Feminism (PHIL20046)

“Feminism is for everybody”! “Men have no place on the women’s march!”. "If your feminism isn’t intersectional, it’s bullshit!” “It is not the job of feminism to care about all injustice everywhere!”. “Feminism is about women’s equality with men!”. “Feminism isn’t about equality with men, it’s about women’s liberation from what men have created!” These are all familiar claims, and yet they pull in completely different directions. What is feminism? Who is it for? Can men be feminists? What is intersectionality, and must feminism be intersectional? What are the orthodoxies of mainstream feminism, and do they hold up under scrutiny? In this subject we’ll critically consider a range of feminist arguments (with an emphasis on second wave feminism). We’ll also consider a range of applied topics like prostitution, surrogacy, inclusion of transwomen, beauty norms, and feminist tactics.