Editing Feminism (section)

== Theory ==
{{main|Feminist theory}}
{{see also|Gynocriticism|écriture féminine}}
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical fields. It encompasses work in a variety of disciplines, including [[feminist anthropology|anthropology]], [[feminist sociology|sociology]], [[feminist economics|economics]], [[women's studies]], [[feminist literary criticism|literary criticism]],<ref name=Zajko>{{cite book |author=Zajko, Vanda |author2=Leonard, Miriam |title=Laughing With Medusa: Classical Myth and Feminist Thought |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-927438-3 |page=445}}</ref><ref name=Howe>{{cite book |last1=Howe |first1=Mica |last2=Aguiar |first2=Sarah Appleton |title=He Said, She Says: An RSVP To the Male Text |date=2001 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |location=Madison, N.J. |isbn=978-0-8386-3915-3 |page=292}}</ref> [[Art history#Psychoanalytic art history|art history]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pollock |first=Griselda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKHpAAAAMAAJ |title=Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-41374-9}}</ref> [[Feminist theory#Psychoanalysis|psychoanalysis]],<ref name=matrixial_borderspace>{{cite book |author=Ettinger, Bracha |author-link=Bracha Ettinger |author2=Judith Butler |author3=Brian Massumi |author4=Griselda Pollock |title=The Matrixial Borderspace |date=2006 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-3587-0 |page=245 |author2-link=Judith Butler}}</ref> and [[feminist philosophy|philosophy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brabeck |first1=Mary |url=http://content.apa.org/books/10245-001 |title=Shaping the future of feminist psychology: Education, research, and practice. |last2=Brown |first2=Laura |date=1997 |publisher=American Psychological Association |isbn=978-1-55798-448-7 |editor-last=Worell |editor-first=Judith |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=15–35 |chapter=Feminist Theory and Psychological Practice. |doi=10.1037/10245-001 |access-date=22 January 2021 |editor-last2=Johnson |editor-first2=Norine G.}}</ref><ref name=Florence>{{cite book |author=Florence, Penny |author2=Foster, Nicola |title=Differential Aesthetics: Art Practices, Philosophy and Feminist Understandings |date=2001 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot, Hants, England |isbn=978-0-7546-1493-7 |page=360}}</ref> Feminist theory aims to understand [[gender inequality]] and focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality. While providing a critique of these social and political relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on the promotion of women's rights and interests. Themes explored in feminist theory include discrimination, [[stereotyping]], [[objectification]] (especially [[sexual objectification]]), [[oppression]], and [[patriarchy]].<ref name=Chodorow1989/><ref name=gilligan1977/>
In the field of [[literary criticism]], [[Elaine Showalter]] describes the development of feminist theory as having three phases. The first she calls "feminist critique", in which the feminist reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls "[[gynocriticism]]", in which the "woman is producer of textual meaning". The last phase she calls "gender theory", in which the "ideological inscription and the literary effects of the sex/gender system are explored".<ref name=showalter1979>{{cite book |last1=Showalter |first1=Elaine |author-link1=Elaine Showalter |editor1-first=M. |editor1-last=Jacobus |title=Women Writing About Women |date=1979 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=978-0-85664-745-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenwritingwrit0000unse/page/25 25–36] |chapter=Towards a Feminist Poetics |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womenwritingwrit0000unse/page/25}}</ref>

This was paralleled in the 1970s by [[French structuralist feminism|French feminists]], who developed the concept of ''[[écriture féminine]]'' (which translates as "female or feminine writing").<ref name=Wright2000/> [[Hélène Cixous]] argues that writing and philosophy are ''[[Wikt:phallocentric|phallocentric]]'' and along with other French feminists such as [[Luce Irigaray]] emphasize "writing from the body" as a subversive exercise.<ref name=Wright2000/> The work of [[Julia Kristeva]], a feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher, and [[Bracha Ettinger]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ettinger |first=Bracha |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm62177997 |title=The matrixial borderspace |date=2006 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3586-3 |series=Theory out of bounds |location=Minneapolis |oclc=ocm62177997}}</ref> artist and psychoanalyst, has influenced feminist theory in general and feminist literary criticism in particular. However, as the scholar Elizabeth Wright points out, "none of these French feminists align themselves with the feminist movement as it appeared in the [[English-speaking world|Anglophone]] world".<ref name=Wright2000/><ref name=Moi1986>{{cite book |last1=Kristeva |first1=Julia |last2=Moi |first2=Toril |author-link2=Toril Moi |title=The Kristeva Reader |date=1986 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-06325-8 |page=328}}</ref>