EDIT: I just noticed the dozens of grammatical errors, but can't be bothered to edit them. Deal with it.
I figured it's been a long while since I've published anything here, so here's a paper I wrote for a feminist philosophy class. I took it as an elective, figuring it'd probably give me some insights as to how feminism fits into the North American system.
I figured it's been a long while since I've published anything here, so here's a paper I wrote for a feminist philosophy class. I took it as an elective, figuring it'd probably give me some insights as to how feminism fits into the North American system.
All in all, it was a decent course. I went in with a lot of predispositions, feminism being a relatively undeveloped stream of philosophy and all. But some theories proposed are quite interesting to look at from a humanitarian perspective, not to mention it's pretty easy marks.
This paper was written on an original topic (all of the other topics required me to read some other stuff outside of class, no thanks), entitled "Capitalism: A Political Exposé of Feminist Issues".
Feminism, in its broadest sense, is a catalyst for social change and for egalitarianism. While this encompasses a myriad of interests departing from a number of theories, dominance theories in feminist philosophy provide perspectives on social inequality ways that sameness and difference theories do not address. It forces the examination of the effects of social hierarchies rather than simply speculating the reasons as to how and why social hierarchies occur. In departing from purely philosophical bends on reality and focusing on the certainties, the course of action taking becomes more apparent. This is why by taking the dominance approach, feminists can advance more decisively toward true egalitarianism, and dismantle capitalism and patriarchy. Feminists such Catherine MacKinnon and Marilyn Frye have provided much insights in their own accounts the degenerative effects of social hierarchies upon humanity. These scholars haven’t however, suggested a definitive solution to the types of oppression they write about. Therefore in this paper, I will provide a political exposé of feminist issues, while attempting to construct a plausible course of action for the ultimate reform of America’s current capitalist society, to be replaced by an ideal, feminist egalitarian society. While perhaps my account and proposals may not be as prominent or as explicative as the above noted philosophers, it is nonetheless certain that in order for an egalitarian society to emerge, current cultural dispositions must be reformed, and capitalism in its entirety must be eliminated, because the very nature of capitalism is undemocratic and oppressive. Note that for the purposes of this paper, capitalism will be used to address not only its economic attributes, but its political and social nature as well. I propose the theoretical emphasis of such a reform be based on three attributes of America in which many, if not all types of oppression occur: the American constitution, capitalism and American economic imperialism, and finally the American government. The scopes of such oppressions occur ranging from domestic issues to economic imperialism and transnational disputes, and affects any or all of the so-called “oppressed groups” in one way or another.
In order for egalitarianism to emerge in an otherwise capitalist dominant regime, the pretense that a top-down approach is required must be established. That is to say, the course of action has to be swift and radical with revolutionary tendencies, such as ones proposed by more radical versions of dominance feminism; any other approach would be insufficient in deconstructing capitalist ideals. This is due to a number of reasons. First, while more conservative and democratic bottom-up approaches provided by sameness and difference theories have been successful in relative ground-breaking changes for feminists, the quest towards egalitarianism from capitalism occurs at a very steep curve. When equality is achieved by using sameness and difference approaches, not only is it generally a question of creating or removing difference (MacKinnon, 1987), it is also generally a movement of public compromise within a system; such as movements for suffrage or for equality in working conditions, where one party compromises for the difference of rights for others or for oneself. While there is nothing wrong with compromising the situation, in reality, many of these accommodations have been different in practice than in theory. Young’s (1990) theory of oppression would propose that many of these types of said reformations would only address one of the many faces of oppression while excluding some others completely. Furthermore, a second reason will propose that compromising a situation is not the same as compromising oneself in a situation: capitalism in nature tends to assimilate any and all kinds of changes via commercialism and consumerism (Greene, 2008), and therefore easily oppresses any approach not radical enough. A sense of this could be achieved when returning to an issue of bell hooks’ paper discussing male feminists’ lack of enhancement in their quality of life when attempting to make progressive changes (hooks, 1993). In this excerpt of hooks’ work, it is shown that even when peaceful progressive changes are being made by feminists, the very overarching presence of capitalism attempts to label and sell feminism as a product for social change. As a result, young men wishing to become good feminists such as those interviewed by hooks, are in reality compromising the act of being a feminist by meeting feminist standards and promises set by the pre-existing capitalist culture. Thirdly, in trying to work within the system to achieve egalitarianism, MacKinnon would propose that social change should not be a struggle for power, but be “challenge [to] change” (MacKinnon, 1987, p.251). Capitalism, because it predates and dominates feminism in America, and because of its power-relations nature, would set the overarching precedence for any social change as a struggle for power. Instead, a dominance theorist would propose that a political reform should be driven by love for egalitarianism, and not animosity towards capitalist power struggles. This is why a reform for egalitarianism should not be conservative and from within, but instead be radical. For the abovementioned reasons and more, it is clear to see why a radical dominance approach is needed for a revolution against capitalism.
So, with this antecedent in mind, I propose that the first step to the revolution against capitalism would be to attack the very foundations of the America: its constitution. Only by uprooting the foundations of the issues could feminists replace America’s current biased culture. I understand that constitutions by its exalted nature are considered in many nations as their “economy, households, religions, education, manners, and arts—[in addition to] the organization of government” (Sheldon, 2008, p.1130); essentially, the constitution is the symbolic fundamentals of a nation. Therefore, I am not necessarily proposing that the American constitution in its entirety should be revised. However, the symbolic attributes of the American constitution must be redefined. As attributed by American president Calvin Coolidge (1923-29), Americans consider living “under the American Constitution . . . the greatest political privilege . . . ever accorded to the human race”. This self-evident biased notion of America’s greatness has transcended through time to be seen even today: President Barack Obama in 2009 addressed that “the values and ideas in [the constitution] are not simply words written into ageing parchment; they are the bedrock of [American] liberty [and] security” (MSNBC, 2009). Egalitarianism cannot exist within a nation whose very constitution feeds the attitude to its culture that relative to America’s emphasized greatness, there exist lesser people outside of the United States. This is because America is also has a culture created by minorities consisting of African Americans, Latino Americans, in its patriarchal nature, women, and more. And by feeding this notion of superiority to its culture, these minorities are forced to look upon themselves through condescending eyes. This is exactly what Collins would attribute as the “ideological dimension of . . . oppression” (Collins, 2000, p.53). The ideologically assumed qualities of inferiority by American standards present to any American individual justification for the continued discriminatory oppression of said minorities, and to a large extent, even towards oneself.
As much as racism is an issue that bleeds the social systems of America, classism is an even more paramount issue of concern. In departing slightly from the domestic social issues of America, I propose that the second step in the revolution for egalitarianism should focus on the diminishment of capitalism and economic imperialism. This is a fundamental procedure for political and cultural egalitarianism that few feminists would argue against. The issue of focus here is how and why capitalism uses American politics oppress the social system. If the reformation of the domestic issues of America focuses on the cultural gentrification of minorities such as Latin Americans, it is then important to note that most Latinos exist in America due to the great inflation caused by American companies operating in Latin America. As observed by economists as early on as the 1990’s, this problematic issue becomes even more disturbing: incoming American investments to stimulate Latin American economies for the benefit of the United States are often not invested in productive activity, but instead “squandered in ostentatious consumption by the moneyed classes” (Silverstein, 1992, p.768); mounting increasing trade deficits and debts which translates to a “vast transfer of wealth [and] population northward” (Silverstein, 1992, p. 768). The economic dominance of America over Latin American states, through the systemic use of plutocratic imperialism, furthermore reinforces the essentialist notion of American superiority over lesser, non-Americans who are essentially third-world, poverty stricken, and cannot afford to feed their starving. In actuality, third world countries such as Ecuador or Peru are abundant in resources and have the capacity to feed their own, but the exploitation of these resources by the capitalist plutocracy of America has, in Gelos’ (2009) research, led to higher interest rates, less efficient banks, and larger economic reserve requirements in Latin America. As much as oppression of races and ethnicities is a problem in America, discrimination of wealth and status is the real underlying issue when confronting capitalism for social change. This is because capitalism is a top-down regime in which the rich exploit the poor. In this paradigm, racism is but a byproduct of classism, because the oppressor in capitalism is not the man seen with actively racist qualities, but the men that aren’t seen—the corporate monopoly owners and the politicians, who ultimately are responsible of the creation of this type of oppression. In replacing capitalism, there is no need to break new grounds, as many works of feminist economics have already been proposed. In its nature, feminist economics (Ferber, 2003) would attempt to limit or eliminate economic oppression in the ubiquity of self-interest, the primacy of cooperation over competition, and primacy of efficiency versus equity.
Only in successfully dealing with capitalism could the third step of governmental reform occur. The repressive measures which the current American government takes have been reinforced throughout a century of placing statutory laws and capitalist ideals in the “most brazen zenith” (Goldman, 1917). In other words, capitalism has changed the traditional ways of governing in the United States. The fundamentals of American governing can be traced back in its cultural history. To get a grasp of this from the perspective of feminism, we can return to Paula Gunn Allen’s paper discussing the roots of American governing; she argues that United States has “derived its wealth, its values, its food. . . [and so on] from Native America” (Allen, 1992, p.193). Allen was not the only one to have made this observation: many political thinkers have also argued that the Iroquois League provided the model for the American government and constitution, as well as the ideas embodied within them. For instance, the idea of the confederation of states ruled by a central federal government has been argued by scholars as primarily a product of the Iroquois League. Morgan (1851) observed, even before the initial founding of the Confederate States of America, that the government of the Iroquois League was vested in a council of chiefs “distinguish[ed] from other kinds of chiefs”, by the “right to sit in the League of council”, and each from a “particular clan in a particular tribe” (Morgan, 1851, p.177-190). Morgan and his peers’ observations would in less than two decades, become the structural foundation of the American confederation. Unfortunately, according to Allen, the current oppressive nature of governing is due to the “loss of memory” (Allen, 1992, p.195) of such foundations. That is to say, the “formation of the United States was influenced by Iroquois political and philosophical traditions . . . [that have] been forgotten” (Grinde, 1977, p.133). The politics and governing of America has traditionally been based on its constitution and on its confederation, which in themselves were not meant to be oppressive, but instead liberal and democratic. The creation of capitalism however, has since then distorted the traditional systems. Thus is why the elimination of capitalism takes precedence over the issues of American governments in my proposed reformation. It is only after the corruptive power nature of capitalism has been lifted can a social democracy be established.
Culture and social systems in America are defined by its governing. The government is bound by its constitution, which has increasingly been a subordinate of capitalist ideals. Not by coincidence, capitalism is also of system of classes with top-down dominance, in which all forms of governing, economics and social issues are passed down from the wealthy. As different as we have been taught by capitalist dominance to look at one another, the truth remains that capitalism is still the oppressor. Capitalism gives birth to the ignorant notion that exploitation through political means allows Americans to have material things and the best possible basic standards of living, and therefore is justifiable. In this system however, it is the business giants and the capitalist-funded governments who define the extent of material necessities and the standards of living; and a few successful women, Latino Americans, African Americans, or any other so-called oppressed groups, do not define a type of achievement for their group or for the general public. So in conclusion, as long as capitalism persists in America, any attempts at peaceful, bottom-up approaches towards social change will simply be a fight for the scraps from the table of oppressive rich white men. A radical movement with revolutionary tendencies is needed for the destruction of capitalism and the advancement to an egalitarian era.
Reference List:
Allen, P. G. (1992). Who Is Your Mother? Red Roots of White Feminism. In Hackett, E. & Haslanger, S. (Eds.), Theorizing Feminisms | A Reader. (pp. 192-200). New York: Oxford University Press.
Collins, P. H. (2000). The Politics of Black Feminist Thought. In Hackett, E. & Haslanger, S. (Eds.), Theorizing Feminisms | A Reader. (pp. 51-61). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ferber, M. A. & Nelson, J. A. (2003). Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Gelos, R. G. (2009). Economic Inquiry. Banking Spreads in Latin America. (Vol. 47. Issue 4. pp 796-814). Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=17&sid=7fc2d414-5242-46bb-be0b-d05bcb3ecabe%40sessionmgr11
Goldman, E. (1917). Anarchism: What It Really Stands For. In Anarchism and Other Essays. (3rd Revised Edition). New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association.
Greene, T. W. (2008). Critical Sociology (Sage Publications, Ltd.). Three Ideologies of Individualism: Towards Assimilating a Theory of Individualisms and their Consequences. Retrieved from: http://crs.sagepub.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/content/34/1/117.full.pdf+html
Grinde, D. A. Jr. (1977). The Iroquois and the Founding of the American Nation. San Francisco: Indian Historian Press.
Hooks, B. (1993) Seduced by Violence No More. In Hackett, E. & Haslanger, S. (Eds.), Theorizing Feminisms | A Reader. (pp. 333-335). New York: Oxford University Press.
MacKinnon, C. (1987). Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination. In Hackett, E. & Haslanger, S. (Eds.), Theorizing Feminisms | A Reader. (pp. 244-255). New York: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, L. H. (1851). The League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois. New York: Sage and Brother.
NBC News and msnbc.com. (2009, May 22). Barack Obama’s Naval Academy address | Transcript of the president’s May 22 speech as prepared for delivery. Retrieved from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30886701/
Sheldon, G. W. (2008). Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Constituting the Constitution: Understanding the American Constitution Through the British Cultural Constitution. (Vol. 31. Issue 3. pp 1129-1137). Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=8&sid=54ffda98-77bd-4a45-8f93-a09a05ef2cec%40sessionmgr4
Silverstein, K. (1992, December 21). Marketing Misery In Latin America. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=17&sid=9e10c3eb-70e7-4e61-8d81-aeabcf7faba9%40sessionmgr15
Young, I. M. (1990). Five Faces of Oppression. In Hackett, E. & Haslanger, S. (Eds.), Theorizing Feminisms | A Reader. (pp. 3-16). New York: Oxford University Press.
As you could probably tell, what I usually do with term papers in the arts department is I fill up the word count with complete bullshit I make up, and then fill them in with academic sources lol
-vH
-vH