NEGATIVE - CRITIQUE - FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF PRIVACY 148

C AND D EXT–MUST BRING ISSUES TO PUBLIC

WE MUST POLITICIZE INJUSTICE FOR REAL CHANGE, OTHERWISE WOMEN WILL ALWAYS BE HURT MOST BY PRIVACY POLICIES

Mary G. Dietz, Prof. of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, 1998; FEMINISM, THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, "Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem with Maternal Thinking," EE2001-hxm p. 61

The need to challenge 'arrogant public power' and an 'amoral political order'-to use Elshtain's words remains a crucial feminist task. But the only effective challenge to a corrupt or unjust state is one that is itself expressly political. Not the language of love and compassion, but only the language of freedom and equality, citizenship and justice, will challenge non-democratic and oppressive political institutions. Accordingly, what feminist political consciousness must draw upon is the potentiality of womenas-citizens and their historical reality as a collective and democratic power, not upon the 'robust' demands of motherhood. In practice, we might expect such consciousness to take shape not in the silent procession of empty baby strollers, nor in acquiescence to interest-group and party politics, but in public speeches and debates, organized movements with expressly political goals, and democratic activities in which feminist citizens challenge the 'givens' and seek to revitalize democratic values with a view toward the generations of citizens to come.

POLITICIZATION AND BRINGING THINGS INTO THE PUBLIC REALM IS KEY TO WOMEN'S FREEDOM AND LIBERATION

Mary G. Dietz, Prof. of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, 1998; FEMINISM, THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, "Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem with Maternal Thinking," EE2001-hxm p. 60

The matter hinges, then, not on the 'victory ' of one realm' of human life over the other, but on the nature of human action and the meaning of 'politicization' Indeed, to press the issue, to establish maternal thinking as the basis for feminist political consciousness, is to get matters precisely backwards; for it is only when mothers become politicized and, in particular, when they act collectively as feminists that they can secure public policies that, among other things, protect children. in the process, they begin to realize that they are not just mothers, but women who share a common political situation with other women, some of whom are mothers, some of whom are not. Accordingly, the values that they must defend are not as such maternal (the growth and preservation of children) but political (freedom, equality, community power). For it is only once these political values have been realized that specific issues, including maternal ones, can be pursued with determination and imagination." Generously, that is why Aristotle said that the polis was prior to all other associations and activities, not that 'the public' was a superior realm of male virtues. And that is why the goal of feminism must be to politicize consciousness, not to maternalize it.