Cartographies of Conflict

1
Cartographies of Conflict Collaboration Trinh
T. Minh-ha on the women's movement "I see the
women's movement as being necessarily
heterogeneous in its origin, even though it may
be claimed more readily by certain groups and
remains largely white in its visibility. On the
one hand, I readily acknowledge my debt to the
movement in all the reflections advanced on the
oppression of women of color. On the other hand I
also feel that a critical space of
differentiation needs to be maintained since
issues specificially raised by Third World women
have less to do with questions of cultural
difference than with a different notion of
feminism itself--how it is lived and how it is
practiced. Naming yourself a feminist is not
without problem, even among feminists. In a
context of marginalizaion, at the same time as
you feel the necessity to call yourself a
feminist while fighting for the situation of
women, you also have to keep a certain latitude
and to refuse that label when feminism tends to
become an occupied territory. Here, you refuse,
not because you don't want to side with other
feminists, but simply because it is crucial to
keep open the space of naming in feminism."
("Between Theory and Poetry," in Framer Framed.)
2
What has changed since Reassemblage?

• Anthropology self-reflexive turn, reverse
  anthropology
• Debate about how to get beyond the impossibility
  of representation
• Diverse stories of empowerment Woman is depicted
  as the one who possessed the fire/ Only she knew
  how to make fire.
• Listening for differently inflected feminist
  voices
• Feminist historiography reading the historical
  archive against the grain to excavate the
  international linkages that forged feminism from
  the get-go

3
Diverse Foremothers

• From whom we can learn new forms of praxis,
  deconstruct our own assimilation of the masters
  tools, and draw connections between how certain
  forms of power articulate with one another.

4
Emmeline Pankhurst (1914)Is there anything
more marvelous in modern times than the kind of
spontaneous outburst in every country of this
womens movement. Even in China--and I think it
somewhat of a disgrace to Englishmen--even in
China women have won the vote, as an outcome of a
successful revolution.
5
Qiu Jin (1875-1907)
6
Audre Lorde/Afrekete(1934-1992)recreating in
words the women who helped give me substance
Ma-Liz, DeLois, Louise Briscoe, Aunt Anni, Linda,
and Genevieve MawuLisa,thunder, sky, sun, the
great mother of us all and Afrekete, her
youngest daughter, the mischievous linguist,
trickster, best-beloved, whom we must all become.
7
Jamila BouhereidAlgerian woman who played an
instrumental role in the Algerian resistance
against the colonial French forces.
8
Huda Sharawi meeting with women from various
Arab Countries. Sharawi was the founder of the
Egyptian Feminist Union, who called for the ban
of the veil at the beginning of the twentieth
century.
9
The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle The
Masters House Women of today are still being
called upon to stretch across the gap of male
ignorance, and to educate men as to our existence
and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of
all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied
with the masters concerns. Now we hear that it
is the task of black and third world women to
educate white women, in the face of tremendous
resistance, as to our existence, our differences,
our relative roles in our joint survival. This is
a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition
of racist patriarchal thought. --Audre
Lorde
10
Mohanty it is not just Third World women who
are or should be concerned about race, just as
feminism is not just the purview of women.
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As Cynthia Enloe reminds us Silence has made us
dumb. Listening seriously to feminist voices
that emerge from situations different for ours is
essential to understanding how power works All
of us, as a result, are likely to become much
smarter, more realistic about what kinds of power
have constructed the international political
system as we know it. Paying serious
attention to women can expose how much power it
takes to maintain the international political
system in its present form. -Enloe
12

• Feminism is something open and changing, that
  challenges the status quo, but also to be
  challenged when it produces hegemonic status quo
  understandings of gender that presume a singular,
  universal gendered experience.
• Feminism is expressed in a broad range of
  rhetorical styles and modes, from outrage to
  outreach, from theory to testimonial. While we
  may be more comfortable in certain registers,
  this does not make one more authentic than
  others. Neither poetry nor theory is a luxury.
  Both require a commitment to learn to listen and
  to creatively explore difficult territory.
• Feminism in the US is always already
  international, even though these roots may be
  erased or forgotten (Examples black is
  beautiful and the personal is political.)

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Cynthia Enloes questions Where are the
women? What does adding women into the picture
do? How do powerful political actors on the
world stage use certain women and certain ideas
about women to pursue their goals? Feminism is
not just an additive exercise. It requires more
than just adding women in. Considering how gender
(masculinity constructed in relation to
femininity) organizes the world (how gender makes
the world go round) fundamentally changes how we
understand and analyze history, society,
politics, and economics.
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The Global Victim The Problem of Essentialism
15
Gender is man-made, not essential. Women are
not just acted upon they also shape, resist, and
reshape gender norms. Complexity of women in
regimes of power that oppress other women, for
example the Victorian lady travelers who gained
independence through travel but reinforced
European colonialism. Worlds Fairs and racist
models of hierarchical progress reinforced white
feminine norms (female domesticity as
civilized) in the U.S. Women in diverse
situations are articulate about inequality and
strategies for coping. Hope and potential If
the world has been made therefore it can be
remade. It can be taken apart and reassembled.
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Terms Debates

• International
• Between
• Highlighting the nation-state unit
• Scholars focused on the continued, organizing
  power of national borders and the relations
  between women or feminisms defined by national
  definitions, rules, and regulations

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Terms Debates

• Transnational
• Across
• Highlighting movements that cross national
  borders
• Scholars interested in analyzing womens agency
  in a globalizing context how women build
  alliances across national borders
• As a corrective to idea of global sisterhood

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Terms Debates

• Third World
• Mohanty geographical location and
  sociohistorical conjuncture incorporates
  minority peoples or people of color in the U.S.
• She is arguing for it as a political not a purely
  descriptive term.
• Link between feminist and political liberation
  movements.
• First and Third is not just rhetorical, but
  recognizes material inequality based on a long
  history of slavery, enforced migration,
  plantation and indentured labor, colonialism,
  imperial conquest, and genocide.

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Cartographies of Struggle

• Think about Enloes example of tourism in On the
  Beach Sexism and Tourism
• How might we identify cartographies of struggle
  that emerge in tourism using configurations of
  power presented by Mohanty
• colonialism, class, and gender
• the state, citizenship, and racial formation
• multinational production and social agency