How to be a Feminist Criticizer

Is it true that woman see things differently than men? Do I read a piece of work and analyze it as this flaming feminist angry or proud of the portrayal of the female (s) in the piece? Linda Strong-Leek, says in her article “Reading As A Woman: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Feminist Criticism,” that “ to read as a woman is to avoid reading as a man, to identify the specific defenses and distortions of male readings and provide correctives.” Every piece of writing portrays woman a certain way, and the way a person analyzes that, differs in regards to ideology people have.

A feminist typically has extreme pride in being a woman, gaining the rights they fought for, and look at woman in stories in regards to how they are being treated. In “Things Fall Apart”, Strong-Leek analyzes that “reading this text as a woman, this author analyzes these characters according to their self-perceptions, as well as societal awareness of them as woman, wives, mothers and daughters.” Studying woman in various stories allows the reader to understand the author, the time in history, and the perception that is attempted to be put forward with the way woman are portrayed and presented.

Strong-Leek quotes Culler, stating, “Criticism based on the presumption of continuity between the readers’ experience and on a concern with the images of woman is likely to become most forceful as a critique of phallocentric assumptions that govern literary works.” This quote, helps summarize the reason one would do a feminist reading on a piece of work. If one wants to understand society at a period of time and in a certain place, one must look at a reading in ways such as looking over the typical reading.