Where are the female philosophers?

topic posted Fri, June 30, 2006 - 6:32 AM by  Lynne
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There seems to be very few female philosophers...why is this? And also why do you think that original thoughts about the female personality or sexual personality has only seemingly be written by men?
Yes, camuille paglia did her bit in `sexual personnae` & Simone de beaviour in hers....but there seems to be no serious study done by modern female philosophers or psychologists come to that! Or am I missing some huge pool of feminine enriched ways of thinking...that are not masked by political enthusiams, like feminism?
posted by:
Lynne
United Kingdom
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  • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

    Fri, June 30, 2006 - 10:41 AM
    Luce Irigueray
    Mary Daly
    Audre Lorde
    Susan Griffin
    Germaine Greer
    Vandana Shiva
    Julia Kristeva
    Carol Gilligan
    and those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head. I've never studied philosophy but I've been influenced by all of these.
    • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

      Fri, June 30, 2006 - 11:06 AM
      Thanks Hero I will look up Judith Butler..also thanks for recommendations of yours too Rachael....Germaine Greer though...ummmmm...I`ve read `Female Eunuch`& always had a feeling that she had the balls in her earlier days, but kind of lost the plot along the way...& gave into her intellectual snobbery really...its that celeb thing, it does things to peoples ego`s...sorry...but though I like her uniqueness of character, she does`nt get me...but will try the others.
      • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

        Fri, June 30, 2006 - 3:34 PM
        Hey Lynne, it occured to me that YOU ought to write a book, combining your professional experience and your research on religion. I love your posts and I am sure it would be a compelling read as well as potentially a best seller. Seriously: goddess spirituality combined with everyone's fascination with sex, and even more our fascination with the experience sex workers have with the underbelly of humanity and the reality of human sexuality--it could hardly fail!
        • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

          Sat, July 1, 2006 - 2:48 AM
          Thanks Racael for your comments....but, I am writing a book, which further inspires me when I hear & talk to both you & others on various tribes...writing is a lonely profession, as is the sex industry, well the work I did, was!
          The book is to be called `The Gatekeepers`..there will be a unique web-site created at the same time, by the same name...linking & educating those who are spiritually, or sexually etc thinking....for those outside the `industry` as well as those within...a kind of chthonic crossroads...where people can `linger` sharing thoughts & information.
          What do you do Rachael both for your professional life & yourself?
  • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

    Sat, July 1, 2006 - 10:13 PM
    i would add

    bell hooks
    pema
    melanie klien
    wendy doninger
    marie louise van franz -- was a radical in her day. she withheld the publication of her wemons mysteries book on moon goddess traditions until after jung's death because he thought it was to radical. it went someplace he could not.....

    and i wonder, how are we defining philosopher? like does that mean rubbing elbows with the big boys in the misogonistic halls of academia? like what if that male model that thrives on power, individualism, and the occasional knife in the back is not, is not, is not, the place where wemon tend to thrive, (some disciplines more or less so than others) and so we work elsewhere.... where our work has meaning-- in society/community perhaps. i dont know.

    i will say, i went to hear a friend of mine give a visiting guest lecture at the u of wa philosophy dept a few months back and while the room was occupied by "mostly" males, there were some wemon there, at least one of the five faculty present, one of three visiting faculty, and a student or two. i was there, representing interested community members i suppose. so we are represented in the halls of the academy .... seven of twenty some maybe?
    • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

      Mon, July 31, 2006 - 6:19 PM
      If we're talking psychoanalysis, then Esther Harding probably deserves a mention. She wrote "The Way of All Women" and "Women's Mysteries," two books about Jungian concepts of the Feminine as it relates to contemporary women. Her work challenges stereotypes and, occasionally, reinforces them (the same thing could be said about Marie Louise von Franz... or Mary Daly) but it's definitely worth looking at.
      • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

        Tue, August 1, 2006 - 6:17 AM
        Thank you for your suggestions..it just goes to show there are women out there who are ploughing nose down in female philosophy & psychology...I think we must be making up for lost time.
        Anyone read Sexual Personnae though by Camille Paglia...? Now she is so interesting.
        • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

          Tue, August 1, 2006 - 11:57 AM
          You've read the WHOLE THING?
          • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

            Wed, August 2, 2006 - 1:03 AM
            Yes I have...but I had to read it like you would a bible initially...a bit here & there..until you weave the whole book together, because as you say more or less..its a huge mouthful...but well thumbed now after having the book for a couple of years.
            Especially useful if you read some of the classics & get used to writers background thoughts...it kind of spins art together...I must get some of her other books though..have you read any of them?
            • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

              Wed, August 2, 2006 - 10:16 AM
              I haven't read a whole chunk of Paglia. I find her books to be littered with incredibly quotable snippets though, and she's one of those people I OUGHT to read.

              BTW I love that new photo of you. It has a SPIRIT about it that totally goes with a Paglia discussion!
  • Re: Where are the female philosophers?

    Thu, July 13, 2006 - 9:26 PM
    Riot Grrrl is a kind of philosophy that was spearheaded by Kathleen Hanna & her band Bikini Kill and a group of young women living in Washington state. It eventually took off to other parts of the world, and though some of thier message has been distorted in the mass media, Hanna and most of the young women who started the original Riot Grrrl chapters are still making media their own way.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_grrrl

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