Essentialism

Assumption that a person or a group has certain invariable conditions, roles and attributes associated with them by nature. This ideology, which is in no way based on scientific criteria – which are themselves contextual, historical and cultural – confuses condition with category and thus encourages classist, racist and sexist discrimination and attitudes. Essentialism has been a subject of debate within the feminist movement itself and feminist criticism, since some interpretations with laudatory or positivizing intentions (for example, those that relate all women to certain desires or practices) have been accused of unintentionally reifying the homogenizing and stereotypical vision of women that is typical of patriarchal discourse.