The history of colonialism and imperialism is plagued with conceptions of other-ization and elements of identification on the basis of ‘Us vs. Them.’ For the civilized, there is a need for the barbaric subject that legitimizes and gives substance to its civilization. The way that these competing forces are identified and defined is in relation to each other. Likewise, the first world woman needs the third world woman subject in order to distinguish herself as the ‘liberated’ western counterpart. This can be used to argue that First World Feminism can be seen as neo-imperialist in how it showcases the Third World Women.
Mohanty uses various examples of feminist literature that looks upon the third world women as a homogenous group, stripping it of any cultural, religious, economic or social context, which needs to be liberated. This has the trap of ‘freezing’ the women collectively as objects which only exist in relation to a counterpart, whether that counterpart is men or the first world women. They do not exist on their own terms with their own contexts of history and culture. They are always the victims in the power relations with men and the only way they can escape is through their ‘westernization’ and ‘liberation’ something that has to be given to them even if it is against their will, just as the colonized native was to be civilized against its will. This ‘liberalization’ is not context specific but is a blanket effort for all third world women whether they’re from Africa, they’re Muslim, or Arab or even Vietnamese. This is eloquently put by Mohanty, “that Western feminism appropriate and “colonize” the fundamental complexities and conflicts which characterize the lives of women of different classes, religions, cultures, races and castes in these countries.”
Mohanty further explains that this discourse, ‘colonial’ in its nature “that sets up its own authorial subjects as the implicit referent, i.e., the yardstick by which to encode and represent cultural Others. It is in this move that power is exercised in discourse.” Hence, this discourse creates a dichotomy of power between the first world woman and the third world woman whereby both exist in relation to the other where the third world woman exists to validate the first world woman’s freedom and liberation. Thus, through Western Feminism, the first world woman represents herself in a black and white way, and expresses herself via the situation of the third world woman. If she is educated then the other is not, if she does not cover herself, then the other is veiled, if she has control of her own sexuality then the other does not.
Hence, first world feminism, through the power of its discourse has created an imperialist power over the third world woman. Sisterhood, as the feminism puts it, is not solely dependent upon biological similarities, “Beyond sisterhood there is still racism, colonialism and imperialism,” Mohanty.
Decoloniality and Decolonization 