Reworking gender needs both transcendence and affirmation of identity.

Evidence

According to Alice Echols, ‘the question of whether feminism entails the transcendence of gender or the affirmation of femaleness has become the new feminist fault-line’ (Echols 1989:287). This dichotomy, like the alternatives of demolishing the prison versus inhabiting it as it is, of repudiating versus revaluing feminine identity, represents a false choice: an adequate reworking of gender identity must involve both elements of transcendence and elements of affirmation. A healthy feminist identity, like a healthy personal identity, needs to maintain a good balance between self-criticism and self-affirmation. In the same way, critical reconstruction requires the balancing of conflicting imperatives towards redefinition and revaluing. … Critical reconstruction must take account of the way gender identity is imbued with power, and must confront the feminist version of the paradox of power—if feminine character and feminine values are shaped in subordination, how can they become in turn socially valued or socially dominant and still retain their character? — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 255

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘paradox of power’ for the feminine — the central problem in affirming differences forged in subordination, reframing MacKinnon’s objection.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how eco-justice pedagogy handles the parallel paradox for marginalized environmental knowledges shaped under colonialism.
• XREF: connects to: Gender content is not exhausted by the powerlessness that shaped it. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 258; Reworking human identity beyond exclusion of the feminine is now survival, not justice — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 52; Women must both rebuild subordinated identity and shed master identity. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 263 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Ending gender dualism needs both continuity and difference recognition. #corroborates (0.95) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 263
• Identity formation requires both constitution and effacement of forms #corroborates (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 254
• Identity is simultaneously about belonging and about differentiating from others. #corroborates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 118
• Gender can be distinguished from sex and nature without dualism #qualifies (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 762
• Queer theory aims to deconstruct gender binaries, not eliminate them. #qualifies (0.75) — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 856