THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF FEMINISM IN THE ROMANIAN ACADEMIC AND INTELLECTUAL SPHERE

Abstract

The present research aims to explore the institutional history of feminist disciplines and the trajectory of their inclusion in the Romanian academic curriculum, as well as in the intellectual space from the late 90's to the present day. The adoption of feminist theories has been limited by two impediments that have made their curricular inclusion difficult and their circulation in Romania quite sporadic: firstly, the subject has been rejected and boycotted by a moralising conservative public discourse and secondly, their critical disciplinary implication has posed problems of institutional acceptance due to suspicion of leftist bias. The paper aims to analyse the public debates concerning feminism, compared to a form of totalitarianism, in Romania, on the one hand. The second part has in view to define the import channel of feminist studies in Romania, along with the difficulties that hindered the first feminist scholars and activists' efforts to disseminate the discipline in post-communist countries. The liberal ethos with conservative nuances of the Romanian academic space and the public intellectuals' anti-communist positions remain responsible for the poor representation of feminism in Romania, as its impiety towards feminist theories has to do with the protectionism of dominant, conservative discourses.

Headnote

Abstract: The present research aims to explore the institutional history of feminist disciplines and the trajectory of their inclusion in the Romanian academic curriculum, as well as in the intellectual space from the late 90's to the present day. The adoption of feminist theories has been limited by two impediments that have made their curricular inclusion difficult and their circulation in Romania quite sporadic: firstly, the subject has been rejected and boycotted by a moralising conservative public discourse and secondly, their critical disciplinary implication has posed problems of institutional acceptance due to suspicion of leftist bias. The paper aims to analyse the public debates concerning feminism, compared to a form of totalitarianism, in Romania, on the one hand. The second part has in view to define the import channel of feminist studies in Romania, along with the difficulties that hindered the first feminist scholars and activists' efforts to disseminate the discipline in post-communist countries. The liberal ethos with conservative nuances of the Romanian academic space and the public intellectuals' anti-communist positions remain responsible for the poor representation of feminism in Romania, as its impiety towards feminist theories has to do with the protectionism of dominant, conservative discourses.

Keywords: institutions, feminism, anti-communism, public discourse, intellectuals, academic field.

All disciplines within the spectrum of critical theory have had a fragile institutional history in the Romanian academic sphere, often subjected to public repudiation and criticism. Public discourse, particularly among intellectuals, has frequently misrepresented feminism, comparing it to totalitarianism. This misleading discourse has portrayed feminist disciplines as a pseudo-scientific field imported from the USA that endangers the local, solid social order (Woods, 40). Consequently, from the end of the 1990s until today, feminist reflections in the public, intellectual, and academic spheres have faced various types of rejection, fuelled by ideological, political, or institutional biases (Băluţă, 34).

When discussing feminism in Romania, it is implicitly related to the academic sphere, as the first feminist movements were tied to young academic intellectuals who acquired knowledge through academic mobility and socialisation. The international academic network, facilitated by gatherings such as conferences and research mobilities, enabled the import of feminist perspectives, as Ioana Cirstocea pointed out:

In Romania, for example, the main spokeswomen for this theme are young intellectuals who have been converted to 'academic feminism' via international socialisation trajectories, and who have become promoters and specialists of a new professional niche in the national academic arena. Introduced to the field of gender studies through academic encounters, they are also activists in post-communist civil society, drawing on their proximity to reformist circles for their know-how and public visibility as spokespersons for women's rights (Cirstocea, 2006).1

The fragile route of the institutionalisation of feminist studies in Romania does not represent an isolated case. It is also worth noting that feminism faced resistance in all cultures from West to East. As Griffin demonstrated, the implementation and autonomization of feminism involve, first of all, an activist phase2. According to Ionela Băluţă, in Romania, these steps either occurred simultaneously or became entangled and were omitted (Băluţă, 34). The fragmentary aspects of the institutionalisation of feminism have been particularly evident in Eastern and Central European countries, where the uneven development and the asymmetric relationship with feminist disciplines compared to Western cultures have been clear (Nicolescu, 230; Văcărescu, 148). The reluctance of key intellectuals, nourished by the anti-communist bias, explains the increased interest among scholars in the legitimacy of feminist and gender studies in the local sphere.

For instance, in the Romanian academic area, the status of feminism in academic curricula has been discussed in terms of its necessity and legitimacy in Ionela Băluţă and Ioana Cirstocea's anthology. Their work gathers contributions concerning the evolution of feminist studies at the beginning of the 2000s from significant figures who implemented feminist studies in academic institutions. For instance, Enikő Magyar-Vincze aims to shape the role and thematic directions of feminism in Cluj, Reghina Dascăl in Timişoara, and Mădălina Nicolescu discusses the role of feminist classes at the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Bucharest, especially at the Department of English language and literature studies, while Liliana Popescu tackles the route of feminism at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA). Referential studies are circulating in the academic field concerning the role of feminism in Central and Eastern European higher educational systems, such as Susan Zimmermann's analysis, Andrea Peto's study on the institutionalisation of feminism in Hungary, and Kristen Ghodsee's work on feminism in the context of the transition to capitalism in post-socialist Eastern Europe.

Feminism and Romanian established intellectuals: between misunderstanding and manipulation

The lack of basic formation and familiarisation regarding feminism and gender identity has left a lot of room for anti-gender rhetoric, nourished by suspicions expressed by liberals and especially by the extremist right-wing (Norocel and Băluţă, 156)3. As a result, in 2020, Romania's Senate voted on an amendment to the public education law that would have banned any reference to the concept of gender identity in schools and universities. In other words, it would have prohibited "activities aimed at spreading the theory or opinion of gender identity, understood as the theory or opinion that gender is a different concept from biological sex and that the two are not always the same." This political proposal provoked a large discussion in the academic and intellectual field, revealing the poor knowledge of Romanian academics and intellectuals regarding theories from the feminist and gender spectrum on the one hand, and the vulnerable status of the discipline, often compared to an ideological discourse more than an academically rigorous field, on the other.

Against this background, Romanian intellectuals revealed their conservative position regarding the implementation of new disciplines aimed at sensitising and educating social awareness among young people. Instead of discouraging hierarchies, social stratification, and uneven development, Romanian post-communism has defined itself through a dogmatic liberal agenda that encouraged privatisation and exclusive policies, to the detriment of solving major social inequalities. This position has been dominant in the Romanian intellectual and academic field from the 1990s until the present.

Important intellectual and cultural figures who occupied key positions in public institutions promoted not only a reluctant attitude toward political correctness, feminism, and minorities' rights. Moreover, their boycotting discourse derailed into a conspiracy theory that suggested the demolition of European identity and values, which are supposedly endangered by new left movements. Their visibility and influence contributed to the public's perception of the importance of formal preparation regarding gender balance and equal opportunities policies. For instance, prominent anti-communist militant Ana Blandiana, a significant public figure since the 1990s and currently a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, asserted in a 2017 interview that political correctness and all "progressive manifestations" are a new form of totalitarianism originating from the American academic sphere. She claimed it was implemented by the pioneers of the Frankfurt School, many of whom were of Jewish origin and fled to the USA due to Nazi anti-Semitic persecution and extermination camps:

I don't like to make scenarios, but I recently discovered something that has me disturbed. In the 1920s, there was a so-called Frankfurt School, a Marxist school of philosophy. After Hitler came to power, the philosophers from this school emigrated to America. At this time all American university life is dominated by Frankfurt School philosophy. That is, American universities are extreme left-wing headquarters. But, anyway, that's a platitude, everyone knows that. What I've discovered now is that one of the Frankfurt School's promoters wrote a little book in the 1920s, before he left Germany, called Why Europe Must Be Destroyed. It's a book I haven't read, I've only read references to it. Well, it seems to give credence to those scenarios that nothing is random and everything is programmed. That is, Europe with its Judeo-Christian religion and its Greek philosophy was seen as an entity that hindered the development of the world in general by culturally dominating the world. So it had to be destroyed for the world to develop.4

Ana Blandiana's assertion is very representative of the Romanian academic body that imposed itself in academic, educational, and cultural institutions after the Revolution of '89. The active boycotting process of feminist disciplines is covered by this type of motivation. Further, the intellectuals' established discourse always followed this path of delegitimizing the educational and social role of feminism, deeming it an excessive and ideological construct that aims to disturb. For instance, Gabriel Liiceanu, professor of philosophy and owner of Humanitas Publishing Houses (Stan and Borza, 394), asserts that gender criteria endanger the meritocratic criterion, which has to remain fundamental in political and social performance: "Governing is done with sex, not the head." According to G. Liiceanu, feminism does nothing more than establish sexism in a different form, which is now being introduced into the political arena, because in some countries it seems to manifest itself "not through discrimination, but through exaltation, since sex replaces the criterion of competence" (Liiceanu, 2016).

As defenders of liberal political values, Romanian post-communist intellectuals always evoke meritocratic criteria, which they claim are currently endangered by these new left and "extremist" phenomena. Since the '90s, feminist studies have been subjected to a misleading public discourse signed by influential and established intellectuals. Many boycotts and even conspiracy theories have been imported and published by visible and important Romanian publishing houses, such as Allan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind at Humanitas Publishing House. This type of discourse is instilled in the public discourse of Romanian right and far-right intellectuals and academic figures. The Romanian anthropologist, Nicu Gavriluţă, published a book entitled New Secular Religions. Political Correctness, New Technologies and Transhumanism ["Noile religii seculare. Corectitudinea politică, noile tehnologii şi transumanismul"], focusing on how political correctness policies endanger meritocratic values and betray real cultural values. Besides these studies, many articles signed by H. R. Patapievici, Adrian Papahagi, and Teodor Baconschi proclaimed the necessity of the struggle against feminism and all new left and inclusive ideologies as a gesture of defending "normality" and European fundamental and democratic values.

Many intellectuals who occupied key institutional positions in the academic sphere actively promoted hierarchy and meritocratic values, which they claimed were endangered by "new left ideologies" that aim to replace professional criteria and meritocracy with ethnic, gender, social, and racial considerations. Consequently, many scholars adhered to conservative positions and participated in boycotting movements regarding equal opportunities policies. For instance, Adrian Papahagi, a professor at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj and involved in the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), criticised feminism as a dangerous movement based on resentment and lack of discernment. This misunderstanding regarding the interpretation of new left ideologies aims to disseminate in public discourse the idea that new left movements seek to restore an undemocratic system and totalitarianism similar to the Soviet communist past:

Feminism is a leftist ideology, which takes equality (perverted into an egalitarian ideology) where it has no place, i.e. in the area of merit, endowment, personal effort, talent, etc. By reducing the personalist perspective to an ideological one, of the confrontation between two categories (sex, race, class), Marxism and its avatars, including feminism, falsify by simplifying the infinite complexity of things. Instead of reason, it proposes resentment, instead of discernment, it practises the grotesque reductionism of oppressor-oppressed ideology.6

Feminism as a form of totalitarianism

Many Western intellectuals, such as Allan Bloom and others, promoted reflections that coalesce dictatorship or totalitarianism with new left social measures. Allan Bloom, a critic of the American academic system, identifies the political correctness phenomenon as an apocalyptic end of American academic prestige, equating the new egalitarian policies with the German Nazi's totalitarianism, as both subjected universities to mass pressure:

The imperative to promote equality, stamp out racism, sexism and elitism (the peculiar crimes of our democratic society), as well as war, is overriding for a man who can define no other interest worthy of defending. The fact that in Germany the politics were of the right and in the United States of the left should not mislead us. In both places, the universities gave way under the pressure of mass movements. (Bloom, 314)

Allan Bloom's position was adopted by many Romanian liberal and conservative intellectuals who disseminated the same misunderstanding regarding feminism into the Romanian public discourse. As a result, in the early 2000s, many surveys and articles concerning the aims of feminism were published in magazines such as Cuvântul, Secolul XX, and others.

For instance, in 2006, Cuvântul magazine published an issue entitled "Femininity, Feminism, and Misogyny" [Feminitate, feminism, misoginie]. In this context, the dominant position of Romanian intellectuals became explanatory for the status of feminism as a viable academic discipline. In this vein, Caius Dobrescu, a Romanian professor at the Faculty of Letters, signed an article entitled "Is Feminism a Totalitarianism?" [Este feminismul un totalitarism?]. According to Dobrescu, feminism contains many slippages, which makes it a form of European radicalism that gathers the extreme nuances of left and right-wing ideologies, making it avoidable.

Feminism illustrates the general process of evolution of European radicalism. The space of feminism has seen the intersection of two perfectly opposed currents of thought: it has advocated the social utopianism of the left on the one hand, and on the other, it has implied the somatic, racial utopianism of the right. The one argued for the complete social irrelevance of biological sex as a cultural construct, the other sought to demonstrate the deep somatic rootedness of male or female representations of the world.7 (Dobrescu, 18)

Other interventions criticised feminists for their lack of humour. Serious justifications for boycotting feminist movements in the academic space, such as the meritocratic argument, were often replaced by accusations that feminists lack humour. For example, Radu Paraschivescu evoked a scene from 2000 when a Playboy editorial entitled "How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Marks" (see Misleanu, 12) provoked the first feminist meeting in Romania after the Revolution of 1989, organised by Liliana Popescu. Paraschivescu derides this mobilisation of women, accusing them of being humourless and ineffective in addressing gender violence, which is a systemic problem. He calls the demonstration a "scandalised outcry" that only led "to the rapid exhaustion of the magazine's print run [...] This is why I come back and say that the misogynist-the authentic one, not the misunderstood joker-does not deserve outrage at high temperatures or drastic measures. He's just an aggrieved man who needs to be taken lightly and with humour" (Paraschivescu, 23).

Much later, in 2016, Sorin Costreie, one of the most visible academic figures in Bucharest, signed an article in Dilema veche-a prestigious cultural review-where the professor revived Titu Maiorescu's reflection on the small brain of a woman.

Another important difference, I think, is the relation to abstraction. Women value empathy to a much greater extent than men, so their world is much more concrete and based on how you understand and relate to the other. Men's minds, being perhaps more used to drawing mental maps and imaginary pursuits of all kinds, are more prone to abstraction. This is, for example, still very much in evidence in academia, where the most abstract fields, such as mathematics and philosophy, are still dominated by eminently male presences.8 (Costreie, 11)

Roots and paths of feminist theories import in the Romanian academic sphere

The first project regarding the implementation of feminist theories in Romania is attributed to several key figures who founded the initial feminist and gender studies specialisations at various faculties. Ionela Băluţă pointed out that the fragmentary and fragile import of these theories is tied more to particular individuals than to institutional initiatives (Băluţă, 2021). Thus, between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, major cities such as Bucharest, Cluj, and Timişoara began to develop academic programs centred on feminist topics. Ioana Cîrstocea highlighted the encouraging agenda of feminist disciplines based on pivotal projects: for instance, in 1998, Mihaela Miroiu founded a Master's degree program at SNSPA. Miroiu also marks an important point in the evolution of feminism in the early 2000s, particularly with the publication of feminist works in a dedicated collection she coordinated at Pohrom Publishing House, entitled "Studii de gen" [Gender Studies] (Băluţă, 36). Mădălina Nicolaescu founded a centre dedicated to feminism at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (at the Department of English and American Studies), and later, Ionela Băluţă implemented a Master's degree program focused on equal opportunity policies at the University of Bucharest.

In the post-communist context, as the Romanian academic sphere reconnected with the international academic space and market of ideas, Romanian academic education underwent diversification and specialisation through the import of theories, professors, and researchers with foreign training, alongside updated academic curricula. The channels of distribution used by Romanian scholars reached various academic spaces. Notably, the French model played a significant role in the academic evolution in post-communist Romania, especially in Bucharest. Laurenţiu Vlad edited a volume of interviews that emphasised the role of French intervention in the development of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Bucharest. One of the founders of the faculty, Emil Constantinescu, former Romanian president and rector, asserted that at the beginning of the 1990s, all rectors from Bucharest signed a convention with the International Organization of Francophony (AUPELF-UREF), which guaranteed the presence of the French model (and particular program) in the local academic curricula (Constantinescu, 2016). Consequently, the faculty initially operated under the name of Faculté Internationale des Sciences Humaines. French programs were also implemented in the Faculties of History, Law, Philology, and Philosophy (Băluţă, 27).

The academic link between France and Romania at the Faculty of Political Sciences established a root for the circulation of feminist ideas. The imposition of the French model and its influence on feminist ideas among scholars in Bucharest is a topic worthy of broader discussion. It can be stated that the first feminist activists in the Romanian academic space (mostly from Bucharest) had a direct channel for transferring ideas, theories, and methodologies from the French academic and intellectual sphere. This explains the high number of feminist scholars in Bucharest who were trained in France and disseminated feminist theories through this French connection.

In other words, feminist studies in Bucharest were broadly imported via a feminist model particular to the French academic sphere, with École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) being the referential academic institution. This route of feminist studies from EHESS to Bucharest is explainable as French feminist scholars trained many pioneers of academic feminism at the University of Bucharest. For instance, Ionela Bălută and the feminist circle mobilised around the Centre for the Study of Equal Opportunity Policies, which today has one of the most fruitful academic activities. She defended her PhD thesis on "Du harem ou forum. Réflexion sur la construction d'une nouvelle identité féminine dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle roumaine," supervised by Francine Muel-Dreyfus. Similarly, Ioana Cîrstocea acquired her academic profile via EHESS, where she defended her PhD thesis.

On the other hand, an important feminist group emerged in Cluj around the centre mobilised by Enikő Vincze-Magyar, including researchers such as Mihaela Frunză. The Interdisciplinary Group for Gender Studies, active since 2000, was part of the Department of Cultural Anthropological Studies at the Faculty of European Studies, Babeş-Bolyai University. Due to this group's efforts, a specialised program entitled "Gender and Society" was implemented in the 2001-2002 academic year at Babeş-Bolyai University. The program aimed to train a specialised academic body in gender studies.

Among the members who initiated these projects, the majority were trained at the Central European University (CEU). The stimulation of new thinking as a sign of the "modernization" of the Romanian academic sphere occurred in Cluj through the activity of the Interdisciplinary Group, methodologically linked to feminist reflections cultivated at CEU, which represented an important hub for feminist disciplines in the 1990s and early 2000s. CEU played a crucial role in importing an ideologically updated feminist approach in Central and Eastern Europe. The "Westernization" of the academic field, especially at CEU, occurred through methodological imports, primarily from the North American academic sphere, which nourished Eastern European gender studies and facilitated the "Westernization" of the post-communist academic space (Zimmerman, 142).

Both channels of influence, the Anglo-Saxon (especially North American) and the French, raised the same issue regarding the implementation of feminist education in Central and Eastern Europe. The main aspect questioned concerns the "neoliberal market economy and Anglo-Saxon dominance in science after 1989" that accompanied gender as a "category of analysis reaching Central and Eastern Europe" (Pető, 1538; Kováts, 81; Băluţă, 36). According to Ionela Băluţă and other scholars who researched the institutional history of feminism in Romania, the profitability of higher education training instilled by the neoliberal agenda had a significant impact on the implementation of feminist and gender disciplines in the academic curricula. As a result, the poor contact of Romanian education with feminist sensitivity and gender notions is responsible for the general misunderstanding and the fragile institutionalisation of feminist studies in Romania:

Additional constraints related to disciplinary definitions and quality standards, coupled with the neo-liberal managerial vision that imposes economic efficiency criteria in the evaluation of study programs, influence the possibility of proposing new courses and study programs. Existing programs and courses can also be eroded, and when other factors are added, their survival becomes impossible9. (Băluţă, 35)

Conclusions

The process of integrating feminist studies into the Romanian academic curriculum, aimed at familiarising and raising awareness in the academic space and university training, encounters two major obstacles. Firstly, feminist theories had to contend with the resistance to feminism along mental and ideological lines. This resistance is primarily due to the anti-communist exclusivism of the Romanian intelligentsia, which dominated the academic space and key positions in higher education institutions after 1989. Conservative intellectuals and academics, as well as anti-communist authors, mystify and incriminate feminism, identifying it as a remnant of Romania's socialist realist past. This perception is the main path to boycotting feminism as a legitimate academic discipline.

The second impediment to the institutionalisation of feminism is the profitability of academic training and the inclusion of criteria for evaluating study programs by authorised institutional entities such as ARACIS. Imbued with a neo-liberal agenda, ARACIS' evaluation criteria aim at stimulating the economic contribution of higher education to the detriment of its social role (Băluţă, 35-36). The fragility of introducing feminism in Romania, as in the whole of Eastern Europe, is due to a mental and ideological layer that influences institutional decisions, as we have shown in this paper.

In this context, feminist activism and the institutionalisation of feminist disciplines have been the result of sporadic mobilizations that have used two essential means of importation: the French model, especially in Bucharest, and the Anglo-Saxon model, especially in Cluj. The difficulties faced by Eastern European countries in opening up their education systems to feminist studies nuance the particularity of the institutionalisation process in post-communist countries and reveal the East-West asymmetry that strongly emerges at this level.

Sidebar

Recommended citation: Morosan, Ioana. "The Institutionalization of Feminism in the Romanian Academic and Intellectual Sphere". Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory 10.1 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24193/mjcst.2024.17.08.

Footnote

1 "En Roumanie par exemple, les principales porte-parole de la thématique sont de jeunes intellectuelles converties au « féminisme académique » via des trajectoires de socialisation internationale, qui sont devenues les promotrices et les spécialistes d'une nouvelle niche professionnelle dans l'espace académique national. Sensibilisées au domaine des études de genre grâce à des rencontres universitaires, elles tiennent des activités menées au titre du militantisme dans la société civile post-communiste et tirent de leur proximité des milieux réformateurs une partie de leur savoir-faire et de leur visibilité publique en tant que porte-paroles des droits des femmes" (my translation).

2 Gabriel Griffin proposes six phases that the academic implementation of feminism involves: activism, stabilisation, integration, professionalisation as well as specialisation and finally autonomization. Gabriele Griffin, "The Institutionalization of Women's Studies in Europe", in Doing women's studies: employment opportunities, personal impacts and social consequences. Gabriele Griffin (editor), London, New York: Zed books, 2005.

3 It is well known that the Romanian anti-gender campaign went hand in hand with the right-wing propaganda regarding the defence of traditional values of family. The Coalition for Family (Coaliţia pentru familie CpF) aims to actively boycott democratic values concerning gender identity, equal opportunity as well as any kind of feminist projects. Many of its members, even its key members such as Bogdan Stanciu, a former member of the New Right Party (Noua Dreaptă).

4 "Nu-mi place să fac scenarii, dar am descoperit de curând ceva care m-а tulburat teribil. în anii '20, exista aşa numita Şcoală de la Frankfurt, o şcoală de filosofie de culoare marxistă. După ce a venit Hitler la putere, filosofii de la această şcoală au emigrat în America. La această oră toată viaţa universitară americană este dominată de filosofía Şcolii de la Frankfurt. Adică universităţile americane sunt nişte sedii de extremă stângă. Dar, mă rog, asta e o banalitate, toată lumea ştie. Ce-am descoperit eu acum este că unul dintre promotorii Şcolii de la Frankfurt a scris o cărticică în anii '20, înainte de a părăsi Germania, care se numea „De ce trebuie distrusă Europa". E o carte pe care n-am citit-o, am citit doar nişte referiri la ea. Ei bine, se pare că ea dă apă la moară acelor scenarii conform cărora nimic nu e întâmplător şi totul e programat. Adică Europa cu religia ei iudeo-creştină şi cu filosofía ei greacă era privită ca o entitate care împiedică dezvoltarea lumii în general prin faptul că domină cultural lumea. Deci trebuia distrusă, pentru ca lumea să se dezvolte" (my translation).

5 Humanitas has become an important hub, among other publishing houses, that hosted a lot of conservative and liberal titles, even conspiracy books against studies from the New Left, feminism, postcolonialism, and neo-Marxism.

6 "Feminismul e o ideologie stângistă, care duce egalitatea (pervertită în ideologie egalitaristă) acolo unde ea nu are ce să caute, adică în zona meritului, înzestrării, efortului personal, talentului etc. Reducând perspectiva personalistă la una ideologică, a înfruntării între două categorii (sexe, rase, clase), marxismul şi avatarurile sale, printre care feminismul, falsifică prin simplificare infinita complexitate a lucrurilor. în loc de raţiune, propune resentiment, în loc de discernământ practică reducţionismul grobian al ideologiei opresor-oprimat" (my trans.), A. Papahagi, Feminismul - o ideologie marxistă care nu are la bază discernământul, 2014, https://epochtimes-romania.com/news/papahagi-feminismul-o-ideologie-marxista-care-nu-are-la-baza-discernamantul-222070.

7 "Feminismul ilustrează procesul general de evoluţiei a radicalismului european. Spaţiul feminismului a cunoscut intersecţia dintre două curente de gândire perfect opuse: a susţinut pe de o parte utopianismul social al stângii, iar pe de altă parte implică utopianismul somatic, rasial al dreptei. Suţine irelevanţa socială completă a sexulşui biologic, considerat construct cultural, celălalt caută să demonstreze profunda înrădăcinare somatică a reprezentărilor despre lume masculine sau feminine", Caius Dobrescu, "Este feminismul un totalitarism?"(my trans.).

8"O altă diferenţă importantă cred că este dată de raportarea la abstractizare. Femeile preţuiesc empatizarea într-o măsură mult mai mare decit bărbaţii, astfel că lumea lor este mult mai concretă şi bazată pe modul în care îl înţelegi şi te raportezi la celălalt. Mintea bărbatului, tocmai fiind poate mai obişnuită să deseneze hărţi mentale şi să urmărească imaginar tot felul de ţinte, este mai înclinată spre abstractizare. Lucrul acesta se vede, de exemplu, foarte bine încă în spaţiul academic, unde cele mai abstracte domenii, precum matematica şi filozofia, sínt în continuare dominate de prezenţe eminamente masculine." (my trans.)

9 "Constrângerile suplimentare legate de definiţiile disciplinare şi standardele de calitate, dublate de viziunea managerială neo-liberală care impune criterii de eficacitate economică în evaluarea programelor de studii, influenţează posibilitatea de a propune cursuri şi programe de studiu noi. Şi programele şi cursurile existente pot fi afectate, iar când se adaugă şi alţi factori, supravieţuirea acestora devine imposibilă" (my trans.)

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Văcărescu, Theodora-Eliza. "Uneven Curriculum Inclusion: Gender Studies and Gender IN Studies at the University of Bucharest", in From Gender Studies to Gender IN Studies: Case Studies on Gender-Inclusive Curriculum in Higher Education, edited by Laura Grünberg, 147-84. European Center for Higher Education, Bucharest: UNESCO.

Woods, A. "Cultural Marxism and the Cathedral: Two Alt-Right Perspectives on Critical Theory", in Battista, C., Sande, M. (eds), Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019, pp. 39-59.

Zimmermann, Susan. "The Institutionalization of Women's and Gender Studies in Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Asymmetric Politics and the Regional-Transnational Configuration." East Central Europe/LEurope du Centre-Est, 34(1), 2007, 131-160. https://d0i.0rg/10.1163/18763308-0340350102007.

Interviews and public articles:

Ana Blandiana. "Corectitudinea politică pune grav liberatea sub semnul întrebării." Ziarul Metropolis, 2016. https://www.ziarulmetropolis.ro/ana-blandiana-corectitudinea-politica-pune-grav-libertatea-sub-semnul-intrebarii/.

Adrian Papahagi. "Feminismul - o ideologie marxistă care nu are la bază discernământul." Epoch Times Romania, 2014. https://epochtimes- romania.com/news/papahagi-feminismul-o-ideologie-marxista-care-nu-are-la-baza-discernamantul-222070. Caius

Dobrescu. "Este feminismul un totalitarism?" Cuvântul, 2006.

Gabriel Liiceanu. "Şase dereglări contemporane." Revista 22, 2015. https://revista22.ro/eseu/gabriel-liiceanu/ase-dereglri-contemporane

Radu Paraschivescu. "Dacă se poate." Cuvântul, 2006.

Sorin Costreie. "Bărbatul, azi." Dilema veche, 2016. https://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptamanii/barbatul-azi-590737.html