Feminist and
gendered thought is an amazing example and perhaps the only one of its kind in
the power of a stream of thought that manages to bring about far-reaching
changes in reality. It is difficult today to compare the relationship between
men and women today with that of men and women a century ago so a combination
of feminist thought and action began to emerge that would become a movement
that would change the face of our society. The list of feminist thinkers (as
well as some men) is long and respectable, we have gathered for you here some
of the prominent figures worth getting to know.
Virginia
Woolf
Virginia
Woolf is rightly recognized primarily as a marvelous writer in her sensitivity
but alongside her literary work also retains a place of honor at the beginning
of feminist thought. In Wolfe's book "A Room of One’s Own" she
wonders why women have diminished throughout history writing books. Her answer
is that they never had a "room of their own" in which to write books,
when in "room" Wolf means not only a physical space but what such a
private physical space represents.
Simone de
Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir's feminism is found not only in the content of her library but also in
her career, her role in the feminist revolution and the way she broke out and
claimed a place of honor within the masculine European philosophy of her time.
In her important book "The Other Sex" Beauvoir argues that woman has
always been the "other" of man and has been defined in relation to
him, without an identity of her own. De Beauvoir's inquiry into the sources of
inequality between men and women was fundamentally an intellectual inquiry, but
it paved the way for many ideas that sought to change the situation. Renowned
philosopher Jean Paul Sartre is also remembered, among other things, as the
stormy partner of Simone de Beauvoir.
Betty
Frieden
In 1963,
Betty Frieden published a book called "The Feminine Mystique" with a
chapter on "The Problem That Has No Name." High-middle-class white women
who lived the "American Dream" in the suburbs suffered, despite all
the happiness of their lives, from unexplained symptoms of depression and
anxiety. Frieden was the one who pointed out that what causes these women to
suffer is a feeling that they are no longer content with the life of a
housewife, of a mother and wife, and that they seek self-realization outside
the walls of the home. Frieden's book is identified as one of the causes of the
wave of women's work in the 1960s and 1970s. Fan Fact: Frieden's theory was
used by the creators of the "Mad Man" series who even named one of the
main characters after her.
Judith
Butler
Judith
Butler belongs to the so-called "third wave" of feminism that seeks
to abolish the gender distinctions and power relations contained within them.
At the forefront of this struggle can be found Butler with books like
"Gender Trouble" and formative ideas like "Performances" of
"Gender". Butler examined the phenomenon of drag queens and argued
that what they show is the way gender roles are something we
"perform", unwritten codes of dress, movement, speech, etc. that drag
queens mimic in an extreme way. This argument leads to the conclusion that
gender differences are a matter of social construction, not nature.
Raewyn Connell
Australian Raewyn
Connell is perhaps not the most influential thinker in the field of gender in
the twentieth century but it is worth getting to know her for two reasons.
First Connell is interesting as a gender thinker who experienced firsthand the
complexity of the issue today, when she was born a man and eventually became a
woman. Connell‘s biography of course influenced her thinking and she became one
of the pioneers of the gendered preoccupation with masculinity, after decades
in which men enjoyed the status of observers on the debate. Connell has
published a highly influential book called "Masculinities" which
claimed that there is more than one way to be a man and also, as Connell proves,
one does not have to be a man at all.
Know your Feminism: