Title: Feminism and Multiculturalism: Measuring Gendered Cultural Harms

Abstract: Deeply ingrained in the multiculturalism versus feminism debate is the idea that certain minority practices are more deserving of attention and criticism for their misogynistic undertones than other (liberal) practices. In this talk, I’ll consider one of the potential reasons for this asymmetrical focus on minorities. Such argument maintains that many minority cultural practices are simply more harmful to women than their Western counterparts. I’ll go over how the ‘harm argument’ is embedded in the literature, and then assess its conduciveness. Ultimately, I’ll argue the ‘harm argument’ fails through its ill-suited selective points of comparisons, its lack of contextual awareness, and through its heavy reliance on ‘Gender Orientalist’ postulations.