One of the important things about being a feminist is that you realise that there is no end to learning. Yes, the process of learning involves unlearning too. I have constantly had to unlearn. It could be received wisdom, ways of doing, approaches to things, people and situations, and so much more. 

I have recently become part of a unique learning adventure. A younger friend called to say that she was putting together a group of people, many of them employed in NGOs working on women’s rights, to learn about feminist theory from an eminent academic of the city. The academic, S, who has had a distinguished career and is now retired from her university position, had very generously volunteered to teach this group of practitioners from different fields.

The sessions would be held online. Much as we grumble about the annoyances of online meetings, we can’t deny that they can be convenient too. There is something to be said about attending evening meetings from the comfort of one’s home. There are no worries about transport and being punctual is also so much easier.

We had our first meeting on the first Monday of October on Zoom at 7 pm. S said that to learn about the evolution of feminist thought we had to learn about some important thinkers and their ideas and see how that impacted women and feminism. We began with Rene Descartes (1596-1650) whose ideas have greatly influenced modern thought.

Descartes’ method was rational and deductive and he believed in universal doubt. He advocated questioning authority in a context of knowledge. This idea appealed to many women. There were many women who were enamoured of Descartes’ thoughts and used them to argue for a better life for women.

Feminists have been greatly divided by Descartes’ belief in mind-body dualism. Even his conceptualising of Reason has been called masculinist. Some have argued that mainstream knowledge has always been the male stream. S cautioned us against jumping to hasty conclusions without a holistic acquaintance with Cartesian scholarship. It was invigorating to read an essay called ‘Cartesian Reason and Gendered Reason’ by Margaret Atherton where the writer looks at the arguments of twentieth century feminist scholars about the ideas of Descartes and contrasts them with the thoughts of Mary Astell and Damaris Masham.

Personally, I have been excited to find out about Mary Astell (1666-1731), the writer, philosopher and rhetorician. I also learnt that she’d had a mastectomy! I had no idea that mastectomies were done in the 17^th century. Of course, I am no longer surprised by the growing list of things that I don’t know. Subsequently, a friend told me that there are Renaissance paintings of women who may have had breast cancer. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ealiest-images-breast-cancer-found-renaissance-paintings-180968325/

It is always humbling to be in the company of personalities like S, who is giving of her self and time simply because she loves her subject and her profession.