mohanty, spivak, where are you?
one of the main purposes of feminism is to help the community of women come together.
the production of knowledge is one of the important aspects of the first world-third world divide, something that also eventually becomes very gendered, making it a critical issue in the third world feminists' agenda.
every time i read feminist theory about third world feminism, i invariably find references to mohanty and spivak as the primary voices of indian feminism. i find it incredibly sad that they too seem to have followed the first world custom of exclusive knowledge production. i've hunted quite a bit and for a while now, and not found one of their papers available for free online. what is the point of sitting abroad, trying to make a point about how the third world feminists lack access to mainstream feminist theory and knowledge - and denying access to those very arguments?!
its very frustrating and sad that we have more access to white feminism in india than to ours, especially with everyone tripping over themselves to say at the first opportunity that they're doing progressive work, socially relevant work, but "imnotafeminist"!
indian feminism... you're sorely needed!
the production of knowledge is one of the important aspects of the first world-third world divide, something that also eventually becomes very gendered, making it a critical issue in the third world feminists' agenda.
every time i read feminist theory about third world feminism, i invariably find references to mohanty and spivak as the primary voices of indian feminism. i find it incredibly sad that they too seem to have followed the first world custom of exclusive knowledge production. i've hunted quite a bit and for a while now, and not found one of their papers available for free online. what is the point of sitting abroad, trying to make a point about how the third world feminists lack access to mainstream feminist theory and knowledge - and denying access to those very arguments?!
its very frustrating and sad that we have more access to white feminism in india than to ours, especially with everyone tripping over themselves to say at the first opportunity that they're doing progressive work, socially relevant work, but "imnotafeminist"!
indian feminism... you're sorely needed!
Labels: brownskinspeak
scribbled by m. at 7:32 pm
7 Comments:
Amen!
Just discovered you, am ashamed to say, but you're on my blogroll now!
erimentha: hello! saw your blog too: well met! :)
Even when you can get hold of Spivak, she's so ridiculously dense a writer that she's almost completely inaccessible.
*glares at Spivak*.
Do you think two glares are better than one? On second thoughts, maybe we would reduce her to ashes, and then where would we be?!
aishwarya: lol... yesh!
erimentha: *grin*
You might also look up Lata Mani in addition to Spivak and Mohanty. I don't know if there are free articles etc. but they are worth reading.
Actually you can get Chandra Tapade Mohanty's works on the net "Under Western Eyes" and "Under Western Eyes Revisited" and also some of Spivak, "Does the subaltern speak" etc. Browse around. They're great reading.
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