For my final paper, I will be focusing on the Feminist theory while examining the high rates of suicide and depression among chinese women. This Feminist theory is essentially the study of how gender affects a certain situation, as in this case, the skewed rates of suicide among women (Feminist Theory 2019). As mentioned in previous papers, women in China are at a great disadvantage compared to men, due to the patriarchal system they live in. This theory has gone through three different waves. The first wave occurred between 1850-1920, where the main goal was to incorporate more women’s voices in endography. During this time, it was uncommon to have a women’s perspective on culture and due to the lack of women in this field, women were rarely heard or recorded. The second wave happened right after the first, between 1920-1980, and was merely focused on seperating gender from sex. Before this time, gender and sex meant the same thing and anthropologists realized that there were more to gender and sex than our specific culture led on. While they were also fighting for this separation, they were also fighting to end the grouping of male/female, as they are not the same. Finally, we have the third wave. This current wave started in 1980 and is still currently going strong as we are still pushing for the acknowledgement of the differences between common categories such as ethnicity, race, class, etc. This being said, these anthropologists are focusing more on women and the differences among them rather than the differences between men and women (Dominguez et al. 2017). 

Futhermore, within this third wave of anthropological feminist theory, the use of all other anthropolical perspectives is becoming more popular (Feminist Theory 2019). This could be in many different ways such as the combination of the feminist and interpertive theory; an example of this could be “What does suicide mean within the chinese culture?”.  Overall, the feminist theory can be used in many different ways to explain in detail why and how this culture is being affected. Case and point, why I thought this perspective would be the best to fully interpret why the suicide and depression rates are much higher in women rather than men.

To continue, women have a lot put on their shoulders compared to men in China. They are expected to work full time and take care of their family, while also tending to their household duties. This abundance of stress put on women forces them to focus more on their family and less on their own selves, including their mental health. In return, these women never really have the time to take care of themselves or seek out the medical attention they need. Take depression for instance. The lack of attention on themselves causes this buildup of oppressed emotions and leads them to the end of their depression: suicide. This being said, the feminist theory is perfect to explain the difference between men and women and suicide rates due to the high demands put on these chinese women that keep them from recieving help for their mental illnesses. 

Works Cited:

Dominguez, J., Franks, M., & Boschma, J. H., III. (2017, April 24). Feminist Anthropology. Retrieved from https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/feminist-anthropology/

Introducing Theory 5: Feminist Theory. (2019, May 23). Retrieved from http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp270-us19/lecture-videos/feminist-theory/