Feminist Theories, Research Paper Example

Sex tourism as a modern phenomenon inspired this essay. Such issue as Canadian women sex tourists in the Caribbean has been one of the topical problems. The aim of this paper is to reveal the nature of the phenomenon as sex tourism, and discuss this issue in the context of liberal, cultural, socialist and postmodern feminist theories.

Many people know that sex tourists pursue the aim: to satisfy sexual needs. Both men and women are engaged in this modern industry. Women sex-tourism is especially cultivated on the Caribbean islands. Usually, this kind of tourism is popular among single or unhappy married women. According to people’s beliefs, Canadian women are one of those who founded sex tourism. To meet the needs of such women and satisfy their sexual desire, local men may offer their sexual services on the Caribbean islands. Unfortunately, it is a dangerous kind of tourism as there is a chance to be contaminated with certain life-threatening diseases (including HIV).

Liberal feminist proclaims the equality among the sexes. According to Okin and other representatives of this feminist theory, all men and women should have equal rights and opportunities in society. Okin explains the principle of justice in the following way: “only with the full participation of both sexes. . . this will require that women take their places with men in the dialogue in approximately equal numbers and in positions of comparable influence” (Okin 14).

The sexual tourism seems to satisfy women’s needs and rights in freedom of choice. Canadian ladies want to be sexually satisfied for a certain amount of money. Liberal feminists welcome the financial independence of each woman. Often, middle-class women are engaged in sex tourism. Although, the liberal feminist researchers follow the idea about the financial independence from men, they suggest that either man or women have their own responsibilities. Many women who disappoint in their family life, want to be out of their responsibilities of a mother and a wife, and go to the Caribbean for romantic and sexual adventures.

Donovan’s cultural theory is based on the idea that women have their own unique culture. Women have a special way of thinking, abilities and opportunities that make them different from men in a patriarchal society (Donovan 177). Probably, Canadian women want to prove men that they have an opportunity to get what they want easily, owing to their natural abilities. Patriarchal society is full of prejudices and bias concerning the leading role of men in human society. In this context, women’s value system presupposes the presence of such sexual desires out of their social environment. As women “accept the diversity” in a natural way, they see in sex tourism new life experience (Donovan 173). However, sex tourism does not correspond to the idea of the caring role of mothering in women’s life. Looking for a sexual affair in the Caribbean, a woman’s organism and mind forget maternal responsibilities.

Socialist feminist theory covers the phenomena of race and gender in its own way. In the book, Wood believes that class struggle is one of the principles of human society (Wood 267).  In the Caribbean, a Canadian white woman may have sexual relationships with a male representative of another ethnic group, turning him into an exploited class. A woman pays for a sexual service, and gets all she wants. She is not oppressed in the Caribbean because she is a desirable client for most Caribbean lovers. The issue of Canadian women sex tourists in the Caribbean demonstrates the exploitation of a working class, the Caribbean male population. Thus, in the modern society, one can note a certain opposite effect in the capitalistic world. However, nobody oppresses each other; the workforce of the country that suffers from unemployment and other economic problems, (the Caribbean men) consciously is engaged in this industry. Unfortunately, there are cases when a woman even does not pay for sexual services.

Postmodernist feminist theory may explain the problem in its own way. According to Butler, a feminine gender, for a woman, is her identity (Butler ¶ 18). Consequently, a Canadian woman, who goes to the Caribbean for sex, wants to expresses her identity this way. Butler believes that a gender is no more than a social category (Butler ¶ 12). Thus, gender is a category that crosses with other categories like race and class: a Canadian woman faces with a Caribbean race and class of economically disadvantaged man.  The postmodern world can easily express the issue under examination. Modern society stands out from the patriarchal principles and prejudices. A woman has achieved everything she wanted: equity with men. However, most postmodernist theories criticize prior rationality and objectivism, and proclaim the essence of the male activity in modern aspect’s of life. One should not forget that sex tourism industry deals with men who look for a sex-adventure with a woman.

Some conclusions can be made on the basis of everything mentioned. Such issue as Canadian women sex tourists in the Caribbean islands is a modern, wide-spread phenomenon. The four feminist theories may explain this in their own way, but some key points should be summarized. Feminism is one of the principal reasons of sex tourism, as more and more women go to the Caribbean to get sex satisfaction. A female sex tourist is a woman, who is sensitive to diversity, and wants to gain new life experience. Nevertheless, free choice and equal rights have their own advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of this phenomenon is voluntary exploitation of the male population, immoral behavior of women who do not perform natural social functions (maternity, married status, etc.) and possible health problems.

One of the most significant phenomena in the human history is a feminist movement. It was one of those movements of the XX century that changed the face of society, and resulted in the modern state of things. Of course, a feminist movement attracted researchers, who developed certain feminist theories. Their research show reasons, peculiarities and results of the movement. This way, there appeared four basic theories: liberal, cultural, socialist and postmodern feminist theories. As most these theories, postmodern feminism can also be considered neither racist nor classist. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which the treatment of race and class in liberal, cultural, socialist, and postmodern feminism is adequate.

Liberal feminism can not be considered racist, because its representatives underlined the role of a woman as a member of a feminine class; the idea of race was not in the scope of the following researchers. Liberal theory of feminism is based on the ideas of such researchers as Okin and Warren. All they stressed on the essence of equality in a patriarchal society. Nevertheless, the researchers examined the feminist movement through different aspects of women’s life.

Proceeding from Okin’s beliefs, a person can not ignore race. Nevertheless, a gender can be ignored; for this reason, she developed the idea of a genderless society (Okin 15). Okin underlines the idea of men and women’s justice and division of their burdens and benefits, as women are less capable to fully satisfy themselves in life. Also, the researcher stresses on the equal family roles and sharing of family financial responsibilities (Okin 21). According to Okin, women’s natural strong sense of justice should be satisfied by means of financial (pay) equity and family justice. In addition, she proposes her own solutions of the problem. A woman should be provided with certain welfare provisions: flexible work hours, parental leave, social services, public education, etc. (Okin, 21). Besides, Okin believes that there are many advantages in female parenting: “women are almost invariably primary parents” (Okin 2). Thus, a women prevails over men in some aspects of life.  Proceeding from the researcher’s statement, one can see that the author was concerned about women’s gender in society.

Warren also defined a woman as a member of a feminine class of society, who has her own advantages and problems that should be solved. Unlike men, a woman is a mother who can make hard decisions (Warren 52). Defending women’s right to abortion, the researcher believes that society should not deny her personhood and autonomy (Warren 47). Warren believes that equal legal rights for fetuses may deprive woman’s autonomy and even life; sometimes, infanticide may be the best choice for a pregnant woman. She considers a birth to be a marker of legal personhood (Warren 63). For this reason, the moral significance of birth lies in protection of infants (in contrast to fetuses, they are equal members of society). Warren’s statements stick to the idea that a woman is a representative of a special gender class in society who is capable to decide whether she will be a mother or not.

As for the treatment of class and race, cultural feminism has its own peculiarities. As for the idea of race, both cultural and liberal theories did not discuss the global problems concerning with race in society. Donovan as a cultural feminist stresses on the “basic differences in the male and female ‘structures’ of knowing” (Donovan 177). A woman lives in a patriarchal society, where feminine value system plays an essential role. A woman’s ethic provides non-materialistic and life-affirming principles. Besides, mothering is extended to the overall woman’s caring role in society (Donovan 182). The researcher thinks that women’s mind stands out from war and all differences in human society. She expresses her ecofeminist idea in the following way: “women…accep[t] the diversity of environmental ‘voices’” (Donovan 173). It suggests the idea of a women’s culture that should be considered as a separatist cultural institution. Proceeding from the statements, one can see that Donovan was concerned with women’s special abilities and opportunities in a patriarchal society.

Daly is another representative of cultural feminist theory. Her radical ideas about future influenced people’s minds. She states that a woman lives in a patriarchal world, full of war brutality and powerful men. She considers that cloning experiments threaten women’s biological future; in the same time, she prognosis that women may live in a happy, women-centered future (Daly 121). According to the researcher, at the end of the twentieth century, a woman faces the abuses. A hope for a happy future is possible if the world is women-centered, and society is gynocentric (Daly 128). Nevertheless, the romantic and idealistic idea about immanent Goddess spirituality in society puts this radical theory in a problematic field. Daly thinks that women are representatives of a gender class that should change the world into the better one.

Socialist theory has a certain treatment of race and class in society. Wood is concerned with class struggle that affects women. The author speaks about the struggle for “extra-economic goods – gender-emancipation, racial equality, peace, ecological health, democratic citizenship” (Wood 264). The author thinks that capital system presupposes this struggle, and working class frequently faces possible problems. Human history knows numerous examples of race and gender oppression (colonialism, slavery, etc.). Wood says that the competitive condition of a labor market derives benefit from racism and sexism, and explains his point: “The point, though, is that if capital derives advantages from racism or sexism, it is not because of any structural tendency in capitalism toward racial inequality or gender oppression, but on the contrary, because they disguise the structural realities of the capitalist system and because they divide the working class” (Wood 267).

Social democracy can not guarantee the destruction of racism and women’s oppression. The author stresses that a capitalist world limits democracy, but she sees that a suitable workforce should be created without Marxist and Communistic principles (Wood 286). The problem of class and race is one of the central points in her book.

Ferguson is a socialist feminist who raises such problems as lesbian culture, class and racism. The author explains the phenomenon of lesbian culture in the following way: “there is at present no international lesbian culture, though there are women who primarily love and/or have sex with women in every society.” (Ferguson, 63).

The researcher believes that lesbian feminist culture challenges gender roles against the background of patriarchal, racist and classist systems. Capitalism led to the open sexual relationships among women. Lesbian subculture takes the form of resistance to patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality. Thus, both Wood and Ferguson can be considered as race and gender-biased researchers, who paid attention to these phenomena in their socialist feminist theories.

Haraway and Butler are bright representatives of postmodern feminist theories. Nevertheless, their treatment of race and gender can not be traced clearly in their principal ideas. Haraway’s article is

“an effort to contribute to socialist-feminist culture and theory in a postmodernist, non-naturalist mode and in the utopian tradition of imagining a world without gender, which is perhaps a world without genesis, but maybe also a world without end” (Haraway 150).

However, the author says that a human being is a dualistic creature, and the divisions into male and female, mind and body are natural. Also, the researcher believes that it is necessary to turn the highly technological world into the new one; in the same time, people should not reject science and technologies. The author uses the cyborg as a “cold” metaphor to explain its political affinity (Haraway 172).

Butler was concerned with the idea of gender in his paper. Describing the phenomenon of gender in human society, the author wants to stress that “Feminist theory has often been critical of naturalistic explanations of sex and sexuality that assume that the meaning of women’s social existence can be derived from some fact of their physiology. In distinguishing sex from gender, feminist theorists have disputed causal explanations that assume that sex dictates or necessitates certain social meanings for women’s experience” (Butler ¶4).

Butler believes that people should not be gender-biased. A woman has her own identity expressed in her biological gender; it can bring either anxiety or pleasure. The researcher does not examine a gender as a crucial point to distinguish one members of society from the other ones. One should remember that women’ experience plays an extremely essential and functional role in society. A woman is not only a wife or a mother, but an identity with her own internal world.

Proceeding from everything mentioned, one can make some conclusions. The four feminist theories are concerned with race and gender in their own way. The socialist feminist theory seems to be the most race and gender-biased feminist theory. The other ones examined the role of women in human society regardless of classes and races. The crucial ideas of these theories are the following: a woman performs her own social functions in human society; she has advantages and rights to be an equal member of society; human history knows the examples when race and gender were crucial to divide people into classes; a certain feminine theory explains its own vision of a woman and its value in society. The examined representatives of the theories, such as Okin, Wood and others were concerned with the ideas of gender and its significance for people and the world.

Work Cited

Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory”. Theatre Journal 40.4. 1988. Web 31 Jan. 2011. http://www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/BtlrPerfActs.pdf

Daly, Mary. “Re-awakening the X-Factor/Faculty and Creating the Archaic Future”. In Daly, Mary, Quintessence: Realizing the Archaic Future. Boston: Beacon, 1998. 110-147. Print.

Donovan, Josephine. “The Moral Vision of Twentieth-Century Cultural Feminism”. In Donovan, Josephine, Feminist Theory: the Intellectual Traditions. Ney York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000. 172-201. Print.

Ferguson, Ann. “Is There a Lesbian Culture?” In Allen, Jeffner, Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures. New York, NY: SUNY Press, 1990. 63-84. Print.

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”. In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York, NY: Routledge, 1991. 149-181. Print. 31 Jan. 2011. Web http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html

Okin, Susan Moller. “Justice, Gender and the Family”. In Philosophy 830 (2001): 1-23. 31 Jan. 2011. Web http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/hubin1/ho/Okin830.pdf

Warren, Mary Anne. “The Moral Significance of Birth”. Ethics & Reproduction 4. 3, (1989):  46-65. Print.

Wood, Ellen Meiksins. “Capitalism and Human Emanicipation: Race, Gender and Democracy”. In Wood, Ellen Meiksins, Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 264-284. Print.