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Gender Studies
Why Afro-American and Latino-American feminism have accused of “euro-centrism”
other feminisms.
Feminism is recognized as a theoretical and political construct that has its origins in euro-
centrism and ethno-centrism matrices, created by philosophical, literary and political feminist
views that have shaped traditional paradigms in knowledge, social and cultural practices
(Canavae 3). Modern feminist movements and ideologies emerged prominently in the 1970s, as
they sought equal rights, ability, status and treatment of women. The groups divided themselves
along ethnic lines to create African-American, Latino-America, Indian-America and other ethnic
marginalized groups that were seeking equality. The strongest of these were African and Latino
American feminist movements that aggressively sought to eradicate the marginalization of their
communities by Eurocentric views.
African and Latino American feminist thinkers played a major part in centering
understanding of race issues of women along the lines of analyses of race, sexuality, gender and
class in European terms (Canavae 3). To form ideology of African and Latino American feminist
identity they made connections between the differences between African, European, Native and
Latino Americans in terms of how white and non-white each community was. These thinkers
identified the Eurocentric thought in other feminists, which inferiorized black and brown women

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in America (Springer 1061). They accused other feminists especially the white feminist
movement in the prevention attainment of social and political roles by women of an African
origin as feminists. Therefore, white feminists have been identified as the restraining model by
African American feminists into a “Eurocentric category of feminism which obscured the role of
black feminists” (Springer 1061). According to Springer (2002), black feminist theoretical views
have been grounded explicitly on black cultural experiences in America and have gone beyond
the inclusion of black thought in white feminist sociology (1062). The self definition and
representation of Latino and African American feminists is a central theme in Black Nationalism
through the criticism of euro-centrism by white feminists and has been identified as the greatest
influence over black feminist thinkers. In the end, Latino and African American feminists have
successfully euro-centrised white feminists in order to create an identity for themselves.
Gender views in “Las vestiduras peligrosas”, by Silvina Ocampo
Ocampo’s story is a dichotomy of seduction to the exploitation which runs the entire
length of her story as she depicts female sexual desires. In “Las vestiduras peligrosas”, Ocampo
tells of Artemia a character that has perverse desires which drives her to danger and death
(Klingenberg 1999 240). This story is very close to the world Ocampo is aware off as she tells
experiences from her immediate reality. The characters are real to the narrator and the reader as
actions and experiences are close to the average person. Ocampo has successfully expressed her
concerns over female domination in a highly patriarchal culture (Klingenberg 1988 30). She has
told of how characters like Artemia went through various gender issues, psychological and
mental oppression as they had limited discursive power. Ocampo’s entire story is about feminine
subversion which she tells specifically from a Latin American point of view. The extremity of

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sexual perversion in the protagonist Artemia, is evident in how she tries to get men to rape her
through the wearing of outrageous clothing (Klingenberg 1988 30). Ocampo willingly subjects
her female narrator (Artemia) to rape stories to a level that would make modern American
feminists uneasy (Klingenberg 1999 240). Ocampo is like other Latino American writers has
blurred the distinctions between victim and seductress, self deception and lies, truth and fiction
and desire and equivocation as compared to north American feminist writers (Klingenberg 1999
240). Female sexuality is also represented by the velvet dress. As a symbol of feminine sexuality,
Ocampo uses the dress to represent Latin American female sexuality that is private and secrete in
the same manner as the dress is presented in an unobvious symbolic manner.

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Works Cited
Klingenberg, Nisbet P. “The Mad Double in the Stories of Silvina Ocampo.” Latin American
Literature Review, JSTOR 16.32 (1988): 29-40.
Klingenberg, Nisbet P. Fantasies of the Feminine: The short Stories of Silvina Ocampo.
Bucknell University Press, 1999. Print.
Roth, Benita. Separate Roads to Feminism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Springer, Kimberly. “Third Wave Black Feminism?” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society 27 (2002): 1059-1082.