Enloe: Feminist Curiosity
On how to exercise feminist curiosity
It is time to raise the awareness that the peculiar situation and conditions of women cannot be taken for granted anymore. Women’s experiences need to be given public attention. Using the women as weeders scenario as an example, a feminist curious person would begin to ask why is it that it is only women who weed. Though not very explicitly, the little child who asked the Dad about why is it that it is only women who do the weeding is an example of feminist curiosity. For Enloe, asking these critical and thought-provoking questions about the experiences of women which have been taken for granted or as natural is been feminist curious.
It is not also enough to just ask the critical questions but to …show more content…
For instance, using the women as weeders scenario once again, she notes that asking feminist curious questions about why women do the weeding would reveal the hidden lines about how the society is structured. Who is assigned to weed would reveal who get to own land, who is trained to operate the tractor, who stays in school and who is pulled out of school. Therefore, on the surface, who is assigned to weed may appear to be natural or a trivial issue, but at a deeper level, it is not trivial because an analysis of who weeds would reveal how the global agricultural system is …show more content…
She observes that the conventional analysis of feminism is to identify the consequences or impacts of certain actions on women. However, feminist curiosity goes beyond impacts to identifying the causal relationships of societal and global phenomena. Relegating women to certain roles, behavior, and beliefs may help determine why for instance, certain factories are moved from certain countries to others, or why certain wars occur in some countries but not others. Identifying causes and impact would invariably offer explanatory power to the experiences and conditions of women and their interrelationship with families, ideologies, culture, society, and institutions. An increased understanding of the interrelationship of women conditions would provide a foundation for theorizing and formulate potential ways to improving the condition of women and the society more
It is time to raise the awareness that the peculiar situation and conditions of women cannot be taken for granted anymore. Women’s experiences need to be given public attention. Using the women as weeders scenario as an example, a feminist curious person would begin to ask why is it that it is only women who weed. Though not very explicitly, the little child who asked the Dad about why is it that it is only women who do the weeding is an example of feminist curiosity. For Enloe, asking these critical and thought-provoking questions about the experiences of women which have been taken for granted or as natural is been feminist curious.
It is not also enough to just ask the critical questions but to …show more content…
For instance, using the women as weeders scenario once again, she notes that asking feminist curious questions about why women do the weeding would reveal the hidden lines about how the society is structured. Who is assigned to weed would reveal who get to own land, who is trained to operate the tractor, who stays in school and who is pulled out of school. Therefore, on the surface, who is assigned to weed may appear to be natural or a trivial issue, but at a deeper level, it is not trivial because an analysis of who weeds would reveal how the global agricultural system is …show more content…
She observes that the conventional analysis of feminism is to identify the consequences or impacts of certain actions on women. However, feminist curiosity goes beyond impacts to identifying the causal relationships of societal and global phenomena. Relegating women to certain roles, behavior, and beliefs may help determine why for instance, certain factories are moved from certain countries to others, or why certain wars occur in some countries but not others. Identifying causes and impact would invariably offer explanatory power to the experiences and conditions of women and their interrelationship with families, ideologies, culture, society, and institutions. An increased understanding of the interrelationship of women conditions would provide a foundation for theorizing and formulate potential ways to improving the condition of women and the society more