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Hello,
my name is Marisa and I am taking
a women studies course and I
need to know how dichotomies
and universality differ and
the problems feminists have
with these themes. I also need
to know the role it has played
in the study of women. Ii realize
this is probably not your normal
question but I have a paper
due in class tommorrow and I
am having a lot of trouble with
it. If there is any advice or
information you could give me
I would appreciate it alot.
Thank you in advance for you
help, Marisa
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Thanks
for your note to FEMINIST.COM--and
I'm afraid that my response
is coming too late. Nonetheless,
I'll add my two cents. First,
I have to preface this by saying
that Women's Studies courses
annoy me for just this reason--taking
very simple concepts and labelling
something so academic. Universality--means
applying broad descriptions
to all women--perhaps a better
way to say that is generalizing.
For instance, "women lack self-esteem."
Yes, some women do, but some
don't. By focusing on these
larger more generalized concepts--we
get fooled into believing that
women aren't individuals. So
while "universality" says there
is only one way for women to
be," dichotomies" say that there
are only two ways to be--for
instance you are either a pro-choice
or anti-choice--when in reality
women have individual opinions.
It's more than either/or.
—Amy
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