There is a fundamental tension in contemporary
feminism between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. 
Traditional theorizing has long been interpreted by feminists as
problematic insofar as it represents a mode of abstract generalization that is
detached from the particularities of concrete experience, producing theories
that are authoritative, hierarchical, and exclusionary.  Feminism, by and large, seeks to ground
theory in concrete practices in order to recognize the oppressive relations
embodied in these practices. The tension, therefore, is this: how can the local
complexities of material practices, so important to feminism, ground the
abstractions inherent to any theorizing? According to Carolyn Dever,

[t]his is the double bind of
theoretical production: abstraction from the local is, on the one hand, useful
and necessary; on the other, it represents the failure to account for all the
material claims and challenges the local evidence presents (5).

In her pioneering new book Skeptical Feminism: Activist Theory,
Activist Practice, Dever traces the historical developments of this tension
in feminist theory-production from popular, activist, and academic perspectives
as they emerge from the second-wave woman’s movement in the United States, from
the early 1970’s to the present.

The book consists of five chapters
representing key developments in the history of feminist theory. Chapter One,
"The Future of an Ideal," addresses the women’s liberation movement
in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and the consciousness-raising movement that
subsequently emerged.  This movement attempted
to ground theory in the concrete, personal experiences of women in order to
raise awareness of the exclusionary political relations that are already
embedded in everyday social practices. Put in another way, "the personal
is political." This awareness of common experiences will allegedly result
in an empathic "sisterhood," an emotional union or coalition that
women can turn to for a sense of solidarity and strength.  Dever problematizes this grassroots movement
by revealing how its concerns are not universal for women insofar as the
movement has a tendency to interpret the practical experience of femininity
through the lens of traditional patriarchal conventions, neglecting those
experiences that are non-domestic, not "white, middle-class, and
heterosexual" (35).  Moreover, the
movement merely engages the individual "symptoms" of patriarchal
oppression rather than the deeper, more systemic social and historical
conditions that cause these symptoms (39-40).   

Chapter Two and Chapter Three
represent the heart of Dever’s project, with a thorough investigation of the
role psychoanalytic feminism plays in the United States. Chapter Two, "The
Activist Unconscious," explores the feminist critiques of Freudian
psychoanalysis in the mid 1970’s and the impact of Lacanian analysis in the
early 1980’s.  This turn to
psychoanalysis represented a shift away from grounding theory in individual
bodily experiences to a more abstract ground, namely, the unconscious mind
(53). By initially attacking Freud’s conception of the woman as inadequate or
inferior to the extent that she does not posses a phallus, critics such as Kate
Millett suggest that a woman’s psychological trauma is not a product of innate
anatomical conditions, but a result of a culture and history that already
devalues the sex and gender of women. Following Lacan, feminist theorists
further attempted to "de-biologize" the early Freud by suggesting
psychoanalysis is not fundamentally concerned with empirical body parts but
about the ways in which a patriarchal background of linguistic and social
meanings unconsciously shapes the way men and women interpret themselves from
childhood on, tacitly imposing conformist standards of heterosexuality and
domestic "normalcy."  By
focusing on the linguistic and social conditions that invariably determine the
unconscious mind, feminist theorists can begin to get clear about how and why
the female myths of passivity, motherhood, and the nuclear family persist in
the West.

Chapter Three, "The Feminist
Body-Politic," continues this argument by applying the insights of psychoanalytic
theory to body-politics. Dever illustrates the ways in which social power
relations are built into sexed-bodies to the extent that Western culture
unconsciously privileges the myth of the male-dependent vaginal orgasm. Theory
grounded in feminist body-politics begins to dismantle this myth by
appropriating the sex studies of Alfred Kinsey in the early 1950’s and Masters
and Johnson in the mid 1960’s. These studies reveal that the clitoral orgasm is
the only female orgasm, and feminist
theorists embrace these empirical findings by suggesting they do more than
merely emancipate the woman from male sexual dependency. They also deflate the
taboo against self-knowledge embodied in masturbation and expose the weaknesses
of traditional heterosexual feminism by that revealing lesbian relationships
may be the most personally and sexually fulfilling insofar as women have a
deeper knowledge of their own bodily desires.        

In Chapter Four, "The Feminist
Abject," the author reveals how feminists in the late 1970’s and early
1980’s used novels to express their concern over academic feminist theorists
who were becoming increasingly formal, detached from the concrete
particularities of everyday life. By using examples of self-loathing and
humiliation exhibited in the filth and contingency of the woman’s
body-functions, these authors attempted to ground feminist theory in the
material body by subverting the very assumptions of purity and asceticism
inherent to the academic life of the mind.

Chapter Five, "Obstructive
Behavior," explores how feminist theory has appropriated the category of
"lesbian" as one that further deflates the authority of heterosexual
feminism, an authority that fails to come to grips with a background of
patriarchal assumptions. As Dever writes,

Women who fail to consider the
erotic potential of other women are trapped in a patriarchal web, living their
lives and setting their expectations only in terms of their relationships to
men; thus, feminists fail to confront their full investment in patriarchal
power until they confront the personal politics of their bedroom (144).

The assumptions of heterosexuality have a pernicious
tendency to exclude not only homosexuals, but others on the margins, poor women
and women of color. By focusing on the categories of "gay" and
"lesbian," Dever shows how feminist theorists are able to dismantle
the ways in which the conception of "normal" has been socially and
historically constructed. This deconstruction allows for a more open and
inclusive theoretical posture. 

Dever rightly concludes that
feminist theory–in order to remain committed to the myriad complexities of
everyday life and to resist the exclusionary and hierarchical tendencies of
abstraction–needs to be constantly invented and reinvented. This
"cyclical renewal" is embodied in the very history of feminist
theorizing itself. Feminist theory has, for the most part, continued to keep
the lines of dialogue open between academic and non-academic practitioners and
ceaselessly challenged assumptions of normativity, specifically the practices
of the white, middle-class, and heterosexual. 

Dever does a masterful job at
revealing how this historical tension creates the common thread that
politically binds together the various strains of feminist theory. While her
book is well-written and clear, it does require some background knowledge in
feminist philosophy. It is ideal for scholars and graduate students interested
in a comprehensive historical overview of feminist social theory.

©
2005 Kevin Aho

Kevin Aho, Ph.D., College of Arts and Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University

Categories: Philosophical, Ethics