Abstract

"Isms" can be misleading. . . . Whether negatively or positively intended, the terminal identification--the "ism"--bestows significance upon a category that may never have existed as a concept prior to the viral appendage of its "ism." "Feminism" is a word that expresses such semantic innovation. . . . Feminist aesthetics may well be the prologue of feminist theory understood more broadly. I shall argue that this is the case and that, indeed, feminist theory is at present hindered by the lack of an adequate aesthetic theory. Current discussions of feminist aesthetics tend to be deconstructionist and piecemeal. We have barely begun to consider positively what the prominent features of feminist aeshtietcs--that is, an aesthetic theory that is feminist--would be. The problem is intensified by its frequent confusion with the quest for _a_ feminine aesthetics a distinction that must be clarified before proceeding further.