Recently, I have seriously read some books on feminism, and have some new thoughts and confusions.
1.Feminism , Li Yinhe、the earliest scholar who began to study Chinese female feminism, and is also a very well-known feminist.
When I read the author’s explanation of patriarchy, I mapped it to China’s current social form, and found that although Chinese men do not recognize or selectively ignore the facts but evidences of inequality between men and women are starkly presented to us.
Li Yinhe said that patriarchy mainly includes four points, male domination, male identity, objectification of women, and patriarchal thinking patterns.
- Male Domination：It means that in a society, no matter in politics, economy, law, education, military field and family field, all positions of authority are reserved for men.In year’s list of 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,no female Committee members.
- Male Identity：Core cultural notions about what is good, desirable and pursued.In Chinese society, it is generally believed that it is good to go out to work and earn money to support the family, while being a housewife at home is useless.
- Female Objectification：Simply put, it is to deny women’s sexuality and impose male sexuality on women.Even in the economically developed China in the 21st century, many backward areas still believe that girls should not receive education.
- Patriarchal Mindset：It’s an either-or mindset.For example, homosexuality is still not recognized by the mainstream society in China. For example, homosexuality is still not recognized by mainstream society in China. On July 6, 2021, the WeChat accounts of LGBTQ organizations in many Chinese universities were blocked almost overnight.
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-57763594
2.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,Mary wollstonecraft
When I reading this book, the author mentioned a very interesting thing，Generally speaking, for the entire human society, the beauty of women is linked to age, that is, the younger the more beautiful.And compare women to flowers, saying that a woman’s flowering period is 18 years old, and then withers.But the French believe that a 30-year-old woman is the most perfect, because at this time the childlike innocence of women is replaced by mature rationality, and they reach a state of feminine beauty.
If you open any Chinese social media at random, you will find that many Chinese women dress themselves as young and immature as possible.If you ask 10 Chinese men, at least 8 of them like innocent girls who are younger than themselves. Does this mean that our education has produced some gender misleading.
3.The Second Sex, an essay on existentialism and feminism by Simon de Beauvoir, remains the bible of feminine philosophy.
Beauvoir not only accuses men of discrimination against women, despicable and sometimes cruel actions, but also points out that women are also responsible for their own weak status. Beauvoir believes that they are passive, submissive and lack of ambition. The author therefore believes that the success of women’s emancipation can only be achieved by the firm will of both men and women. In Beauvoir’s view, women’s emancipation must rely on the following two channels: the right to self-determination of whether to bear children and the right to work.