But here I become uncomfortable with the language of truth.

The need for change All knowledge is culturally, socially, economically and politically situated, this is common knowledge and there is no doubt about it. And there is also no doubt about the fact that this particular “situatedness ” is pervasively male. Since we have the “facts”, the given situation, there are at least two paths to follow. One, which I would call the pessimistic endeavor, is the search for the roots or the desire for reasons, and consists in the analysis of the particular conditions and reasons that led to this male standpoint of the production of knowledge. This means an attempt to recover the “origins ” of knowledge and through them, the understanding of the fundamentals of the male locus of science. Another path of exploration, by no means divorced from the first, is the optimistic one, and consists in the attempt to imagine a reversal or rather an equilibrium in the production of knowledge. The act of naming or labeling oneself as “feminist ” can be considered to belong to this second path, as it means recognition of one’s affiliation, and it is a heavily political act that attempts to subvert the system, to create a space for women and women’s production of knowledge. This paper is an attempt to analyze the importance and consequences of self-namin