Is Carmela Soprano a Feminist? Philosophy project. Chavely R.

Carmelas Care Ethics Carmela Soprano is the antifeminist. She is the salon-pampered homemaker who presides over the furniture suites and window treatment of the Soprano mini-mansion. Carmela has chosen a traditional marriage that has rendered her financially and emotionally dependent on a violent and duplicitous husband. Even though Carmela is not a feminist i think she uses a kind of moral reasoning, called care ethics. Care Ethics is the philosophical elaboration in the 1970s and the 1980s by Harvard psychologist Carol Gilligan, whose work discussess how people solve their moral problems.

Justice and Care in Moral Reasoning. For most men, being moral means objectively settling disputes between individuals when their rights are in conflict. This conception of morality, sometimes called the JUSTICE TRADITION. People who use justice in their moral reasoning apply abstract moral rules and arguments to settle moral conflicts impartially and universally. Moral conflicts in women hesitate to solve those conflicts by universalizing maxims or inalienable human rights. People who use care in their moral reasoning approach morality as particular and contextual. Feminist philosophers who have adapted Gilligans psychological research into a full-fledged moral philosophy include Virginia Held, Nel Noddings, Sara Ruddick, and Joan Tronto. Justice and care describe different modes or styles of practical moral reasoning and Carmelas moral reasoning styles is care-ethical.

Carmela on Marriage and Morality. Carmela uses care ethical reasoning in her moral deliberations, even though she is no feminist role model. Specifically, Carmelas evolving attitude towards her marriage illustrates how care ethics works. Carmelas moral reasoning here mixes justice reasoning with incipient care ethics. Carmela understands caring for others as maintaining the marriage even at the cost of ones own happiness. Her care ethics will soon evolve beyond self-sacrifice.

Carmela versus Dr. Krakower,Care versus Justice. Dr. Krakower demonstrates how Carmela, at that time, had not yet become a mature care thinker who is able to balance her responsibilities to care for others with caring for herself. Dr. Krakower refers to Dostoyevskys crime and punishment, musing that Tony could use the time in jail to reflect and repent on his crimes. She moves from resenting Tonys infidelity, to defending him, finally resolving the dilemma by emotional extortion. The feminine voice speak with endless qualifications and compromises, while the masculine voice is unwavering and rigid. Carmela needs for Tony to stop hurting her. But she is oddly indifferent to he brutal nature of Tonys Mafia business. Dr. Krakower thinking draws heavily on the justice tradition. Using care ethical reasoning does not automatically lead to good solutions to moral problems. This is no the mature vision of care ethics that Gilligan describes.

Carmelas Mature Care Ethics. She finally summons the courage to balance her responsibilities to others with self-assertion. Since those to whom she has devoted herself make fewer demands on her time. Carmela is ready to turn attention towards herself Carmela acknowledges the pain a marital separation will cause the children, but also accepts hat this pain can no longer be postponed by shouldering all of the hurt herself. Carmela has actually succeeded in using mature care ethics to reason through her moral dilemma. She is finally able to balance her responsalities to her family without sacrificing her own needs. Whats done is done. We are where we are, its for the best

Carmela and Feminism: Perfect Together? Carmela would defy the stereotype of a yielding, self-sacrificing, deferential woman that care ethics might at first glance be said to valorize. Feminists who worry that care ethics merely reinforces harmful stereotypes of women could be assuaged by Carmelas simultaneous defiance of these stereotypes and employment of care reasoning. Carmela uses care ethics despite the facts that she is not any more a feminist than the 5 families are a harmless civics organization. While using care ethics in moral reasoning is not the same as being a feminist, perhaps for Carmela the former could lead to the latter. Attenda e veda – wait and see.