Mohanty’s article focuses on the universalization of the particular. Besides highlighting the bifurcation of western, and third world women, it also brings forth the notion of a dualistic form of colonization which the latter suffer from. In addition to being colonized, in an economically exploitative and absolutely violent way, the representation of these categories of women is also colonized, by the construction of the Other, in tandem with the construction of the Woman. This crisis of representation is pervasive in western feminist discourse, which corroborates the theory of hegemonic imperialism, which was violent in its control of the dominated both by the sword, and the pen. Mohanty divides her critique of popular western feminist literature into three distinct components, constituting of five specific ways in which the third world woman is categorized in western literature.
The first point of analysis focuses on the context of the women who are described in western discourse, and attempts to locate their identity in the world outside of the purview of the western scholar. The ‘methodological universalism’ employed by western feminists undercuts the particular trajectory of historical events which shapes the lives of these women under study. The categorization of them as “third world women” carries with it a linguistic baggage, which casts off third-world women as just third-world women, who are all involved in the “sameness of their oppression.” This divides the discourse of women into binaries of western woman, and the third world women, in a manner which defines the former as someone the latter is not. The associations attached to such categorizations are reinforced on multiple levels to produce immediate images in the mind of the colonizer which render the colonized subject as “ignorant, poor, uneducated, religious, tradition-bound, etc.” A stereotypical analysis of such intensity and repetitiveness is essentially defining the western woman. These characteristics are used as a frame of comparison for the white woman who is the antithesis of them. The third-world woman becomes a metric against which western woman is defined. In painting the oppression of every and any woman with the same brush, the western discourse on feminism does not take into account differences across class, culture, ethnicity, race, and even gender. These women are then “discursively constructed” and not thought of as subjects which shape their own material identity, and history. Women are placed into preexisting structures, which defines their existence in a way which serves as extracting specific signposts from historical memory to validate a particular perception of them. It is a form of feminism which focuses on tracing antecedents events which are incorporated as substitutes for a deeper level analysis of the lives of these women. In one categorization, women are rendered victims of male violence, and their existence is defined on the terms of the control men exert on their bodies. The instance of female genital mutilation is not explained, but rather described as tool of male dominance enacted on the women to restrict their sexuality. In another text, Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta, the concept of FGM is considered a form of resistance against colonial rule. These variations between perceptions of the same event are not taken into account, and this essentially defines the third world woman as merely a victim, through which both the attack, and the defense against society comes from. Mohanty also emphasizes upon the depiction of women as dependent subjects in western discourse, which situates them on a trajectory of progress which is defined by western standards. The historical specificities of women are ignored, and they are formed into a homogenized group which suffers from the same issues, in an identical way. A woman’s existence is defined “via dependency relationships vis-a-vis men.” Instead of uncovering the value attached to the roles women take on as part of these “dependency” relations, their reality is seen as an irrefutable fact. Even in the context of kinship patterns, the exchange of women in tribal societies is reduced to a ritual which does not have social, political, and economic implications.
The homogenizing of women in this category overlaps their differences, and assumes that the origin of their position in society in the socio-economic context is preceded by just a sexual-political impression of it. With reference to religion, the example of Pirzada women cited by Mohanty substantiates her claim that western discourse focuses on preconceived notions about the third world women. In western discourse, the act of taking on the purdah is justified by Islamic ideology, whereas it is underpinned by an aspect of security, and the male members of society taking over the economic resources. These overarching categories state that the western woman needs the third world woman to define herself, and in this pursuit, the discourse does not allow for debates which reflect upon the specific contexts of these women. In suggesting that development will render the third world societies progressive, aspects of choice on part of the women in developing countries is not taken into account, nor the absence of freedom to act that these women actively suffer from. The problems pertaining to underdevelopments also affects women in different classes in different ways, and this intersectional discrimination faced by women on the basis of their color, race, ethnicity and class are not taken into account in western feminist literature.
This methodological universalism employed by western feminists does not rest on empirical proof, but instead of reductive binaries which superimposes the perception of the Woman in the eyes of the western observer, onto the category of women as a collective. Women are placed into a self evident category, which creates a “negative relation” between them and the group in power, as emphasized by Michel Foucault. The western woman becomes the subject, whereas the third world woman becomes the object. These structures created by the foreign to locate the other comes laden with moral justifications for a way of life which before being considered inferior, is defined as different. The codification of the third world women which produces stock categories of “veiled woman, powerful mother, chaste virgin” are used interchangeably to define all women in the third world. Politics of lesbians, and women from marginalized religious and ethnic groups are not assessed, and instead of “culture, identity and universalism” being preceded by “differences, temporality, error” — the analysis is inverted, and one entity ends up defining the other.
Decoloniality and Decolonization 