Essentialism and Anti-Essentialism in Feminist Philosophy.

Stone, Alison (2004) Essentialism and Anti-Essentialism in Feminist Philosophy. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 1 (2). pp. 135-153. ISSN 1745-5243

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Abstract

This paper revisits the ethical and political questions raised by feminist debates over essentialism. Reviewing these seemingly disparate debates, I identify in them a coherent history of engagement with 'essentialism' understood, in a relatively unified sense, as the belief that there are properties essential to women and which all women share. Feminists' widespread rejection of essentialism posed a well-known problem: it undermined feminist politics by denying women any shared characteristics which might motivate them into collective action. Re-evaluating two responses to this problem - 'strategic' essentialism and Iris Marion Young's idea that women are not a unified group but an internally diverse 'series' - I argue that are both are unsatisfactory, tacitly retaining essentialism as a descriptive claim about the social reality of women's lives. However, building on Young's idea that women should be reconceived as a non-unified sort of social group, I argue for understanding women to have a genealogy. Based on a reading of Nietzsche's concept of genealogy, I suggest that women always acquire femininity by appropriating and reworking existing cultural interpretations of femininity, with the result that all women become situated within a history of overlapping chains of interpretation. Because all women are located within this complex history, they are identifiable as belonging to a determinate social group, even though they do not share any common understanding or experience of femininity. I conclude that the idea that women have a genealogy can allow feminists to reconcile anti-essentialism with commitment to a coalitional politics.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Moral Philosophy
Additional Information:
“The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Moral Philosophy, 1 (2), 2004, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2004 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Journal of Moral Philosophy page: http://mpj.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/hq
Subjects:
?? PHILOSOPHYHQ THE FAMILY. MARRIAGE. WOMAN ??
ID Code:
34
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
13 Jun 2005
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
23 Oct 2023 00:20