Postmodernist Feminism

Like ecofeminism, postmodernist feminism is an amalgam of two distinct perspectives. This strand of feminist theory combines postmodernist with feminist standpoints, albeit in diverse shapes. The result is extremely powerful expressions of resistance to or rejection of Enlightenment notions, especially universalism, human nature, and [Page 584]sociopolitical progress. Postmodernist feminists join other postmodernists in rejecting or at least radically chastening these notions, and they bring to postmodernism women-centered concerns that go so far as to problematize the very notion “woman.”

By rendering the identity and the concept of woman problematic, postmodernist feminists illustrate some of the key theoretical underpinnings of postmodernism. To wit, postmodernist feminists argue that no universal identity or reality undergirds “woman.” From their perspective, theorizing as if this category represents some universal status results ...