“The personal is political”

feminist movements and the decentration of the postmodern subject

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the implications of feminist movements for the decentering of the postmodern subject. Starting from the notion of subject in Modernity, that is, of a rational Man, unique and at the center of knowledge, we will analyze the impact of this notion in Postmodernity from the perspective of feminist movements. Our focus will be the feminist slogan “the personal is political”: by bringing to the public issues hitherto confined to the private, such as childcare or the domestic division of labor, this notion has strongly shaken the modern idea of an unquestionable subject, mister of himself and holder of knowledge. Personal issues also entered the academy, thanks to the production of black feminists. By constructing theories starting from personal questions, placing themselves as subject and object of study, these intellectuals provoked a great decentering in the figure situated so far at the center of knowledge: that of Man, European and white. From this brief journey, our hypothesis is that feminist movements have strongly shaken the notions of public and private in postmodernity, contributing to the decentering of the subject today.