The Male Practice of Feminist Criticism: A Second Moment

Abstract

The needs of men and women engaged in the practice of feminist criticism are very likely to be quite different. Certainly their motives, in as much as we can ever assess such things, appear to differ considerably. It is very likely that the implicit audience of any texts that such practitioners produce will also be different. It is, moreover, of the very nature of the subject that any community of language, of discursive mode, or of discipline itself cannot be readily assumed. Given this difference - these impossibilities - it seems improbable that any criticism by one party of the practice of the other can be made very readily on mutually-acceptable grounds. That such criticisms are made as often as they are, however, suggests that disproportionate assumptions of community still linger.