Feminist Theory focuses on how feminism influences literature, and tries to understand how gender inequality plays a role in media and text. 

QUESTIONS THAT THE THEORY ASKS:

• What are false binaries of male/ female behavior?
• Does the feminization of a character take away from their power in the text?
• What is a patriarchal woman and how might her role in the text further oppression?
• How does patriarchy play a role in Feminist Literature?

-These questions are important because sometimes even our favorite works of art are deeply rooted in patriarchal influences. This theory provides an insight on how to recognize negative aspects of society in terms of those aspects benefiting one group of people over the other.  False binaries provide an insight in to how society has been boxed in when it comes to how men and women interact. These tropes add to the patriarchal stereotype of how power influences/ affects one group over the other. Some of these binaries include, the controlling husband v. the submissive wife, the mother v. the career woman, and the virgin v. the whore.  With the controlling husband v. the submissive wife, the woman is expected to give up parts of herself for the sake of her marriage, be it her voice, her sexuality, or other. The mother v. the career woman enforces the idea that a woman cannot be both a successful business woman and a mother, or that surely one or the other would falter. Lastly, the virgin v. the whore trope depicts that if a woman is a virgin she is either more desirable because of the innocence she portrays or less desirable for that same exact reason. If a woman is depicted as a “whore” in literature she is considered less desirable, but is also lusted after. In terms of feminized characters, oftentimes they are depicted as powerless, if they are feminized be it a male or female character then that makes up most of their identity and takes away from their ability in society. This can happen through work place,  through home life, and through friendship. The question of how patriarchy plays a role in feminist literature would expound on the fact that men/male writers write characters that embody tropes and stereotypes that placate to a society in which women are weaker, or men are weaker for being like women.  These questions are important because they challenge the ideals set in place to create tension and depict differences as negative.

TWO THEORISTS:
1.)  Christine Delphy depicts the role of women in relationships and how they are oppressed.

2.) Tyson delineates his view  of the patriarchal woman and how she is “programmed, not to see the ways in which women are oppressed by traditional gender roles” and how this furthers and internalization of patriarchy.