Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity

Qualitative Studies in Psychology Series

by Aída Hurtado

Explores the relationship between Chicana feminism and the lived experiences of Chicanas

Chicana voices are missing from the psychology of women. Though “Chicana feminisms” have only recently been enumerated, a feminist perspective has long existed in Chicano communities without ever having been explicitly named. Grounded in specific aspects of Chicano culture such as the contested role of La Malinche and the complexities of Marianismo, the distinguishing feature of Chicana feminisms has been their embrace of diversity. Chicanas readily acribe to many feminisms and do not expect there to be only one.

Focusing on young women between the ages of 20 and 30, Chicanas Speak Feminisms explores the relationship between Chicana feminism and the lived experiences of Chicanas. What do they see as their day-to-day manifestation of feminist consciousness? What is the relationship between what Chicana feminists propose and their lived experiences as women and as members of other significant social groups? Including rich ethnographic testimony based on questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and shadowing, Hurtado allows the women to speak in their own terms about how they see their femininity, sexuality, gender identity, ethnic/racial identity, and ties to other feminisms and political struggles.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Gender

361 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Sam Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've got limited time to read, and this just didn't make the cut. Too many of her observations about chicana feminisms are universal claims made without reference. (It would be one thing if she spoke with her own voice, but she suggests she's speaking for many.) It felt like she took what can be radical and fantastic and totally needed in academia and made it an excuse to be lazy.

I didn't get past the first chapter, which is why I moved it to "hiatus" - it's possible I'll pick this up some day again when I've got more free time.

[kripsoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is divided into three major parts Part one The Development of Self: Existing within a Family focusses on understanding patriarchy and the role of the father and males in general in the Chicano community what it is like to grow up female in a Chicano family given gender beliefs juxtaposed with actual practices as biological maturation occurs and the internal dynamics of what constitutes Chicano families and Part two Multiple Group Identities Existing in the World centres on how the Chicana women experienced their gender, ethnic and racial differences in the public spheres outside their own communities Their narratives graphically illustrate the disjunctures they encountered between their own upbringing and the realms of higher education, religion, the workplace, and romantic relationships and the transformation of gender identity, sexuality, and racial and ethnic identity that emerged from them Part three "Living and Speaking Feminisms" addresses the respondents views on gender issues and drawing on the historical exclusion and racialized experiences and everyday practices of the women in their families--mothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, grandmothers as well as their own to reflect on their own and their family members multiple definitions of feminisms and how these are expressed in their daily lives. Copious endnotes enable the reader to recall who the respondents are as they are referred to throughout the book as well as to understand references to Chicano historical events and noted figures for instance and Hurtado also deftly uses the voices of the young Chicanas to illustrate through their own words how their own sense of gender identity and sexuality developed from childhood within the family to adulthood within the greater society