What Type of Feminism is this that Grows in the Vegetable Garden?

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate the need to adapt feminist theories if they are to account for feminism such as is part of the ideals of the Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (MMC) (Peasant Women’s Movement), an organization that has been active in Brazil since 1983, although it only defined itself as feminist in 2010. The type of evolutionism usually underlying comparisons of the countryside and the city must be shunned. Rodríguez Magda’s concept of “transmodernity” (2007) proves useful in that it is not based on evolutionist notions of feminism, but rather holds that elements of different strands of feminism, old and new, are combined in the current forms. Magda does not see these recent forms as more accurate than previous ones, preferring to address the “useful fictions” that mobilize movements and are therefore “real”. To trace these “useful fictions”, a historical review of the strands which have contributed to the feminism of rural women is undertaken. Scott (1999) concept of “experience” and Geertz (2003) concepts of “experience-near” and “experience-distant” are proposed to explain the practice of these militant women. We believe that the full investigation can only be completed after a theoretical-methodological discussion focused on the research problem.