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Bad writing or bad politics?: Feminist and postmodern relations 

Off Our Backs; Washington; Aug/Sep 1999; Victoria Stanhope; Volume: 29

Issue: 8Start Page: 10

ISSN: 00300071Subject Terms: Feminism

Awards & honors

Writers

Politics

WritingTheory

Personal

Names:

Butler, Judith

Abstract:

 Judith Butler, the poster professor for  postmodernism , was thrust into the center of debate over academic writing when she was awarde

 prize in an annual Bad Writing Contest. Stanhope discusses  feminist and postmodern relations.

Full Text:

Copyright Off Our Backs, Inc. Aug/Sep1999

Judith Butler, the poster professor for postmodernism, was thrust into the center of the debate over academic writing when she was

awarded a prize in an annual Bad Writing Contest. The prizes are awarded by the Journal of Philosophy and Literature, a journal notorio

for promoting the work of culturally conservative scholars. The majority of those singled out for bad writing were critical theorists focu

on feminist theory, queer theory, and post-colonial studies. But just when it looked like a simple case of bullying by the academic rightmatter became more prominent when Edward Said, president of the respected Modern Language Association took up the issue of badwriting in the MLA newsletter. Then Martha Nussbaum, prominent feminist legal scholar, wrote about Judith Butler's work in the New

Republic, stating "Hungry women are not fed by this, battered women, are not sheltered by it, raped women do not find justice in it, gay

and lesbians do not achieve legal protections through it."

So what is the issue here? Some of my feminist mends feel progressive women in the academic system have no choice put to play the b

writing game--to produce dense difficult theses in order to get jobs and hopefully tenure. Despite backlash from right-wing and tradition

scholars, every self-respecting arts faculty must have at least one scholar who can articulate the postmodern perspective. Essentialist an

science-based perspectives have taken a back seat as postmodernism has revealed the importance of context in creating our "reality."

Therefore, it seems a necessity that women's studies students adopt a postmodern discourse to made headway in the extremely competit

realm of academia.

Judith Butler does not see herself as merely "playing the academic game," which is hardly surprising considering she was one of theoriginators of the postmodern discourse in queer and gender studies. In Butler's relatively easy-to-understand response in the New York

Times (3/20/99) to an earlier article on her bad writing award, she claimed that the traditional language of academia cannot truly subver

existing power structures that have invisibilized those without power. New language, Butler says, can "play an important role in shapin

and altering our common or "natural" understanding of social and political realities." And then Butler goes on to show that a discussion

about the validity of using the word hegemony, will quickly lead to an actual discussion about whether hegemony really exists and to w

extent it is hidden by the normalcy of everyday power relations. Butler argued that language creates our understanding of society and if

want to change society we better change our language.

A postmodern approach clearly has an application for feminism in its deconstruction of power relations based on gender and the role ofclass, race, gender, sexual preference, and much more in formulating our complicated identities. But then postmodernism has gone on

undermine some of the essentialist and concrete assumptions associated with feminist theory, especially radical feminist theory. Femin

is notjust a perspective, a methodology--it has a prescriptive purpose which is to bring about social change to make women's lives bette

Radical feminist analyses has often appeared to rest on essentialist notions of women's greater abilities to create a nurturing, caring, and

superior society. The postmodern perspective, which pushes the notions of gender and sexuality often to the point of meaninglessness, i

 building block to a society more based in feminine values. How do we make sense of being a woman or being a lesbian when these

categories are steeped in the defining power of our oppressors? In very simple terms, where is feminism left if we deconstruct the notio

 being a woman leaving only biological differences? The struggle over whether to name academic programs "Gender Studies" or "WomStudies" reflects this tension. The postmodern feminist scholars are now coexisting uneasily with the more traditional women's studies

scholars, such as Nussbaum, who try to ground their work in concrete concepts that generate implementable strategies to improve the liv

of women.

The accessability of academia and the connection between theory and practice has tortured feminist theories for years. With the

development of the postmodern perspective and the rise of other critical theories such as queer theory, the divides in the feminist

community seem to have got more pronounced. I guess none of us would argue that if the difficult-to-read theory does not inform the

 practice then it is not a political tool, not an instrument of social change and therefore, not feminist. I think we can view the Journal of 

Philosophy of Language judgments with suitable skepticism. There is no doubt a lot of complaining about bad writing comes from whit

men who resent the rise of critical theory and queers, women and people of color having a say in the academic canon.

However, the disagreement among feminists is really over whether the writings of Judith Butler and others do or do not have a real worconnection. Comprehensibility by a large and notjust academic audience, Nussbaum appears to be saying, is vital for ideas to make

women's lives better. But does women's oppression have to be expressed in only simple language -- is there room for different ways to

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express and explore it? Life generally is very complicated and the distribution of power according to gender and sexuality is part of this

complexity. We don't expect to understand books on nuclear physics without training so why do people expect to instantly understand a

feminist theory book? It is usually highly irritating for women's studies students when men feel free to challenge the tenets of feminism

when they had never even read an article on feminist theory. And what of Butler's point that everyday language is inherently linked tooppressive concepts? But there clearly is an academic game that requires we act and write a certain way and because of that there is an

enormous amount of pointless academic inquiry. But other sectors such as direct service provision and public policy work for women h

their own games, and the same degree of politics and the same degree of pointlessness.

It is probably fair to demand of any academic who sees herself as an instrument of social change that she constantly question the motive

her studies, i.e., to get the grant and the salary or to improve women's lives. But for feminists to question the ground-changing work of a

scholar who has radically rethought ways of thinking of gender--in a world where masculinity is an enormously destructive but hidden

force--seems unfair and short-sighted. It also seems an unusual burden for Butler to carry the complete responsibility for making the reaworld connections in her work. Clearly discussions about the construction of gender and sexuality have to be central to feminist theory.

Rather than dismissing some of the more thorny issues related to deconstuction as arcane, women studies' scholars should address them

their real world implications for feminist practice.