4.4 Critical Feminist Theories
Feminist Theories
“Feminism” is “defined as the belief that men and women are equal and should have equal rights and opportunities in all spheres of life—personal, social, work, and public.” (L. Baxter and Braithwaite 2008, 290)
Gender (different from sex): social meaning attached to biological distinct, which is embedded in communication
Patriarchy: " a system that reflects primarily the interests, values, perspectives, and experiences of men, as a group." (L. Baxter and Braithwaite 2008, 290)
Critical Theories:
- "identify prevailing structures and practices that create or uphold disadvantage, inequity, or oppression, and to point the way toward alternatives that remote more egalitarian relationships, groups, and societies. (L. Baxter and Braithwaite 2008, 292)
The production of the two theories:
- The recursive relationship between how cultural structures and practices differently and inequitably shape women’s and men’s lives and communication practice and vice versa.
Assumptions:
- “members of groups defined by sex, race, and other factors occupy distinct positions in a society - those are their social location.”
Methodological Implication: examination of power that is both formal and informative ones.
Power:
- in relation to unequal status, privilege.
Communication: with less communication on a subject, we’d have less knowledge of it, or even notice it.
- Hence, we should name and increase social awareness of women’s experiences.
Examples
Sexual harassment
Date rape
Marital rape
Second Shift
Conversational maintenance work
Evaluation:
Parsimonious: few concepts (gender, power, dominance).
Limited explanability since it focuses on sex and gender, and limited utility: small subset of people.
Application:
- Based on Co-Cultural Theory, the authors found that even when they constitute a large part of an institution’s population, Hispanic students still feel the need to behave under White norms (assimilationist strategies).
- Modification s to office logistic and and practitioners’ behavior can increase a healthy communication environment among trans-patient-practitioner
(Nuru, Coleman, and Coleman 2018)
memorable messages about race:
denial of racism
preparation for bias
promotion of mistrust
these memorable message help make sense of racial hierarchies in Cost Rica and racial socialization in the global contexts.
Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication framework should consider:
- power
- bi-directionality between private and public realms
- critique/resistance/transformation of the status quo in the service of social-justice ends
- author reflexivity
“(a) What is my impetus for speaking and writing? (b) Where am I speaking from? (c) To whom am I accountable in this process? (d) What are the potential material and discursive effects resulting from my speaking and writing” (Yep, 2010, p. 173)