Feminist Theory

Annotated Bibliography: Feminist Theory
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Allen, A. (2015). Emancipation without Utopia: Subjection, Modernity, and the Normative Claims of Feminist Critical Theory. Hypatia, 30(3), 513-529.
In this paper, Amy Allen asserts that the feminist theory is lacking the anticipatory-utopian and explanatory-diagnostic moments. Due to this, the feminist theory has so far failed to be truly feminist and truly critical. Nonetheless, the explanatory-diagnostic mission of assessing the operations of the gendered supremacy relations in both their intricacy and depth appears to be undercutting the very probability of liberation which the anticipatory-utopian task depends on. Amy Allen deploys this ominous paradox to invite the readers of this paper to rethink their understanding of liberation and the way it is linked to the dimensions of anticipatory-utopian critiques. The article asks if the notion of freedom is compatible with the intricate explanatory-diagnostic assessment of the modern-day gender domination which is entangled and intertwined with class, empire, sexuality, and race. The author of the article Emancipation without Utopia explores this question via an evaluation of two particular debates, about modernity and subjection that the paradoxical links between emancipation and power surfaced in specifically seemingly and salient intractable forms. By deriving on the celebrated works of author Michael Foucault, this article makes it blatant to the audience that the negative perception of liberation
has provided the best means for the vital feminist theory to radically change the paradox of liberation and power into some productive tension which can probably fuel a lot of critiques.

Allen, K. R., & Jaramillo-Sierra, A. L. (2015). Feminist theory and research on family relationships: Pluralism and complexity. Sex Roles, 73(3-4), 93-99.
Based on this literary text, feminist ideas about family relations start with critical assessments of the conception template of the middle class, white heterosexually married couple, and their children who utterly depend on them. It is common to see feminist scholars using family complexity and diversity as their reference point by trying to make it apparent how power can infuse all the different family links, from the local to the worldwide scale. According to this article, families are the main locations for both productive and caring labor, as such; families are the basic units that can offer gendered distributing power and socialization across the generations. This article gathers empirical and theoretical studies that cover quantitative studies, case studies, qualitative analyses, and critical analyses that paid attention to a broad array of important topics when it comes to the context of examining families. Notably, these topics entail; differences in intimate and marital dissolution as well as partnerships, fatherhood and motherhood and their links to practice and ideology, inter-generational parent-child socializations and relationships practices, and unpaid and paid labor. As such, it is significant to carry out empirical studies that will help in the improvement of the lives of both families and individuals to discover a lot of practical approaches that will be important for empowering social change and future research.
Bachiochi, E. (2016). EMBODIED CAREGIVING. First Things, (266), 39.
In this research, the author shows the limitations that exist in the modern feminist theories of fatherhood and motherhood. Dependency in humans is a significant experience just like the capability of reasoning. Forlornly, contemporary thought has failed to recognize dependency and has instead touted rational self-interest and individual autonomy. So as to recover a person’s apt relationship with other humans, it is vital to turn to those thinkers who accord dependency its due. Dependency among humans has led to the creation of ethics of care which has offered a significant corrective to the overall contemporary political philosophy as well as the autonomy-dominated feminist hypotheses. That said, the article clearly shows that it is important to change the feminist archetype from the vision of sexual equality which prioritizes autonomy over everything else towards a perception which ennobles caregiving as well as human vulnerability. Therefore, political and moral theories ought to start with the unavoidable reality of dependence among human beings. The mother-child relationship is what has shaped the world and not the self-interested economic father figure. The important work of the caregivers is what has led to the creation of a humane society which does not ignore the fact that dependency is common in all humans and therefore it is important for all people to dedicate themselves to taking care of others.
Johnson, C. M. E. (2015). “Just Because I Dance Like a Ho I’m Not a Ho”: Cheerleading at the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender. Sociology of Sports Journal, 32(4).
In this well-detailed hypothesis, Chelsea Mary, a feminist sports sociologist, critiques the popular cheerleading practices and their role in perpetuating divisions when it comes to the topic of gender divisions in labor as well as dismissing athleticism in women. The article focuses on the varying experiences among black college cheerleaders as well as cheerleaders who have gained a formal education. Race, gender, ideological perspective, and class can collectively impact the Historically Black Cheerleading Style (HBCU) thus influencing the style of cheerleading and the manner in which the cheerleaders interpret the performances that they do on the pitch. By deploying what is more of a womanist language, adopting the sexual politics that are linked to respectability off the pitch, and emphasizing on the cultural constraints of choreography in negotiating a common contradiction between taking part in sexualized extracurricular performances and being an upwardly itinerant black college woman, the article clearly shows its audience that there could a visible limit to the free feminist principle of personal empowerment for the females in sport as well as the significance of institutional context when it comes to both gender and race theory.
Lascuarín Fernández, M., & Villafuerte Valdés, L. F. (2016). The International Relations theory under a feminist approach. Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad, 11(1), 45-61.
According to this article, the sociological notion of studying international relations relies on the acknowledgment of the lop-sided relations of dominion. The traditions of neorealism and realism theory coincide with developments of visions when it comes to the study of both feminism and gender, where the epistemological ideals are analogously lop-sided links between women and men in their cultural, political, social, and economic roles. Therefore, the feminist approaches to the topic of International Relations have led to the introduction of gender issues as vital tools in assessing and studying the interactions between different countries within the universal framework. Despite the many efforts that have been put in place so as to construct better International Relations Theory, evaluations of the different feminist theories have created a minimal impact so far on the international politics. The authors of this article analyze in great detail the importance of adopting feminist perspectives while analyzing International Relations so as to foster it.
Mennel, B. (2014). From Utopian Collectivity to Solitary Precarity: Thirty Years of Feminist Theory and the Cinema of Women’s Work. Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture, 30(1), 125-137.
In this study, the existing feminist theories clearly show the renewed interest in work, economics, and materiality. Second-wave feminism has played a critical part in preparing the background for the notion of neoliberalism, and it clearly differs with the claims that were made by Helke Sander. According to this paper, Schwarzer reduced feminism in Germany to women’s bodies and sexuality. The author proposes that if the feminist movements were more focused on the economy, then women would be better served. There is a continuing paradigm shift in feminism according to the literary text by Barbara Mennel, and public intervention would greatly help in mitigating the contrast between these two areas; social, material, and economic reality and desire, sexuality, and textuality. The author of the article goes on to deploy the accusation by Niejahr as the point of departure to return to a chief film that focused on the second wave West German Feminism to illustrate how the current feminist theories have specifically focused on overcoming this distinction by linking economy to sexuality and materiality to textuality. In the recent years, the scholar clearly demonstrates in the paper that feminist interests in both materialism and economy have resurged. That said, Barbara suggests that issues such as the European fiscal crisis, austerity, new capitalism, neoliberalism, and unemployment have made feminist to conceptualize questions of economy and sexuality and work and women. Within the context of globalization and Europeanization, chief topics have been drawn from the second wave feminism, and these topics include; reproduction, economy, and labor. As such, feminist have revised the materialist paradigms of the Marxist-inflected feminist’s approaches to work within the context of the modern global capitalism, while transgender and queer studies have succeeded in transforming the comprehension of the foundational category of feminism-“woman.”

Roosth, S., & Schrader, A. (2012). Feminist theory out of science: Introduction. Differences, 23(3), 1-8.
According to this study, there are close ties between the critical feminist theory and science. Therefore, it is quite possible to envision the critical feminist theories with the globe’s scientific accounts. Roosth and Schrader clearly demonstrate their attempt to refigure probable traffic and relationships between science and feminism. Notably, the effort illustrated by these authors in developing this project was motivated by the theory of Out of Bounds series that was developed by the University of Minnesota Press. According to these scholars, scientific theories can have critical influences in informing cultural critique. Up until now, both mathematical and biological theories have been manifested through the crafty labors of members from the female gender who usually mutually crochet models of corals and the other hyperbolic creatures of the sea. By primarily focusing on the 20th and 21st Century life sciences, the authors make it blatant to the readers that life sciences had radically evolved at a crucial time when biohackers, bioengineers, and synthetic biologists built new biological systems to evaluate now biology operates. Also, the links that exist between time, animality, and technicity in the scientific determinations of the environmentally harmful species have played a part in redefining today’s feminist theories.
Snyder, E. (2014). Indigenous feminist legal theory. Canadian Journal of Women andthe Law, 26(2), 365-401.
This article focuses on the importance of detailed gender analyses of the indigenous laws. Currently, the “Gender neutral” approaches do dominate the field of the indigenous laws and have ignored aspects of the gendered realities of the original laws as well as the gendered dimensions of theorizing. As such, Snyder emphasizes that there is an urgent need to come up with theoretical frameworks that will explicitly tackle these issues and due to this, the scholar articulates in this paper the Indigenous Feminist Legal Theory. The author argues that this theory is an important assessment tool that will help in analyzing the Indigenous Laws as gendered. The author builds on this theory by bringing three different bodies of literary work together which are presently not analogous to one another. These theories are; Indigenous feminist theory, indigenous legal theory, and feminist legal theory. The paper shows that indigenous feminist legal theory can lead to the multi-juridical, intersectional, anti-essentialist, and intersectional reading of the law which is significant to different fields.
Turner, S. G., & Maschi, T. M. (2015). Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice. Journal of Social Work Practice, 29(2), 151-162.
According to Turner and Maschi, empowerment and feminist theories are particularly significant when it comes to the understanding of both sociopolitical and individual levels of assessment of social work as well as intervention. Therefore, integrating empowerment and feminist approaches in practice can offer the social workers with plenty of knowledge, skills, and values that will probably help in promoting the rights of every woman as well as social justice. Developing professional identification and identity with the whole social work profession bear a lot in common with the empowerment and feminist theory. Both theories do emphasize on collective and individual identity development within the context of gender and social discrimination and inequality. Therefore, a good understanding of the feminist social work theory, as well as practice, will help in the empowerment of women specifically by focusing on domination as well sub domination. The authors go on to argue that feminist social workers do recognize that women empowerment ought to be anchored in the experiences of women themselves.
Weiss, G. (2015). The normal, the natural, and the normative: A Merleau-Pontian legacy to feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability studies. Continental Philosophy Review, 48(1), 77-93.
The author of this article proposes that the phenomenology of the embodiment by Merleau-Ponty can be an imperative ally for the modern feminist theories, the critical race theories, and disability studies. The reason behind this proposal is the fact that Merleau-Ponty’s work suggests that race, disability, and gender are not fixed, or innate features of these bodies and are much less bodily indicators of social, psychic, moral, and even physical inferiority. However, gender, race, and ability are dynamic phenomena which can overturn the accepted ideals of normativity, naturalness, and normalcy. Weiss suggests that we as humans usually directly engage with the world via our bodies instead of our consciousness and therefore it is critical to pay attention to the manner in which a person’s race, gender, and physical abilities explicitly influence how our bodies are responded to and perceived by other bodies. The response that one receives can have a significant influence on the way a person interacts with others, and it is, therefore, imperative to radically change the already institutionalized cultural norms and expectations which view females as being different from males.
References;
Allen, A. (2015). Emancipation without Utopia: Subjection, Modernity, and the Normative Claims of Feminist Critical Theory. Hypatia, 30(3), 513-529.
Allen, K. R., & Jaramillo-Sierra, A. L. (2015). Feminist theory and research on family relationships: Pluralism and complexity. Sex Roles, 73(3-4), 93-99.
Bachiochi, E. (2016). EMBODIED CAREGIVING. First Things, (266), 39.
Johnson, C. M. E. (2015). “Just Because I Dance Like a Ho I’m Not a Ho”: Cheerleading at the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender. Sociology of Sports Journal, 32(4).
Lascuarín Fernández, M., & Villafuerte Valdés, L. F. (2016). The International Relations theory under a feminist approach. Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad, 11(1), 45-61.
Mennel, B. (2014). From Utopian Collectivity to Solitary Precarity: Thirty Years of Feminist Theory and the Cinema of Women’s Work. Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture, 30(1), 125-137.
Roosth, S., & Schrader, A. (2012). Feminist theory out of science: Introduction. Differences, 23(3), 1-8.
Snyder, E. (2014). Indigenous feminist legal theory. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 26(2), 365-401.
Turner, S. G., & Maschi, T. M. (2015). Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice. Journal of Social Work Practice, 29(2), 151-162.
Weiss, G. (2015). The normal, the natural, and the normative: A Merleau-Pontian legacy to feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability studies. Continental Philosophy Review, 48(1), 77-93.