J. Oksala, Feminist experiences

Carolyn Culbertson

pp. 151-156

in: Human Studies 40 (1), 2017.

Abstract

Johanna Oksala’s most recent book, Feminist Experiences: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations (2016), makes two important contributions to contemporary feminist theory. First, it brings to light a number of methodological assumptions operating within feminist discourse that discourage feminist theorists from engaging in certain forms of critique. The first two sections of Oksala’s book, “Feminist Metaphysics” and “Feminist Phenomenology,” reflect on these assumptions in order to articulate key features of a more critical methodology for feminist inquiry. They are intended to offer some necessary structural repairs for a theoretical discipline that, Oksala argues, sprang up like a boomtown during the women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s and now stands in disrepair (p. 17).1The second important contribution that the book makes to contemporary feminist theory is its argument for why one particularly strong current in mainstream feminism today, namely, neoliberal...