminists strive for gender equality, there are various
ways to approach this theory.

The Feminist Art movement in the West emerged in the late

1960s amidst the fervor of American anti-war demonstrations and
burgeoning gender, civil, and queer rights movements around the
world. Harkening back to the utopian ideals of early-20th-century
modernist movements, Feminist artists sought to rewrite a falsely
male-dominated art history, change the contemporary world around
them through their art, intervene in the established art world, and
challenge the existing art canon. Feminist Art created opportunities
and spaces that previously did not exist for women and minority
artists, as well as paved the path for the Identity and Activist Art
genres of the 1980s.
 WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF FEMINISM?

Increasing gender equality

Feminist theories recognize that women’s experiences are not only different
from men’s but are unequal. Feminists will oppose laws and cultural norms that
mean women earn a lower income and have less educational and career
opportunities than men.

Ending gender oppression

Gender oppression goes further than gender inequality. Oppression means that
not only are women different from or unequal to men, but they are actively
subordinated, exploited, and even abused by men. Women should not have to
bear the sole responsibility for raising children. Roles also included who does the
housework. Often, full-time working wives did the majority of housework, and
various individuals and theorists proposed ways of changing the proportion of
who did which household chores, and who held responsibility for those chores
as well.

Ending structural oppression

Feminist theories posit that gender inequality and oppression are the result of
capitalism and patriarchy in which men dominate. Violence among other things
is gendered, embodied, and institutionalized. Women are subjected to
“structural violence” which results from sexism, rape, domestic violence,
psychological violence, and other acts of violence resulting from the social
structure. Structural violence is a demon against women that is devouring the
society. It has been present since times immemorial. Its base lies in the deeply
engraved notion of patriarchy. To change a cultural mindset begins with dialogue
at the roots of society with the people.
Expanding human choice
Feminists believe that both men and women should have the freedom to express
themselves and develop their interests, even if this goes against cultural norms.
Ending sexual violence
Feminists recognize that many women suffer sexual violence and that actions
should be taken to address this. The goal is to ensure that women and girls are
socially, economically and politically empowered in rural spaces which are free
from sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women and girls.

Promoting sexual freedom

Having sexual freedom means that women have control over their own sexuality
and reproduction. This can include ending the stigma of being promiscuous and
ensuring that everyone has access to safe abortions.

Equality Legislation
Ensures that breastfeeding women are not harassed or excluded from public
spaces.
It would prohibit pharmacies from refusing to fill a birth control prescription.
Prevent salons and dealerships from charging women more for the same goods
or services that it provides a man. Federally funded veteran’s services don’t
exclude women or provide them with inferior services. Prohibit federally funded
youth homelessness programs from harassing a pregnant teen.
Protect against discrimination by transportation providers like car-share services,
trains, and airlines.
 FEMINIST MOVEMENT

The women’s movement was most successful in pushing for gender

equality in workplaces and universities. The passage of Title IX in 1972 forbade
sex discrimination in any educational program that received federal financial
assistance. The amendment had a dramatic effect on leveling the playing field in
girl’s athletics. Also, feminists made the workforce a more hospitable space for
women with policies banning sexual harassment, something the Equal
Opportunity Commission recognized in 1980. Women’s participation in college,
graduate school and the professions has steadily increased over the past several
decades, although a gender wage gap still exists.
 KINDS OF FEMINISM
Liberal Feminism
It is sometimes referred to as mainstream feminism, is one of the earliest
forms of feminism and is characterized by its emphasis on achieving gender
equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal
democracy and informed by a human rights perspective.
It claims that women's secondary status in society is based on unequal
opportunities and segregation from men and is one of the main branches of
feminism. This branch of feminism, which originated in the US with the
abolitionist and women's movements, is concerned with ending gender
discrimination.
This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of
mainstream society to integrate women into that structure. Its roots stretch back
to the social contract theory of government instituted by the American
Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft were there from the start,
proposing equality for women. As is often the case with liberals, they slog along
inside the system, getting little done amongst the compromises until some
radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of center. This is
how it operated in the days of the suffragist movement and again with the
emergence of the radical feminists.

Radical Feminism
It is also built in opposition to Marxist and liberal feminism, the former
While the former limits itself to an economic understanding of women's
oppression and maintains that the end of capitalism will be sufficient to liberate
them, the latter calls solely for equal rights.
Contrarily, radical feminism aims to address the underlying roots of
patriarchal oppression rather than focusing only on societal or political reforms.
Radical feminism views women as a collective group that has been and still is
oppressed by males, in contrast to liberal feminism, which placed more emphasis
on the individual.
 It provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism. Radical
feminism provides an important foundation for the rest of "feminist flavors".
Seen by many as the "undesirable" element of feminism, Radical feminism is
actually the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas
which get shaped and pounded out in various ways by other (but not all)
branches of feminism. It was the cutting edge of feminist theory from
approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted as it was then,
nor does it provide a foundation for, for example, cultural feminism. This term
refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the civil rights and peace
movements in 1967-1968. The reason this group gets the "radical" label is that
they view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of
oppression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class.
This is a movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary
proportions, in fact.

Marxist Feminism
Is a subset of feminist theory and politics that draws its theoretical
inspiration from Marxism. It criticizes capitalism as a system of institutions,
practices, incentives, and sensibilities that encourages the exploitation of labor,
alienation of people, and taming of freedom. Empowerment and equality for
women cannot be attained within the confines of capitalism, according to
Marxist feminists, is hesitant to view "women" as a distinct group with shared
goals and interests. By paying close attention to how societies are organized
economically, including class stratification, and by refusing to grant the category
of "women" a separate and special status without regard to class, Marxist
feminism sets itself apart from other forms of feminist thought and politics.
Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes the
oppression to the capitalist/private property system. Thus they insist that the
only way to end the oppression of women is to overthrow the capitalist system.

Socialist Feminism
Socialist Feminism is the result of Marxism meeting radical feminism.
Jaggar and Rothenberg point to significant differences between socialist
feminism and Marxism, but for our purposes I'll present the two together. Echols
offers a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between Marxism and
radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner. Marxists and socialists
often call themselves "radical," but they use the term to refer to a completely
different "root" of society: the economic system.
Equal rights for women are demanded within the framework established
by men. Maternal, cultural, or radical social feminism all have a foundation in
feminine ideals. It seeks to profoundly alter society and extend the role of women
beyond the home. Therefore, in order to preserve their distinctively feminine
qualities, social feminist organizations should exclude men. They shouldn't try to
act like guys since their individuality might work to their advantage in politics.
Unavoidably, there is a chance that social feminists will support conservative
issues. Social feminism is separatist in the short term, but transformational in the
long term because men no longer have sole decision-making authority. and is
occasionally linked to maternal feminism. According to this theory, mothering
should serve as a model for politics and women are uniquely qualified to
participate in a "female" realm because of their maternal instincts. However, not
all feminists identify as maternalists, and not all kinds of social feminism
necessarily advance the ideals of maternal thinking.

Cultural Feminism
Is a subset of feminism that contends there are inherent distinctions
between men and women. According to certain cultural feminists, women are in
fact superior to males in some areas because of their supposed biological or
gender differences, or "female essence." Instead, advocate reevaluating traits
and roles that are traditionally associated with women in order to attain gender
equality. Take the responsibility of raising children, which is generally a woman's
job. For many feminists, challenging and changing traditional roles in the home
is a strategy to combat gender inequity. would, however, handle women's roles
in the family in a different way.
As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism got rolling.
In fact, many of the same people moved from the former to the latter. They
carried the name "radical feminism" with them, and some cultural feminists use
that name still. The difference between the two is quite striking: whereas radical
feminism was a movement to transform society, cultural feminism retreated to
vanguardism, working instead to build a women's culture. Some of this effort
has had some social benefit: rape crisis centers, for example, and of course many
cultural feminists have been active in social issues.

Eco-Feminism
is the theory and practice of analyzing and disputing the connections
between the exploitation of nature and the dominance of women in political,
social, historical, epistemological, and philosophical contexts. It has grown into a
movement that binds together all the "-isms" of dominance, such as racism,
sexism, and classism, with the exploitation, degradation, and eradication of
natural resources, habitats, and ecosystems.
This branch of feminism is much more spiritual than political or theoretical
in nature. It may or may not be wrapped up with Goddess worship and
vegetarianism. Its basic tenet is that a patriarchal society will exploit its resources
without regard to long term consequences as a direct result of the attitudes
fostered in a patriarchal/hierarchical society. Parallels are often drawn between
society's treatment of the environment, animals, or resources and its treatment
of women. In resisting patriarchal culture, eco-feminists feel that they are also
resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. And viceversa.

Intersectional Feminism
Intersectional feminism believes that other feminist theories create an
incorrect acceptance of women’s oppression based on the experiences of mostly
western, middle class, white women. For instance, while they may acknowledge
that the work of the suffragette movement was influential, the voting rights of
working class or minority ethnic groups was forgotten at this time.
Intersectionality considers that gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity,
and others, are not separate, but are interwoven and can bring about different
levels of oppression. This type of feminism offers insight that not all women
experience oppression in the same way. For instance, the wage gap shows that
women of color and men of color are penalized relative to the earnings of white
men.
By many feminists to describe how the feminist movement can be more
inclusive and diverse while promoting women's rights and gender equality. Their
experiences of oppression and discrimination may differ depending on their
color, class, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.
 THE WAVES OF FEMINISM

First wave Feminism

This concept of the “waves of
feminism” first surfaced in the late
1960s as a way of differentiating the
emerging women’s movement at
the time from the earlier movement
for women’s rights that originated in
1848 with the Seneca Falls
Convention. Held in July 1848 in
Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting
launched the women’s suffrage
movement began in earnest in the
decades before the Civil War. During
the 1820s and '30s, which more than
seven decades later ensured women the right to vote.
The first wave of feminism is believed to have started with the ‘Women’s
Suffrage Movement’ in New York in 1848 under the leadership of Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Those involved in this feminist movement were known as suffragettes. The
main aim of this movement was to allow women to vote. During this time,
members of the suffrage movement engaged in social campaigns that expressed
dissatisfaction with women’s limited rights to work, education, property, and
social agency, among others.

Second wave Feminism

Second-wave feminism started somewhere in the 1960s after the chaos of
the second world war and the movement emerged in the early 1990s focused on
tackling problems that still existed, including sexual harassment in the workplace
and a shortage of women in positions of power.
Second wave feminists cared deeply about exposing and overcoming the
casual, systemic racism present in society—unlike the suffragists and suffragettes
of the nineteenth century, who focused largely on political equality through
suffrage. Second wave feminists realized that women’s cultural and political
inequalities were inextricably linked. They worked under a unifying goal of social
equality, with sexuality and reproductive rights being central concerns to the
liberation movement, and with much of the movement’s energy being focused
on passing the Equal Rights Amendment.
The approval of the contraceptive pill by the Food and Drug Administration
in 1960 gave women more control over their reproductive rights—within five
years, around 6 million women were using it. Feminists also worked and gained
women the right to hold credit cards and apply for mortgages in their own name
and outlawed marital rape.
French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir published a book in 1949
entitled ‘The Second Sex’ which outlined the definitions of womanhood and how
women have historically been treated as second to men. She determined that
‘one is not born but becomes a woman’. This book is thought to have been
foundational for setting the tone for the next wave of women’s rights activism.
Feminism during this period was focused on the social roles in women’s work and
family environment. It broadened the debate to include a wider range of issues
such as sexuality, family, reproductive rights, legal inequalities, and divorce law.
From this wave, the movement toward women’s rights included the signing of
the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which stipulated that women could no longer be paid
less than men for comparable work. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 included a
section which prevents employers from discriminating against employees on the
basis of sex, race, religion, or national origin.

Third Wave Feminism

The third wave of feminism is harder to pinpoint but it was thought to have
taken off in the mid-1990s. Early activism in this wave involved fighting against
/have been the root. She coined the term
‘intersectionality’ to describe the ways in which different forms of
oppression intersect, such as how a black woman is oppressed in two ways: for
being a woman and for being black.
the massive expansion in opportunities for the dissemination of ideas
created by the information revolution of the late 20th century, and the coming
of age of Generation X scholars and activists.
 Third-wave feminists sought to question, reclaim, and redefine the ideas,
words, and media that have transmitted ideas about womanhood, gender,
beauty, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity, among other things
• The Anita Hill Senate hearings: The beginning of the third wave of
feminism is generally marked by the Anita Hill Senate hearings of 1991.
• “Becoming the Third Wave”: Rebecca Walker, daughter of writer and
activist Alice Walker, wrote the 1992 article “Becoming the Third Wave” in
response to the Hill hearings.
• “Becoming the Third Wave”: Rebecca Walker, daughter of writer and
activist Alice Walker, wrote the 1992 article “Becoming the Third Wave” in
response to the Hill hearings.
• The intersectionality of feminism: Activism in the academy expanded the
scope of women’s studies and feminist theory in critical discourse and
study areas.

Fourth wave Feminism

Many believe that there is now a fourth wave of feminism which began
around 2012. It is likely that the wave sparked after allegations of sexual abuse
and harassment, specifically of celebrities, which gave birth to campaigns such
as Everyday Sexism Project by Laura Bates and the #MeToo movement. With the
rise of the internet and social platforms, feminist issues such as discrimination,
harassment, body shaming, and misogyny can be widely discussed with the
emergence of new feminists. Fourth-wave feminism is digitally driven and has
become more inclusive to include those of any sexual orientation, ethnicity, and
trans individuals.
 FEMINIST ART
The history of the Feminist Art movement as we know it today came about
during a time of immense cultural upheaval. The 1960s were one of the most
turbulent and divisive decades in history, crammed with civil rights movements,
the Vietnamese War, protests and political assassinations. For many, it was a
necessary period of change and renewal.
 FEMINIST PERFORMANCE
When women use their bodies in their art work, they are using their selves;
a significant psychological factor converts these bodies from object to subject’.
The pioneering performance work of artists such as Gina Pane, Suzanne Lacy and
Carolee Schneemann offers critical insights relevant to current explorations of
power, social relations, and the agency of the artist in the public sphere.
 ARTISTS

SUZANNE LACY
Social practice artist
Suzanne Lacy discusses the
origins of feminist performance
art in the 1970s.
Through collaboration
and community organizing, Lacy
and her contemporaries aimed
to raise widespread awareness
about women’s personal and
political issues such as rape, domestic violence, aging, and media representation.
Suzanne Lacy is renowned as a pioneer in socially engaged and public
performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual
violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-
scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain,
Ireland and the U.S. Ablutions 1972.
 Ablutions
In 1972 Lacy collaborated with three women; Judy Chicago, Sandra Orgel
and Aviva Rahmani creating a piece of performance art called Ablutions. This
performance was inspired by the women's earlier exploration of rape within their
different practices. The performance itself included explicit audio recorded
experiences of female rape victims, which continuously played on a loop.
 The performance of Inevitable Associations
Took place over two days in the lobby of the Biltmore Hotel. The first day
featured a public makeover of Lacy, with old women dressed in all black entering
the lobby and taking seats on the opposite side. The second day featured three
elderly women participants who sat in red chairs and told stories about their lives
after the age of 60. Lacy's goal was to bring awareness to the invisibility women
must struggle with as they age and no longer fit into society's standards of
beauty. It was a crucial point in Lacy's career as it was the first time in which Lacy
took her performance to the public streets.
 CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN
Schneemann adopted a
feminist perspective, citing the
hierarchal ideals of the 1950s
American gallery system, the
negative attitudes of male teachers,
and the erasure of women's art
history as influences. She
incorporates feminist ideas into her
art as well as her writing, teaching
and lecturing, constantly reaffirming
her position as a pivotal figure in the
feminist movement.
Schneemann's explorations in
the early 1960s opened performance art to include inquiries about sensuality
and sexuality. Prior to her works, the majority of performance art was formal
experimentation, rather than a specific investigation into the taboo realm of the
liberating possibilities of the sexual female body.
By using her body as her primary medium, Schneemann emphasized
women's agency, situating women as both the creator and an active part of the
creation itself, giving the female form in art a subjectivity it previously lacked. She
firmly established her practice in opposition to the traditional representation of
women merely as nude objects.
 Meat Joy
Embodies Schneemann’s concept of “kinetic theater,” in which performers
engage in scored and improvised movements with a range of disparate materials.
Eight performers— including Schneemann—covered in paint, paper, and paint
brushes crawled and writhed together, playing with raw fish, meat, and poultry.
According to the artist, by using the naked body as a material for art she “exposed
and confronted a social range of current cultural taboos and repressive
conventions.” To make this film, Schneemann combined footage from
performances of Meat Joy in Paris and New York and set it to pop music,
transforming a live work into a cinematic assemblage of twisting bodies with a
soundtrack.
 Fuses
Schneemann developed her approach to making art in dialogue
with action painting, a technique pioneered by Jackson Pollock, in which he
flung, dripped, and poured paint onto the canvas in dramatic, expressive physical
gestures. Fed by feminist thinking of the 1960s and 1970s, she highlighted her
own physical experience and point of view in her art. In Fuses (1964–67), for
example, she filmed herself and her partner, James Tenney, having sex and then
exposed the deeply personal film footage to paint, fire, and acid, and cut,
scratched, and layered it into a vibrant celluloid collage.
 GINA PANE
As we walk
through this world, our
bodies become our
most intimate vessels,
imprinted with both
the personal and
collective experiences
of our existence.
French artist Gina
Pane's artistic career
was carved out of using
her own body as a
symbol for humanity's
universal body - a
canvas on which to
express communal
concerns surrounding
sexuality, spirituality, gender, politics, feminism, the environment, and suffering.
Pane's work contributed greatly to Art Corporel, the French Body Art movement,
in which artists use their own flesh and blood as art medium, laying bare the
body's strength and fragility as a viable tool for expression.
 Situation idéale: Terre-Artiste-Ciel
Pane's first major stage of work focused on her interactions with the
environment. Here, in a work whose title is translated as Ideal Situation: Earth-
Artist-Sky, Pane stands firmly with her feet on the brown, freshly tilled ground,
silhouetted against a pale blue, cloudless sky. Her hands are in her pockets, and
her stance is comfortably contrapposto, meaning that she gently rests her weight
on her left side and places her right foot slightly in front of her. She is a strong
vertical presence contrasted with the strong horizontality of the image, which is
evenly divided between ground and sky. Pane commented simply of this piece,
"Between two horizontals: earth/sky, I placed my body vertically to provoke an
ideal situation."
 At the Galerie Diagramma in Milan
Pane executed Sentimental Action before an audience, the first row of
which was exclusively female. Pane twice repeated an action twice, the first time
with a bouquet of red roses, and the second time with a bouquet of white roses.
Passing progressively from standing to the fetal position, she executed first a
back-and-forth movement with the bouquet, before pressing the thorns of a rose
into her arms and making an incision with a razor blade on the palm of her hand.
The form of the wounds on her arm resembled the petals and stem of a rose. She
described this work as a ‘projection of an intra space’ that dealt with the mother–
child relationship.
 JULIE LLUCH
DALENA
Julie Lluch is an
ardent feminist and a
graduate of the
University of Santo
Tomas. She helped
introduce the national
feminist movement to
the arts and was one of
the first feminist artists
to proactively raise
feminist issues with her
artwork. She was also
one of the people who
founded the Kalayaan
and Kasibulan Women
Artists Collective.
Lluch is primarily a sculptor, and she made sure to include feminism as an
integral part of her art. Her work raises concerns about distinctly feminist-related
themes such as the role of women in modern society, and thought-provoking
pieces about religious conviction and interpersonal relationships.
Created from indigenous clay that hearkens back to our ancestral roots,
conveys environmental awareness, and results in a sensuous sculpture all at
once, her Yuta collection embodies the roles that
Filipinas played in major revolutions that shaped the future of the country.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=306840231589374
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THANK YOU!