- Originally published in 1990s - much more recent than other texts I've read and kind of coincides with the beginning of the 'third wave'
Postmodernism is often associated with an abandonment of conventional ideas of originality/authorship in favour or a pastiche of 'dead' styles. It is critical of cultural constructs - such as those of women, homosexuals and the colonised. In some respects, it is similar to feminism because it challenges social/cultural constructs and opens them up for exploration.
(talking about feminist theory).."It's analysis tended to reflect the viewpoints of white, middle-class women of North America and Western Europe".
Ironically, feminist scholars argued that there was a limitation of scholarship which was "universalised on the basis of limited perspectives". They were aware that it not only left out women's voices, but many social groups had been completely silenced.
"Like many other Western Scholars, feminists were not used to acknowledging that the premises from which they were working from possessed a specific location"
Nicholson is saying that a lot of these feminist scholars, were to an extent, refusing to acknowledge or were blind to, the fact that they were writing from a position of privilege.
"Postmodernism offers feminism some useful ideas about method, particularly a wariness toward generalisations which transcend the boundaries of culture and region"
"feminist theorists have not attempted, by and large, the construction of cross cultural theories of the true, the just or the beautiful. On the contrary, feminist theorists have most frequently claimed to base their theories in observation and to acknowledge their construction as rooted in the concerns of the present"
Nichols is saying that generally, feminist theorists have only been concerned with their own situations (e.g. their experience as a white, middle class woman in the west) and there is little consideration of other cultures or races. As Nichols is writing before 1990, her opinion of this is probably based on writers such as Betty Friedan. It is important to realise that the writers before Nichols' time might not have access to information on the state of the women's movement around the world. The West was arguably one of the most technologically advanced and communication within itself was well developed. We have to assume that these women simply did not know what life for women around the world in different cultures was like. One could argue that although they were writing from a position of privilege, they were some of the only ones who could do so (particularly in the early 1900s when access to education was different). Issues such as racism also could have influenced what was published throughout history - women of colour wouldn't have had the same opportunities to affect change as a privileged white woman.
"On the one hand, gender seems to be a nearly universal feature of all human societies. On the other hand, the actual contents of gender definitions have an astonishingly wide ranging, cross cultural variability" and that difference does not always translate into unequal.
Here Nichols is saying that gender exists in all cultures, but it is not exactly the same. Just because there is a dominant gender in Western society, it does not mean that there is an oppressed gender in every culture.
"Those who do not see gender as a basic in this deep and constitutive sense are more likely to argue for a politics of equality based on some presumption of eventual attainable and desirable androgyny; that is, on the basis of an identity which transcends gender differences"
This statement is saying that in order to achieve equality between the genders, some people believe that gender boundaries have to be blurred or abolished.
"the notion of gender as basic merely serves to reify, rather than to critically contest, transform, and escape the imposed myth of difference, while it ignores other crucial and as yet subjugated areas of difference" - suggests that gender is much deeper than just the social aspects we already recognise, it is a learnt behavior and affects our phyche.
"gender itself is a product of and a contribution to modernist discourse; it is about conventional forms of meaning, practice, and representation"
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