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Living a Feminist Life
By
Duke University Press
Copyright:
This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.
ISBN electronic:
978-0-8223-7337-7
Publication date:
2017
Book Chapter
Willfulness and Feminist Subjectivity
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Published:January 2017
This chapter explores how and why in becoming feminists we are often designated as willful subjects: as being a problem because of our will. Returning to folklore and fictional fables of willful girls, it explores how willfulness is used to diagnose disobedience and dissent as deriving from character flaws. The chapter offers a feminist history of willfulness in which a diagnosis becomes self-description. The chapter argues that willfulness matters especially for black women and women of color and draws specifically on Alice Walker’s definition of womanism.
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