Linking Global Feminisms

In Contesting Cultures, Uma Narayan explores the “problems and paradoxes” that accompany the choices and ideas of Third-World feminist being labeled as a product of “Westernization” (3).  Through an exploration of her own personal life, Narayan finds the catalyst for her feminist thoughts to be her childhood experiences at home, not “Westernization.”  This is especially interesting as the mother and “mother-cultures” have produced the very behaviors and thought processes they hate.  Narayan also explores how the “traditional” cultures are a product of colonial powers needing something to differentiate themselves and establish the colonized as the inferior “other.”  At their core, both of these arguments can apply to many minority or oppressed groups and the word “Westernization” could easily be replaced with “whitening.”  All of the above listed criticism serve to lessen the authenticity of a viewpoint that differs from what some consider as the norm.  This happens often as a way to create a distraction, as a result Third-World feminists can spend more time defending themselves against charges of “Westernization” than actually taking on the issues them feel so passionately about.

Throughout Scattered Hegemonies, Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan seek to link global feminisms.  They show feminism must be linked with nationalism while remaining outside of patriarchal master narratives, but not all feminism is the same.  They state that until white, western ideas of feminism (the staple of modernity) make a genuine attempt to understand the goals of feminists around the globe, they cannot successfully mount a thorough defense against oppressors.  This essay particularly appeals to me, because it forces its reader to consider something other than race, sex, and class.  While not white, I am westerner, so I fall into the category of someone who always thinks in terms of race, sex, and class.

Under Western Eyes puts the spotlight on the practice of western feminists to group third-world women into one homogenous stereotype.  Chandra Mohanty asks western women, specifically US citizens, to realize they have a better economy but still suffer from the same subjugation as third-world women.  By continuing to categorize third-world women as all the same and all suffering from the same problems, western feminists devalue the experiences of these women.

All three essays examine the ideas of “Westernization,” western feminists, themes of colonization, and the lasting effects of western hegemonic influence on third-world feminism.  Narayan gives third-world feminists their own voice back by debunking the myth that their feminism is a product of “Westernization.”  Grewal, Kaplan, and Mohanty show that without the change from a long-established western lens, true transnational feminism may not be achieved.