Imperial feminism

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Imperial feminism, also known as imperialist feminism, colonial feminism or intersectional imperialism refers to instances where, critics argue, feminist rhetoric is used to justify empire-building or imperialism. [1] [2] The term has come into greater usage in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with one scholar declaring it as something which "privileges inequality through gender bending that masquerades as gendered equality... Imperial feminism privileges empire building through war." [3] The related term intersectional imperialism has applied to the foreign policy of Western nations which are perceived as engaging in, or supporting, imperialistic policies while at the same time promoting inclusive and progressive rhetoric at home. [4]

Contents

In academia and the discourse surrounding women's studies, imperial feminism and its related terms are generally used to critique Western feminism's attitudes towards non-white and non-Western countries, alleging that they perpetuate inaccurate and demeaning stereotypes about the status of women in third world countries. In particular, Western feminism has been critiqued for supposedly creating an image of non-white and non-Western women in a lower socioeconomic position in the countries they live in than reality. In addition, Western feminism has been critiqued used the "imperial feminism" sobriquet for instances of racist viewpoints being displayed towards marginalized minority ethnic groups who are not part of mainstream feminism. Some scholars have claimed that postcolonial feminism has developed partly in response to the attitudes being displayed by their Western counterparts. [2]

Early history

The term "imperial feminism" has its roots in the expansion of European colonial empires in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As Europeans came to rule over large populations of non-white and non-Western people, among the several arguments they used in favor of the so-called "civilizing mission" was that women in these nations were oppressed by the male population thanks to old-fashioned sexist ideologies. Colonial rule, they claimed, would benefit these women by liberating them from the shackles of their male counterparts. [2]

Palestinian-American historian Edward Said characterizes this phenomenon as part of "Orientalism" and claims European scholarship, culture, and society have perpetuated stereotypes about non-Western civilizations' culture, practices, and society as morally depraved and backwards in order to establish control over them. [5] Among these practices, the subjugation of women was heavily criticized and used by colonial powers as a justification for their continued rule. Cultural practices such as sati, child marriage, and pardah were all cultural aspects which European powers pointed to as supposed "backwardness" of Oriental nations. [6] In Southwest Asia and North Africa, colonial powers fixated on the Islamic veil as a symbol of oppression. Evelyn Baring, a colonial administrator in Egypt, was known for his campaigns against the veil, which he claimed had an oppressive effect on Egyptian women. [7] In the colonial Philippines, Westerners were horrified by the social acceptance of women's exposed breasts in public, perceiving this as an obscenity that they needed to be 'saved' from. [8] Europeans viewed these practices as backwards and demonstrative of a need for European rule, providing colonial powers with an ideological justification for colonial rule. [2]

Recent usage

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States and its allies launched an invasion of Afghanistan. Among the rhetoric used to justify the war in the United States, some was focused on the plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban as a reason for launching the invasion. First Lady Laura Bush, for instance, made several radio speeches claiming that the American invasion would help the Afghan women be freed from the oppression of the Taliban. In one of her speeches, she stated that, "Civilized people throughout the world are speaking out in horror – not only because our hearts break for the women and children in Afghanistan, but also because in Afghanistan, we see the world the terrorists would like to impose on the rest of us." [9] Bush made similar arguments throughout her husband's time in office, prompting Mother Jones to write in 2007 that Laura Bush had taken the lead in pushing "a tidy moral justification for [the U.S.] invasion of Afghanistan." [10]

A few months after the invasion, Bush celebrated the U.S.'s apparent progress towards emancipating the women of Afghanistan:

Because of our recent military gains, in much of Afghanistan women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment. Yet, the terrorists who helped rule that country now plot and plan in many countries, and they must be stopped. The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women. [11]

These arguments have been criticized by some, including American writer Akbar Shahid Ahmed, who writes that while appearing to be beneficial on the surface, Bush's rhetoric is harmful toward's America's goals in Afghanistan, with the Taliban choosing to "present empowering women... as code for entrenching American control." In addition, she has raised the question of whether or not "critical efforts to help women secure the status of full citizens... really need to be tied to U.S. militarism." [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonialism</span> Creation and maintenance of colonies by people from another area

Colonialism is a practice by which a one group of people, social construct or nation state controls, directs, or imposes taxes or tribute on other people or areas, often by establishing colonies, generally for strategic and economic advancement of the colonizing group or construct. There is no clear definition of colonialism; definitions may vary depending on the use and context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperialism</span> Policy or ideology of extending a nations rule over foreign nations

Imperialism is the practice, theory or attitude of maintaining or extending power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing not only hard power, but also soft power. Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining hegemony and a more or less formal empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American imperialism</span> Expansion of American political, economic, media, and cultural influence

American imperialism is the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, media and military influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest; gunboat diplomacy; unequal treaties; subsidization of preferred factions; regime change; or economic penetration through private companies, potentially followed by diplomatic or forceful intervention when those interests are threatened.

Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are misrepresented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Other (philosophy)</span> Concept in philosophy and psychology

Other is a term used to define another person or people as separate from oneself. In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other distinguish other people from the Self, as a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; hence, the Other is dissimilar to and the opposite of the Self, of Us, and of the Same. The Constitutive Other is the relation between the personality and the person (body) of a human being; the relation of essential and superficial characteristics of personal identity that corresponds to the relationship between opposite, but correlative, characteristics of the Self, because the difference is inner-difference, within the Self.

Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The White Man's Burden</span> Poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling

"The White Man's Burden" (1899), by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. Originally written to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the jingoistic poem was replaced with the sombre "Recessional" (1897), also a Kipling poem about empire.

Transnational feminism refers to both a contemporary feminist paradigm and the corresponding activist movement. Both the theories and activist practices are concerned with how globalization and capitalism affect people across nations, races, genders, classes, and sexualities. This movement asks to critique the ideologies of traditional white, classist, western models of feminist practices from an intersectional approach and how these connect with labor, theoretical applications, and analytical practice on a geopolitical scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subaltern (postcolonialism)</span> Concept from critical theory and post-colonial studies

In postcolonial studies and in critical theory, the term subaltern designates and identifies the colonial populations who are socially, politically, and geographically excluded from the hierarchy of power of an imperial colony and from the metropolitan homeland of an empire. Antonio Gramsci coined the term subaltern to identify the cultural hegemony that excludes and displaces specific people and social groups from the socio-economic institutions of society, in order to deny their agency and voices in colonial politics. The terms subaltern and subaltern studies entered the vocabulary of post-colonial studies through the works of the Subaltern Studies Group of historians who explored the political-actor role of the common people who constitute the mass population, rather than re-explore the political-actor roles of the social and economic elites in the history of India.

<i>Orientalism</i> (book) 1978 book by Edward W. Said

Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author establishes the term "Orientalism" as a critical concept to describe the West's commonly contemptuous depiction and portrayal of The East, i.e. the Orient. Societies and peoples of the Orient are those who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Said argues that Orientalism, in the sense of the Western scholarship about the Eastern World, is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power.

The concept of imagined geographies originated from Edward Said, particularly his work on critique on Orientalism. Imagined geographies refers to the perception of a space created through certain imagery, texts, and/or discourses. For Said, imagined does not mean to be false or made-up, but rather is used synonymous with perceived. Despite often being constructed on a national level, imagined geographies also occur domestically in nations and locally within regions, cities, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of colonialism</span> Aspect of history

The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Turks, and Arabs.

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. The field started to emerge in the 1960s, as scholars from previously colonized countries began publishing on the lingering effects of colonialism, developing a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of imperial power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist movements and ideologies</span>

A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decoloniality</span> School of thought

Decoloniality is a school of thought that aims to delink from Eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the perceived universality of Western knowledge and the superiority of Western culture, including the systems and institutions that reinforce these perceptions. Decolonial perspectives understand colonialism as the basis for the everyday function of capitalist modernity and imperialism. Decoloniality emerged as part of a South America movement examining the role of the European colonization of the Americas in establishing Eurocentric modernity/coloniality. Decolonial theory and practice have recently been subject to increasing critique. For example, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò argued that it is analytically unsound, that "coloniality" is often conflated with "modernity", and that "decolonisation" becomes an impossible project of total emancipation. Jonatan Kurzwelly and Malin Wilckens, used the example of decolonisation of academic collections of human remains - which were collected during colonial times to support racist theories and give legitimacy to colonial oppression -, and showed how both contemporary scholarly methods and political practice perpetuate reified and essentialist notions of identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-imperialism</span> Political stance in opposition to interventionist or expansionist policies

Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influence from a global superpower, as well as in opposition to colonial rule. Anti-imperialism can also arise from a specific economic theory, such as in the Leninist interpretation of imperialism, which is derived from Lenin's 1917 work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. People who categorize themselves as anti-imperialists often state that they are opposed to colonialism, colonial empires, hegemony, imperialism and the territorial expansion of a country beyond its established borders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinkwashing (LGBT)</span> Promotional use of LGBT rights

Pinkwashing, also known as rainbow-washing, is the strategy of promoting LGBT rights protections as evidence of liberalism and democracy, especially to distract from or legitimize violence against other countries or communities. The concept has been used by Sarah Schulman in 2011 with reference to Israeli government public relations, and is related to homonationalism, the exploitation of sexual minorities to justify racism and xenophobia. Pinkwashing is a continuation of the civilizing mission used to justify colonialism, this time on the basis of LGBT rights in Western countries. More broadly, pinkwashing can also be defined as "the deployment of superficially sympathetic messages for [ends] having little or nothing to do with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) equality or inclusion", including LGBT marketing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embedded feminism</span> Concept in feminism

Embedded feminism is the attempt of state authorities to legitimize an intervention in a conflict by co-opting feminist discourses and instrumentalizing feminist activists and groups for their own agenda. This term was introduced in the analysis of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, but can also be applied to several historical examples where women's rights were used as justification and legitimization of Western interventionism.

White feminism is a term which is used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on white women but are perceived as failing to address the existence of distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges. The term has been used to label and criticize theories that are perceived as focusing solely on gender-based inequality. Primarily used as a derogatory label, "white feminism" is typically used to reproach a perceived failure to acknowledge and integrate the intersection of other identity attributes into a broader movement which struggles for equality on more than one front. In white feminism, the oppression of women is analyzed through a single-axis framework, consequently erasing the identity and experiences of ethnic minority women the space. The term has also been used to refer to feminist theories perceived to focus more specifically on the experience of white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied women, and in which the experiences of women without these characteristics are excluded or marginalized. This criticism has predominantly been leveled against the first waves of feminism which were seen as centered around the empowerment of white middle-class women in Western societies.

<i>Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan</i> 2009 book by Lina AbiRafeh

Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention is a 2009 book by Lina AbiRafeh.

References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 Amos, Valerie; Parmar, Pratibha (1984). "Challenging Imperial Feminism". Feminist Review (17): 3–19. doi:10.2307/1395006. ISSN   0141-7789. JSTOR   1395006.
  3. "Hillary Clinton's Imperial Feminism". The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. 2016-10-23. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  4. Engler, Yves (19 August 2020). "Trudeau's Venezuela policy is a stain on Canada's global reputation". Canadian Dimension.
  5. Said, Edward W. (2014). Orientalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN   978-1-322-17630-7. OCLC   892699230.
  6. "[PDF] Feminism, Imperialism and Orientalism: the challenge of the 'Indian woman' - Free Download PDF". nanopdf.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  7. Women rising : in and beyond the Arab Spring. Stephan, Rita,, Charrad, M. (Mounira). New York. 9 June 2020. ISBN   978-1-4798-4664-1. OCLC   1120784076.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. Coloma, Roland Sintos (2012). "White gazes, brown breasts: imperial feminism and disciplining desires and bodies in colonial encounters". Paedagogica Historica. 48 (2): 243–261. doi:10.1080/00309230.2010.547511. ISSN   0030-9230. S2CID   145129186.
  9. 1 2 Ahmed, Akbar Shahid (3 March 2016). "Dear Laura Bush, This Is Not The Way To Help Oppressed Women". Huffington Post . Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  10. Gettelman, Elizabeth (1 July 2007). "Hidden Half: Women in Afghanistan". Mother Jones . Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  11. "Radio Address by Mrs. Bush". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2020-10-21.