Malestream is a concept developed by

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

theorists to describe the situation when male social scientists, particularly sociologists, carry out research which focuses on a masculine perspective and then assumes that the findings can be applied to women as well. Originally developed as a critique of male dominated sociology, the term has since been applied to

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. The term was first used by Mary O'Brien in her 1981 book ''The Politics of Reproduction''.Pateman, C. and Grosz, E., (2013). ''Feminist challenges: Social and political theory''. Routledge. As a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsplay on words Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

with the more general term "mainstream" and involves a detournement of the concept of mainstream science. There has been a tendency to identify "good science" with "mainstream science" However what has been termed "

epistemologies of ignorance Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

" have been described as being at work within the

social construction Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...

of science and the

women's health movement The presence of women in medicine, particularly in the practicing fields of surgery and as physicians, has been traced to the earliest of history. Women have historically had lower participation levels in medical fields compared to men with occ ...

which emerged in the 1970s and which provided a context for O'Brien's work.

Whitestream feminism

The comparable term Whitestream was developed by

Claude Denis Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

in his 1997 book ''We Are Not You: First Nations and Canadian Modernity'', to describe how contemporary discourses are structured around the basis of White Anglosaxon experience.Grande, S. (2003). Whitestream feminism and the colonialist project: A review of contemporary feminist pedagogy and praxis. Educational Theory, 53(3), 329-346. accessed 7 April 2017

References

{{reflist Sexism Sociological terminology

Whitestream feminism

See also

References