Choose and Answer 1, or 2, or 3 below – answer all parts in the numbered question set. Be sure to place # you chose at opening of paper. Quote/reference texts when interpreting to capture the complexities here. Please only use reading material attached to the order.
1)Virginia Held argues that feminism “transforms” or reconceives our thinking in regard to: the relation of reason to emotions, how our supposed private concerns should relate to public policy, and challenges our conceptions or ideals of subjectivity (or individuality).
First, choose a “transformation” section of Held and discuss how a new, feminist moral value would/could affect contemporary public debates and social policy.
Next, choose either Iris Young’s critical discussion of cultural imperialism or Tommy Curry’s evaluation of white supremacist coding of black men, and: discuss how there is here also a project or demand for “transforming of values” – so, in your answer discuss how new values are sought – such that different social/public norms (“cultural revolution”) or alternative conceptions of humanity (different relations, rights, institutional accountability) would be needed in the pursuit of justice or freedom.
OR
2) First, discuss whether or how some of the categories offered by Held’s Feminist Transformation of Moral Theory could reveal or counter the sexual violence and silencing involved in the current “Me Too” movement or can support renewed struggles for abortion rights.
{In you answer consider how serving justice here would require challenging both “cultural conceptions” (social codes) and “structures” (institutions), and thus introduce an alternative notion of “legitimate” social relations (see end of Tommy Curry essay)}
Second, after considering Tommy Curry’s analysis of the sexual violence involved in racism: discuss how a Black Lives Matter movement needs to face the challenges involved in dealing with (Young’s) psychological “abjection” (phobic fear/desire), and what difficulties may be involved in Young’s project of “consciousness raising” (asking each to take responsibility for their “practical consciousness” and action), and hopes for a “revolution in subjectivity” (seeing yourself as potentially “other”).
OR
3) First, discuss how Iris Young’s analysis of the role and reach of “cultural imperial” codes further demonstrates the political stakes of Held’s search for new moral concepts.
{Consider again the reason/emotion and private/public distinction, and the political importance of this to challenge when women are merely playing a “complementary” role in (white) male empire, capitalism, and the isolated individualism of the subject.}
Second, discuss how Tommy Curry’s concern that the “black intellectual” (and certain academic, “progressive” concerns – including a merely feminist model of rape) could disserve or not represent the concerns and aspirations of black life (and not effectively counter black male suffering and death), and thus shows the challenges (interests/power) faced when introducing new concepts to counteract the violence and degradation of certain cultural imperial norms.
