Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :"Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses"
The relationship between "Woman" (a cultural and ideological composite other constructed through diverse representational discourses—scientific, literary, juridical, linguistic, cinematic, etc.) and "women" (real, material subjects of their collective histories) is one of the central questions the practice of feminist scholarship seeks to address. This connection between women as historical subjects and the representation of Woman produced by hegemonic discourses is not a relation of direct identity or a relation of correspondence or simple implication. It is an arbitrary relation set up by particular cultures. I would like to suggest that the feminist writings I analyze here discursively colonize the material and historical heterogeneities of the lives of women in the Third World, thereby producing/representing a composite, singular "Third World woman"—an image that appears arbitrarily constructed but nevertheless carries with it the authorizing signature of Western humanist discourse.
In a nutshell: "sexual difference" and "sexual oppression" don't mean the same thing in every global culture. Um, duh. So sure, white feminists in the Western world are concerned about women in the Third World and think that women everywhere should join forces against patriarchy. But is it as simple as that? No. Again—um, duh.
"Under Western Eyes" made an important intervention into feminist theory at a time when lots of feminists in the Western world were trying to speak on behalf of women in the Third World. They figured that Third World women's oppressions were basically the same as their own, except worse, because—you know—foreign and backwards and stuff.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty shows how condescending that kind of stance can be, and also reveals how Orientalist and Islamophobic it is. Her work is a serious challenge to feminists who think they know what's best for cultures they don't know much about. Now there's a good motivation to do your research.