Talk:French feminism theory
What, you don't think "refers" was adequately glib? --LQ 18:14, 10 March 2007 (PST)
- I've just read Delphy's essay. The point cannot be made strongly enough that so-called "French Feminism" is a complete fabrication. --Ide Cyan 18:17, 10 March 2007 (PST)
Seriously, though, I never understood the phrase "french feminism" to be intended to refer to feminist thought broadly or the women's movement in France, but rather a particular strand of continental philosophy that was self-defined as feminist. I think there are clear connections between Cixous, Wittig, etc. You don't?
I haven't read Delphy's essay - which one? (I don't know what you mean by fabrication; if you mean ex post analysis/definition, well, yeah.)
I do think it's very important to point out that the so-called French feminist school of thought has been critiqued by some feminists as anti-feminist ... --LQ 18:19, 10 March 2007 (PST)
- The essay by Delphy is the one I cite in the article. This is one of the examples she gives:
- Alison C. Young, dans un texte non daté (Institut de criminologie, Cambridge, Massachussetts), souhaite «Prendre les écrits d'une féministe matérialiste, comme Christine Delphy ou ceux du collectif de Question féministes», et les faire parler intertextuellement avec ceux de Julia Kristeva, ou de Monique Wittig, mettant ainsi Wittig avec Kristeva, et non à sa place... justemenent dans le collectif de Question féministes! (Penser le genre, p. 357)
- Delphy underlines how the Americans have been calling "feminists" writers who expressedly claim not to be feminists, like Cixous, and the imperialism of that contempt for these writers' opinions.
- And yep, by "frabication", I do mean after-the-fact analysis. Another Delphy quote:
- ...le «texte» censé constituer l'original du French Feminism est une série de morceaux et de fragments (phrases, citations) extraits d'un univers hétérogène. Ces morceaux ne constituent pas un ensemble indépendemment du commentaire dans lequel ils sont insérés. Ceci justifie de considérer le corpus de commentaires comme une entité distincte de ses référents, de la même façon que le Talmud est à juste titre considéré comme distinct de la Torah. Mais nous ne disposons pas, comme dans le cas de la Torah, d'un autre texte original et homogène. (Penser le genre, pages 327-328.)
- --Ide Cyan 18:39, 10 March 2007 (PST)
I'm trying to rewrite this, so that we can have entries on (a) French women's movement & history of French feminism, as appropriate, and (b) on this concept. I've renamed it as "French feminism theory" but I'm not sure that's the best name. "French feminism school"? "French feminism analysis"? Something that clearly indicates that it's not necessarily "French feminism" as a whole or as a history. I chose "theory" because it seems to tie in better to "Continental theory" but do you have other ideas? Then, the "French feminism" and "French feminist" and "French feminists" can all redirect to a disambiguation page, which will link to both the theory page and a page that is a better survey of feminist thought and history in France. ... Does this seem like a reasonable approach? --LQ 12:23, 14 March 2007 (PDT)