Phenomenology, Post-structuralism, and Feminist Theory on the Concept of Experience

“I Grew Up a Working-Class Evangelical”

“…Furthermore, returning to the foundational ideal that typologies were not meant to be rigidly applied, typologies instead are tools for thinking, always meant to be placed within the context and enriched by experience (Ostrow, 1990). Setting forth these challenges frees the researcher to positively view and value areas of intersubjectivity in the processes and relationships developed in the course of researching human beings whose lived realities are constituted through intersubjective processes (Alcoff, 2000;Jackson, 1998;Merleau-Ponty, 1962;Orsi, 2003;Ostrow, 1990).…”

“…Much of this dismissal is due to dualistic thinking which placed "reason" in the realm of the "mind" and therefore it transcended lived experiences (Alcoff, 2000). Similarly, much of classical sociology was based on this dualism and therefore pitted the "subjective" against the "objective."…”

“…Because lived experience was viewed as a matter of the body-and not reason-"experiential qualities [were submerged] in the psyche [and] sociology has tended to argue that explorations of experience cannot be based on empirical evidence, only 'on nondemonstrable intuitions about the "inner" content of mental states'" (Ostrow, 1990, p. 5). Alcoff (2000) points out that the "mind-body dualism" which permeates Western thinking can be traced "as far back as Plato"; this dualism assumed that lived experience rested in the body-primarily experienced by women-whereas reason-primarily belonging to men-inhabited the mind (p. 41). Alcoff argues simply moving women into the realm of the mind while maintaining the mind-body dualism is not the solution because this move effectively disregards the lived experiences that are central to human life and maintains the masculinist notion that mind and body are always separate.…”

“…Alcoff (2000) points out that lived experience and intersubjectivity go hand-inhand. Furthermore, because we always exist in the world rather than separate from the world, "lived experience is open-ended, plural, fragmented, and shifting not because of the limitations of language, but because of the nature of embodied, temporal existence" (p. 49).…”

Language and the Gendered Body: Butler's Early Reading of Merleau‐Ponty

“… Butler's paper has been discussed by Elizabeth Grosz, who believes she makes “a most convincing case” against the purported neutrality of Merleau‐Ponty's ideas on sexuality (Grosz , 58; 1994, 221); by Linda Martín Alcoff, according to whom the analysis shows that his “account of sexuality is patriarchal heterosexuality, and … naturalizes current gender relations” (Alcoff , 50); and by Stoller, who is less convinced by Butler's reading, although her aim is mainly to show the general compatibility between phenomenology and poststructural feminism: therefore, she gives no detailed assessment of the arguments (Stoller 2010). …”