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Feminism (PHIL20046)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
Availability | Summer Term |
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Fees | Look up fees |
“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.
Intended learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
- Examine some of the major views in feminist theory and their contemportary political applications
- Criticize some key texts from which these views come
- Discuss feminist theory on which to build further expertise in the Level-3 course 'Race and Gender'
- Deploy the methods of critical analysis and argument employed in analytic philosophy.
Generic skills
Students who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
- Think critically
- Analyse and evaluate concepts, theories, and arguments
- Develop and present arguments for or against a position
- Consider multiple viewpoints and arguments for those viewpoints
- Articulate ideas, concepts, and interpretations with clarity and coherence
- Engage in critical reflection, synthesis, and evaluation of research-based and scholarly literature.
Last updated: 15 February 2025