Chandra Mohanty's discussion of the "singular, 'third world woman'" (62) challenges the discourse surrounding third world women, and their production as one stereotypical image. This reproduction of the idea of the third world woman mirrors Orientalism as a "consistent archive." Mohanty also addresses the issue of western feminists' works, and how despite it being marginalized, their lack of inclusion of women in developing countries is problematic.
I found her claim that western contrast themselves to third world women in a similar way to orientalists fascinating, as I have read a decent amount of feminist works, yet I can't recall works in which this Orientalism is present. This also ties back to Foucault and the idea of knowledge as power: even though western feminist works are marginalized, they are still given the power of writing about third world women. The third world woman is "sexually constrained, ignorant, poor, uneducated..." while the western woman is "educated, modern, having control over their bodies..." (65). Some of this exact language is present in Said's works on Orientalism, as women in the third world are consistently written about as victims of oppressive native men. Ultimately, Mohanty believes that feminism must be built within the context of its histories and politics. Not only are they used as a foil to western life, but they also are held up to western standards.
Both Lila Abu-Lughod's article "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving" and "Orientalism and Middle East Studies" also connected to the construction of the idea of the East being fundamentally dissimilar to the West. In "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving," Abu-Lughod teased out the discourse surrounding recent Western involvement in the Middle East and its framing as saving the women of the country from oppression as justification for these wars. Similarly to Mohanty, Abu-Lughod insists on contexualizing a tradition rather than assuming that because a majority of women wear veils, a majority of women are oppressed. She discusses the difference in wearing veils in different cultures and the ways in which it is empowering to women in some areas. She touches on the oppression of Muslim women by American and European women in her quote "I do not think that it would be as easy to mobilize so many of these American and European women if it were not a case of Muslim men oppressing Muslim women--women of cover for whom they can feel sorry for and in relation tow hom they can feel smugly superior." That quote was crucial for me in understanding the relationship between western feminists and their counterparts in the east whom they stereotype (Mohanty) and then make use of this stereotype to justify invasion (Abu-Lughod). She talks about the problematic ethnocentrism that accompanies these stereotypes, and that perhaps they do not want "liberation" as we see it.
The quote "It is deeply problematic to construct the Afghan woman as someone in need of saving. When you save someone, you imply that you are saving her from something. You are also saving her to something" (788) resonated intensely with my political senses. I have certainly felt this way in terms of the US's foreign policies surrounding developing nations, but have not necessarily made this connection with politicians' discourse surrounding women.
In her discussion of "Orientalism and Middle East Studies," Abu-Lughod discusses the way in which Said's work impacted feminism. She talks about the issue of Middle Eastern feminist scholars being caught between "representing Middle Eastern women as complex agents" but also critiquing the patriarchal structures and thus playing into Orientalist ideas. This conflict is something I am interested in discussing more--I would love to read writings by "third world feminists," and see this firsthand. I also wonder to what extent these feminists who live in developing nations are aware of the influence western feminism has on their work.
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