Document Type
Essay
Award Designation
Honorable mention
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
The idea of identity is thoroughly debated by a plethora of philosophers, and it is also a subject that non-scholars question and battle within themselves as well. For those in marginalized communities, whether they are Hispanic, African American, LGBTQ, identity is extremely complex and comes with extreme political, socio-economic, and physiological implications as well. In our current climate these identity questions play out in discussions over critical race theory, immigration policies like DACA, and so many other grave issues. Latinx philosophers take conversations about identity seriously and ask questions such as what is Latina identity really? Is Latina mestiza identity fundamentally a being-in-worlds? Specifically, this paper will focus on the answers to these questions offered by Mariana Ortega in her book In-Between: Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity and the Self and Maria Lugones’s articles “The Heterosexual Modern/Gender System” and “Decolonizing Feminism.” First, I discuss Ortega’s answers to these questions. Second, I discuss Lugones’s answers to these questions. Third, I discuss one decolonial objection raised against Ortega’s theory of Latina identity. Fourth, I offer an Ortega-type response to the objection. Fifth, I determine whether Ortega offers a convincing response to the diminish the force of the decolonial objection. I argue Ortega has not offered a convincing response to the decolonial objection. These two philosophers encapsulate the many contentious areas and different perspectives there are, not just with the idea of identity in general, but more specifically, Latina identities and how they are seen in society and throughout history.
Disciplines
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Women's History
eCommons Citation
Garcia, Sofia, "Theories in the Flesh: Latina Feminist Philosophy Approaches to Identity" (2022). Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies. 22.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/wgs_essay/22
Comments
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