Somer Brodribb - Nothing Mat(t)ers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism

Spinifex Press Pty Ltd,

504 Queensberry Street,

North Melbourne, Vic. 3051

Australia

First published by Spinifex Press, 1992

Second edition published 1993

Copyright Somer Brodribb, 1992

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Typeset in 11/14 pt Times
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Production by Sylvana Scannapiego,
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Cover design: Liz Nicholson, Design BITE

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Brodribb, Somer

Nothing mat(t)ers: a feminist critique of
postmodernism

2nd edition

ISBN 1 875559 07 8

1. Feminist criticism. 2. Postmodernism.
3. Feminist theory. I. Title.

305.4201

Many friends and colleagues contributed to this book through their support and encouragement. In particular, I would like to thank Suzanne Blaise, Pippa Brewster, Peggy Bristow, Gail Buckland, Annette Burfoot, Frieda Forman, Heather Guylar, Daphne Johnston, Julie Lee, Cath McNaughton, Heather McPherson, and everyone at Resources for Feminist Research/Documentation sur la recherche feministe.

This book began as a dissertation at the University of Toronto, and its genesis would not have been possible without the presence of Mary OBrien and her words of substance. Warm thanks also to my committee of Madeline Grumet, Alkis Kontos, Angela Miles, Dorothy Smith and Jeri Wine.

Doctoral fellowships granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada are also gratefully acknowledged. I also want to acknowledge the support of the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Thanks to Doris Lam and Laurel Barnes in particular.

Special thanks to Karen Ogden, Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba, and Keith Louise Fulton, Joint Chair of Womens Studies for the Prairies and Northwest Territories, who both saw me through interesting times at a university under investigation by the Manitoba Human Rights Commission for systemic discrimination against women. The Winnipeg S.D.B.Feminist Co-op provided an ideal research environment, and the Prairie fire and feminism of Chris Clark, Terry Gray, Margaret Clark and Simone Clark sustained me on an everyday basis. Thanks also to the students in my French Feminist Thought seminar.

Special thanks to Cindy Mallin of Added Touch for her skilful word-processing. Jane Rhodes of the Art Gallery of Ontario found the Greek vase at the right moment. Sylvia Bardon of the Department of Political Science, University of Victoria, provided valuable assistance with the index. I am grateful to Angela Miles for her comments on a preliminary version of the introduction, and to Jennifer Waelti-Walters who graciously helped with some of the translations.

For their fierce commitment to feminist writing I am grateful to Renate Klein, Janice Raymond, Gloria Bowles and Susan Hawthorne. Without their support, this book would not have been brought to light.

And I owe much to my family for their strength and resilience: Gwendoline Morgan, Mae Lamothe, Heather Mackey, Ann Brodribb, Meghan Athena McCusker. To my mother, Hilda Mackey, I owe the most.

Somer Brodribb, April 1992

You get into trouble when you write a book like this, and when you teach Feminist Theory and Politics in any Political Science Department. Thanks to the students in Feminist Political Thought, Politics of Canadian Feminism and Feminist Perspectives on Temporality for their courage to learn and change and challenge knowledges, and for making the context welcoming.

And you get into trouble when you and other women speak up about patriarchy. To all the other members of the Chilly Climate Committee who wrote the report to the Department of Political Science, my deepest admiration: Sylvia Bardon, Phyllis Foden, Nadia Kyba, Denise McCabe, Theresa Newhouse. The eight tenured faculty (men) have threatened legal action because of this report. Constance Backhouse sums it up in her letter to us:

The patterns are becoming so predictable. Polite, carefully articulated reports which describe, with great hesitation some of the features of the discriminatory landscape on Canadian campuses. Howls of outrage by those who deem themselves wrongly(!) accused. Demands for retribution against the brave few who managed to speak about the barriers to full equality. Pressure upon other women, some of whom succumb, to deny the allegations, to label the report-writers radical and the contents of the report unfounded. And then they charge that we run the universities, that we insist on political correctness, that we are the feminist police. Our opponents seem to have turned the world upside down, characterizing everything by its opposite.1

And indeed, I believe the reputations of universities should depend on their response to retaliations against those who bring forward studies of discrimination.

Without the energetic support of my two female colleagues, Radhika Desai and Kathy Teghtsoonian, there could be no hope of change. I hope we will not only survive but transform the discipline! I am also deeply grateful to Angela Miles for her quality of mind and activism, to Monica Schraefel for voicing outrage, to Margo Young, Hester Lessard and Anita Braha for their keen sense of justice and legal expertise.

And thanks to the many who have been supporting us through this particularly grievous backlash to our report: Nancy Adamson, Connie Backhouse, Ellen Balka, Himani Bannerji, Kathleen Barry, Pauline Bart, Eva Campbell, Centre for Womens Studies (OISE), Mary Anne Coffey, Bev Copes, Michele Le Doeuff, Janice Drakich, Andrea Dworkin, Frieda Forman, Jennifer Fry, Joan Graves, Roberta Hamilton, Nicole Hansen, Cheryl Harrison, Angela Heck, Tracy Johnson, Didi Khayatt, Susanne Klausen, Julie Lee, Elizabeth Loughran, Mary Anne MacFarlane, Diana Majury, Deidre Martin, Joan Mason-Grant, Sheila McIntyre, Cath McNaughton, Prince Nallo, National Action Committee, Victoria Status of Women Action Group, Mary OBrien, Janetta Ozard, Lisa Philipps, Toni Pickard, Matt Pollard, Claire Porac, Michele Pujol, Stephannie Roy, The Sisters E-Mail Network(!), Dorothy Smith, Jennifer Spencer, Christine St Peter, Judy Tyabji, University of Victoria Students Society, UVic Faculty Womens Caucus, UVic Graduate Students Womens Caucus, UVic Womens Centre, UVic Poli Sci Womens Caucus, University of Western Ontario Womens Caucus, Jill Vickers, Claire Young, Jennifer Waelti-Walters, Alison Wylie and many others.