traditional international relations analyses are just the tip of the iceberg
TRANSCRIPT
• Chapter 5
Middle-earth & Feminist Theory
Traditional International
Relations analyses are just
the tip of the iceberg
Feminist analyses create a stronger,
more-inclusive basis for
understanding and explaining
order and justice
Lenses foreground some things while
backgrounding others
Realist lenses foreground interstate conflict
Liberal lenses foreground interstate cooperation
Neo-Marxist lenses foregroundclass inequalities
Gender-sensitive lenses highlight a
variety of relations of domination in world
politics
“Gender” is not the same as “Sex”
Feminist IR is not just about
looking at women, but
using insights grounded in
women’s lives to look at the
world
Asks “Where are the
women?”
YouTube video of news coverage
Important Terms
Ontology What exists
Epistemology How we know things
Methodology How we find out what
we want to know
Post-Structural
ist
Rationalist
Standpoint
Feminist IR scholarship involves 3 major approaches
Post-Structural
ist
Rationalist
Standpoint
Sees causal connections between gender and
state action
Emphasizes that changing practices of socialization
may be the key to emancipation
Starts research from women’s lives to create
less biased/distorted knowledge
3 “Waves” of Feminism
Anarchy
1st Wave
Liberal Feminism focused on inequalities in the political and
legal system
Women can advance through legal and
social changes
Gender roles are equivalent to biological sex
Women are constrained by
masculine models
Treated as property by Saurman who promises her to Wormtongue
Rejects Aragorn’s statement that she is merely a women and “her part is in the house”
Anarchy
2nd Wave
The “personal” is “political”
Social institutions create inequalities
ConstructivistOntology
Hierarchical gender relations
are not natural, and are created through social constructions of masculinity and
femininity
StandpointEpistemology
Starting from the experiences of those at the “bottom rungs of society” may tell us more about the
world of International Relations
Post-Structuralists
Addressing the “double burden” of reproductive and
productive labor for women may be the
key to broader social change
The “reproductive economy” supports and gives a free ride
to actors in the “productive economy”
Socialist Feminism
Illustrates socialist feminism’s argument that sexism is inextricably linked to problems of class
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Radical Feminism
Challenging systems of
patriarchy and calling for
a radical reordering of society
Anarchy 3rd Wave
Problematizes a singular category of “woman”
Women’s experiences are inextricable from oppression
experienced by other kinds of marginalized groups
Postcolonial Feminism
Women’s perspectives and concerns vary –
there is no “universal” or
exhaustive set of experiences
Dis, the Dwarf Princess
The experiences of Dwarf women are very different than for women of
other races in Middle Earth
Postmodern Feminism
Gender is constructed
through language, and is not always constructed in the
same way
Galadriel
Cannot advise the Fellowship what to do, but can
clarify their opinions to help them make their
own decisions
Traditional IR is just the tip of the iceberg in explaining and understanding
international relations
Objective knowledge is not possible
The privileged are licensed to think for everyone,
so long as they do so “objectively”