feminist philosophy vote

[Trechter, Sara]

> Please send an email to
>
> strechter at csuchico.edu
>
> to vote for one of the items below.  I'll acknowledge your vote with an
> email.  Please don't send your vote to the list as a whole. Saturday June
> 12 is the deadline.
>
> From the postings regarding whether to make a feminist philosophy an overt
> part of the mandate of GALA, there are three basic opinions which have
> been
> articulated.  Briefly, they are:
>
> 1)  Do not make GALA overtly feminist, despite the potentially large
> number
> of feminists in the organization, because
>
> a)  there are a great variety of feminisms; we do not want to be in the
> position of deciding or rating someone's 'feminism.'
> b)  feminism may be perceived as exclusionary, an overt statement could
> make
> some people feel unwelcome.
>
> 2)  Include an overt philosophical statement for GALA which emphasizes the
> promotion of feminist research and goals among other things which may or
> may
> not conflict with 'feminist' goals, such as the study of queer language,
> gendered language and ethnicity, gender and race.
>
>
> 3)  Include a general 'feminist' philosophical statement for GALA which
> because of its generality does not conflict with other approaches, drawing
> on Alice Freed's last posting and recognizing that this is not a
> 'definitive' statement of what feminism is:
>
> "feminism" means something related to both theory and practice. The
> theoretical: the pursuit and creation of new knowledge resulting from the
> investigation of new questions and diverse experiences that have been
> neglected by traditional scholarship because this was established
> according
> to male norms. (white, heterosexist male norms.) The practical: This
> knowledge should be used to create a world in which issues involving sex
> and
> gender difference are minimized and equal opportunities and possibilities
> exist for everyone."
>
> We have tried to remain objective in the summary.  Note that the wording
> of the vote is not necessarily the same as the ultimate statement of
> philosophy.  That will be
> drawn up after the executive committee receives a mandate from the group.
>
>
> Dr. Sara Trechter
> Asst. Professor Linguistics/English
> CSU, Chico
> Chico, CA 95929-0830
> (530) 898-5447 (office)
> (530) 898-4450 (fax)