Feminist Thought
Radical Feminism

Emerges in 1960s as women active in civl rights and other causes become frustrated with the sexist behavior of their male colleagues, become tired of being told that women's "concerns" need to wait

Radical feminism
Insists that gender subordination is primary (not secondary to other forms of domination)

i.e., not causally dependent upon other forms of domination AND
more universal, harder to change, more deeply embedded in our psyches, less visible

Thus, challenging women’s subordination should be top priority of all social activists

Jaggar and Rothenburg
Characterize Radical Feminism as viewing women’s subordination through the sex/gender lens
 
A strong distinction between these two concepts is not warrranted theoretically,

**Because there is no real distinction made in the  "real" world

Does MacKinnon share this approach to sex/gender?  Is there an important difference between sex/gender in society, in law?

Charlotte Bunch

How does Bunch say men define lesbians and why? (174)

How does Bunch define Lesbianism? (174, 177)

Like Marx/Engels, Bunch asserts that sex was the basis of the first division of labor
"men hunted, women build the villages, took care of children, and farmed.  Women collectively controlled the land, language, culture and the communities.  Men were able to conquer women with the weapons that they developed for hunting when it became clear that women were leading a more stable, peaceful, and desirable existence.  We do not know exactly how this conquest took place, but it is clear that the original imperialism was male over female:  the male?

First, ponder her assertions about the original divisions of labor.  Are they plausible?  Are they grounded in empirical fact? 

Second, consider her assertion that the sexual division of labor led to all forms of imperialism.

Is this an important element of understanding the nature of women's oppression?

What's a Lesbian to do?  What is the pathway to living an empowered life as a woman, according to Bunch?

What kind of heterosexual priviliges do women enjoy? (bottom of 176)

What is the relationship between capitalism and sexism for Bunch?  (177)

Other points:  On Technology and Reproduction
Her comment that in vitro fertilization ("test tube babies") will free women from doing all of the reproductive labor

Similar to Shulamith Firestone's (1970, The Dialectic of Sex) proposition that women can now be free and equal to men because technology can free them from their reduction to their reproductive function

Monique Wittig
Women not a "natural group"
Both our bodies and our minds have been shaped, deformed by ideology

Some feminists justify their own theories on natural distinctions between men and women, only with women having the superior qualities, virtues, etc.

Why is this dangerous, according to Wittig?  (179)

Are lesbians women, according to Wittig?

How does Wittig define women? (181)

In Feminist Theory:  Bartky

Begins with Foucault’s work on “disciplining the body”

How are women’s bodies disciplined?

Can women’s bodies become undisciplined?  How?

From a radical feminist standpoint, what is the "solution" to women's subordination?