Reference no: EM132866602

Question 1: Explain why radical feminists challenged the prevailing notion of power.

• "In this society, power is commonly equated with domination and control over people or things" (Hooks 84). Radical feminists argued that the domination of one human being by another is the basic evil in society. Dominance in human relationships is the target of their opposition and they attempted to transform its meaning. Yet their attempts were not successful. As the feminist movement progressed, critiques of the notion of power as domination and control were submerged as bourgeois activists began to focus on women overcoming their fear of power (the implication being that if they wanted social equality with men, they would need to participate equally in exercising domination and control over others).
• Differing perspectives on power within the feminist movement reflected individual class biases and political perspecitives. Women were interested in reforms that would lead to social equality with men and they wanted to obtain greater power in the existing system. Women interested in revolutionary change were quick to label the exercise of power as a negative trait, without distinguishing between power as domination and control over others and power that is creative and life-affirming.