Feminism versus multiculturalism: Excerpts from the article by Leti Volpp (2001)
If you haven't read this article, I would strongly encourage you to do so. Volpp makes a compelling and provocative argument.
snip:
We identify sexual violence in immigrant of color and Third World communities as cultural, while failing to recognize the cultural aspects of sexual violence affecting mainstream white women. This is related to the general failure to look at the behavior of white persons as cultural, while always ascribing the label of culture to the behavior of minority groups.
snip:
The failure to see that not only racialized minority cultures conflict with feminist values reflects the habit of assuming people of color to be motivated by culture and white persons to be motivated by choice.
snip:
Those with power appear to have no culture; those without power are culturally endowed. Western subjects are defined by their abilities to make choices, in contrast to Third World subjects, who are defined by their group-based determinism. Because the Western definition of what makes one human depends on the notion of agency and the ability to make rational choices, to thrust some communities into a world where their actions are determined only by culture is deeply dehumanizing.
snip:
Recognizing that feminism exists within communities of color breaks down the equation between multiculturalism and antifeminism inherent in the notion of "feminism versus multiculturalism." (This equation breaks down as well when we realize that gender-subordinating values are also valued in the dominant culture of the West).
Citation: Volpp, L. (2001). Feminism versus multiculturalism.
Columbia Law Review, 1181-1218.
Full article:
http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=facpubs
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