Postcolonial feminism

Postcolonial feminism, often referred to as Third World feminism, is a form of feminist philosophy which centers around the idea that racism, colonialism, and the long lasting effects (economic, political, and cultural) of colonialism in the postcolonial setting, are inextricably bound up with the unique gendered realities of non-white,and non-Western women. Postcolonial feminists criticize Western feminists because they have a history of universalizing women's issues, and their discourses are often misunderstood to represent women globally.

Thus, one of the central ideas in postcolonial feminism is that by using the term 'woman' as a universal group, they are then only defined by their gender and not by social classes and ethnic identities. Also, it is believed by postcolonial feminists that mainstream Western feminists ignored the voices of non-white, non-western women for many years, thus creating resentment from feminists in developing nations.

Postcolonialism can provide an outlet for citizens to discuss various experiences endured during colonialism. These can include: "migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place and responses to the influential discourses of imperial Europe." Postcolonial feminists see the parallels between recently decolonized nations and the state of women within patriarchy - both take the "perspective of a socially marginalized subgroup in their relationship to the dominant culture."

Postcolonial feminists have had strong ties with black feminists because colonialism usually contains themes of racism. Both groups have struggled for recognition, not only by men in their own culture, but also by Western feminists.

History

Postcolonial feminism emerged from the gendered history of colonialism: colonial powers often imposed Western norms on colonized regions. In the 1940s and 1950s, after the formation of the United Nations, former colonies were monitored by the West for what was considered "social progress". The status of women in the developing world has been monitored by organizations such as the United Nations and as a result traditional practices and roles taken up by women—sometimes seen as distasteful by Western standards—could be considered a form of rebellion against colonial oppression.

Third-world feminism has been described as a group of feminist theories developed by feminists who acquired their views and took part in feminist politics in so-called third-world countries.

Relationship to Western feminisms

Postcolonial feminism is critical of Western forms of feminism, notably radical feminism and liberal feminism and their universalization of women's experiences. Postcolonial feminists argue that cultures impacted by colonialism are often vastly different and should be treated as such. Colonial oppression may result in the glorification of pre-colonial culture, which, in cultures with traditions of power stratification along gender lines, could mean the acceptance of, or refusal to deal with, inherent issues of gender inequality. Postcolonial feminists can be described as feminists who have reacted against both universalizing tendencies in Western feminist thought and a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream postcolonial thought.

Postcolonial feminist authors

Postcolonial feminist authors include:

• Gayatri Spivak, with her important "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
• Giannina Braschi, with her mixed-genre critic of Puerto Rico's colonial status "United States of Banana" (2011)
• Trinh T. Minh-ha, with her essay "Infinite Layers/Third World?" (1989), and her book "Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism" (1989)
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty, with her influential essay "Under Western Eyes" (1988)
• Uma Narayan, with her book Dislocating Cultures (1997) and her essay "Contesting Cultures" (1997)
• Kwok Pui-lan, with her book Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (2005)
• Sara Suleri, Boys Will Be Boys: A Daughter's Elegy (2003)
• Lata Mani, Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (1998)
• Kumkum Sangari, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History (1989)
• Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995)
• Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza (1987) And the recopilations: This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color(1981) Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color(1990)
• Audre Lorde
• June Jordan
• Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Postcolonial feminist quotes

Many feminists have contributed to postcolonial feminism by using written words to express their ideas and opinions - which have been of great importance to the postcolonial feminist movement.

• "The juncture I am proposing, therefore, is extreme. It is a location wherein the praxis of U.S. third-world feminism links with the aims of white feminism, studies of race, ethnicity, and marginality, and with post-modern theories of culture as they crosscut and join together in new relationships through a shared comprehension of an emerging theory and method of oppositional consciousness." - Chela Sandoval

• "Given the significant dangers that varieties of cultural essentialism pose to feminist agendas, I believe that the development of a feminist perspective that is committed to antiessentialism both about 'women' and about 'cultures' is an urgent and important task for a postcolonial feminist perspective. Such a perspective must distinguish and extricate feminist projects of attending to differences among women from problematically essentialist colonial and postcolonial understandings of 'cultural difference' between Western culture and its 'Others.' - Uma Narayan

• "While a politics of inclusion is driven by an ambition for universal representation (of all women's interests), a politics of partiality does away with that ambition and accepts the principle that feminism can never ever be an encompassing political home for all women, not just because different groups of women have different and sometimes conflicting interests, but, more radically, because for many groups of 'other' women other interests, other identifications are sometimes more important and politically pressing than, or even incompatible with, those related to their being women." - Ien Ang

See also

• History of feminism
• Postcolonialism
• Third-world feminism
• Transnational feminism
• Global feminism
• Sex segregation and Islam
• Islamic feminism
• Chicana feminism
• Black feminism
• Womanism