Like many other beliefs and philosophies, feminism has fractured into many sub-categories of interpretation. Whilst all feminists are aimed at identifying and defending equal opportunities for women, how this is interpreted has developed and fragmented over the years to the effect that feminism is now a relatively complex structure of overlapping ideas and concepts.

Post-structuralism largely takes its lead from French philosophy. Post-structuralism can be applied to be many things and fundamentally believes that our interpretation of what is right comes from our own experiences and interpretations. As such, it can never be entirely objective. This is why there are so many different beliefs in the world, because all those millions of people have completely different experiences and societal influences. Post-structural theory takes a particular interest in language as this is how we communicate our experiences. As such, language shapes the way that we see the world.

Feminist post-structuralism looks philosophically at the way in which women are treated in the world and attempts to break down barriers by identifying how societal influences have led to the status quo. It is a rather less militant branch of the movement, seeking to make change by demonstrating that equality is invariably a product of the environment and that by shaping that environment, equality can quite easily be addressed.

The issue of language is particularly important in feminist post-structuralism. In the mainstream, it is one of the areas that most commonly comes up for criticism as being obsessively politically-correct. Terms like ‘mankind’ and ‘headmaster’ are heavily criticized by post-structural feminists, who believe these gendered terms reinforce inequality and place women at a second level of authority. Over recent years, many legal authorities have sought to eradicate the use of these terms on the basis that they are inherently discriminatory, but the reasons for this have not always been made particularly clear.

Post-structuralism teaches that the thought process is entirely healthy because it is fluid and dynamic. All the time that humans are thinking, their views and beliefs can be changed. As soon as something is spoken, in post-structuralist terms, it almost becomes fact, certainly so after it has been spoken many times. The prolific use of the term headmaster, therefore, doesn’t establish the role in the right concept. The headmaster is the most senior teacher in the school and carries the ultimate authority in that particular institution. The head teacher’s gender is irrelevant and the position should therefore carry the title ‘headteacher’ to accurately and truthfully describe the role.

Post-structural feminism argues that by referring to the head teacher as ‘headmaster’, students are encouraged to believe that he is dominant through his gender; that the other female teachers are less important due only to the fact that they are not male. Fundamentally, of course, this branch of thought agrees that this works both ways and post-structural feminism would see the term ‘headmistress’ as divisive in this context.

Post-structural feminists believe that society is generally based around a very dualist view of gender and that this has come from years of experience and use of language. Language consistently puts females as the secondary sex and gives male dominance. This situation is not driven by nature, where the concepts of male and female exist purely in a biological, reproductive sense. Only the human race has adopted a hierarchy, where men and women are concerned.

As well as the use of language, this movement also looks at the way in which power operates in society. The use of the term power here refers more to social aspects of the concept and argues that socialization (that is, how society applies pressure to be a certain way) is more powerful than anything else. Post-structural feminists argue that the way in which society values masculinity and femininity in such different ways drives much of the equality that still exists today.

There is nothing bombastic or domineering about post-structural feminism as that, in itself, would go against the principles of fluid thinking. The movement seeks to challenge perceptions of gender through the use of appropriate language and the way in which gender models are socialized but does not seek to mandate that there is only one ‘truth’. Post-structural feminism simply seeks to challenge historical values and interpretations of the truth and encourages society to try and see things from a different perspective.

Reference:

http://www.bera.ac.uk/post-structural-feminist-and-queer-action-research/