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(1998) Human Studies 21 (3).
Strategically speaking
the problem of essentializing terms in feminist theory and feminist organizational talk
Leslie J. Miller , Jana Metcalfe
pp. 235-257
This paper examines the discursive construction of collective identity in several feminist organizations, as a way of shedding new light on the debate over "essentializing" or "totalizing" terms in contemporary feminist/postmodernist theory. We argue that while this debate is about language, it has remained largely untouched by the insights of a discursive approach. The latter as we take it up here treats language as irremediably "strategic" or "interested." In contrast, the feminist argument over essentializing terms appears to hold to a correspondence version of language, a position which limits the debate in fatal ways. Part 1 reviews the argument that terms such as "women", "feminist" and "feminist identity" are essentializing discourses which dominate by silencing difference. Part 2 then considers the way one such concept – feminist identity – is actually constructed and used in the routine talk of members of feminist organizations. In Part 3 we draw out the implications of a discursive approach to such terms for the feminist/postmodernist debate.
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Full citation:
Miller, L. J. , Metcalfe, J. (1998). Strategically speaking: the problem of essentializing terms in feminist theory and feminist organizational talk. Human Studies 21 (3), pp. 235-257.
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