Entry:
In this reading, Breny Mendoza (2002) addresses some understandings of ‘transnational feminisms’, especially the ways in which transnational feminisms can reinforce development paradigms. These paradigms include the First/Third World paradigm, which suggests inherent inequality between women in the First and Third Worlds, and the Global Sisterhood paradigm, which universalizes the issues faced by women globally. Mendoza (2002) argues that transnational feminists must work from a postcolonial, anti-racist theoretical framework in order to reject the universalization of the ‘global sisterhood’ paradigm as well as the adherence to binaries present in the ‘First/Third World’ paradigm in order to destabilize the boundaries of nation, race, gender, and sexuality that have been present in earlier feminist and globalist theories.
Rationale:
This article is an important critique of imperial feminisms, and gives us a platform from which to work from as transnational feminists. Mendoza argues that without de-centering whiteness and working to dismantle lingering colonialist beliefs, transnational feminisms cannot adequately allow for a political solidarity between women across race, class, sexuality or national borders. This framework is especially important in the context of a capitalist, white supremacist, and colonial state like Canada. Without analyzing the assumptions from which we work, we risk normalizing a white settler logic, creating discourses in which a white-feminist, ‘Western’ subject is centered.
URL/Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/146470002762492015
Keywords: First/Third world paradigm, global sisterhood paradigm, imperial feminism
Author: deroo
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