Feminisms, postmodern

Postmodern feminisms as a group have perhaps been the most widespread academic feminist perspective since the 1990s. While there are a range of postmodern feminisms, common features include critiquing grand narratives and universal theories, critiquing the concept of a universal woman, critiquing the idea that there is a “truth” waiting to be uncovered, viewing language as constructing “reality” rather than representing it, and focusing on an understanding of power as productive. Key postmodern feminist perspectives are diverse, ranging from post-Lacanian psychoanalytic “French feminism” (Irigaray, Cixous, Kristeva) to feminism influenced by Freud and psychoanalytic theories (Flax) to corporeal feminism (Grosz) to postcolonial feminist work using deconstruction (Spivak) to strong versions of social constructionism theorizing the performativity of gender (Butler).