feminism is racist
March 5, 2007 by thinking girl
Go read brownfemipower’s post, Women of Colour Morphing into Oppressor Status. And the comments.
stuff like this seriously makes me want to stop calling myself a feminist.
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stuff like this seriously makes me want to stop calling myself a feminist.
you know, I’ve thought about this a lot… various feminist bloggers have ‘disavowed’ as it were, with very serious reasons — including the ‘gender trumps race’ argument, which comes up so often I’m convinced a lot of us aren’t listening. initially I became very upset every time I read one of these ‘not a feminist’ posts; now I’ve accepted that like all labels, feminism has a history that makes it unpalatable for many women with similar goals.
my sense is you said that in a moment of frustration, but: I do think there are good reasons to keep calling ourselves feminists — for me, it’s still a term with positive potential and I’d rather keep saying ‘this is my feminism’ than allow the term to refer to a more and more narrow subset of women interested in working towards gender (and race, and class) inequality. but obviously this approach isn’t for everyone.
Ack! Just tried to write a clarifying comment (as my first one seems a bit rambling) and it was eaten. Anyway: I fully support women who don’t identify as feminists because of discrimination and unaddressed privilege within the movement. Personally, I’ve opted to identify as feminist and work to broaden its various definitions.
Anyone calling themselves a feminist, or white feminist, who describes a person of color as an oppressor, is a racist.
yeah, and thus totally non-feminist. but i guess they just have a different definition of “feminism.” feminism as the movement to… continue oppression. kinda like the suffragists of old who thought it was obvious that white women should get the vote rather than black men - forget black women altogether. which is just so “feminist!” i’m also deeply disturbed to be a feminist most of the time with that kind of history behind the term/movement… and when i see proof that it can be the present, too. it’s why i think not only that someone isn’t necessarily a feminist just because they call themselves “feminist” but also that people don’t need to identify as “feminist” (with all the baggage) to be feminist.
Hi all, thanks for the comments.
Petitpoussin - welcome! thanks for coming over. I’ve been enjoying the hot off stuff, so it’s nice to see you here to play.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve been maddened/saddened/frustrated/etc. with the folks who have renounced feminism, or refuse to call themselves feminists, and all of that. Because how will things change if we don’t change them? But I completely understand why some people have made that move, thoughtfully (the little 20 year olds in my classes who refuse to call themselves feminists because they think feminism is over, or that all feminists are hairy butch lesbians, those kids still piss me off because they haven’t actually thought about it). Like, damn I understand why Bitch|Lab did what she did and changed her screen name and website and everything to Queer Dewd. And damn do I understand why WOC sometimes don’t want to call themselves feminists.
I agree with you, for now:
I’m not ready to renounce yet, and turn in my card *wink*. But I am most definitely ready to denounce those women who call themselves feminists who are racist, classist, homophobic/heterosexist, transphobic, ableist, ETC. Cause that is most definitely NOT what MY feminism is all about.
Max - yup. “Racist” comes in all flavours - even feminist. cuz white people are everywhere, in every movement. and they just don’t like giving up their privilege to control the conversation. Like you just said at your place, Every White Person is a Racist Suspect.
Ruxandra - yes, exactly, I agree. You know we have very similar ideas about what feminism is, you and I, and it is absolutely about dismantling all forms of oppression everywhere they exist, because gender oppression isn’t the only form of oppression women deal with everyday, and it’s not like we can simply separate out the strands of our socially constructed identities. We need to be integrated, whole people. It’s insane to think that women will be free if we could only correct gender oppression.
So yeah, not everyone who calls themselves a feminist really is a feminist. And we don’t have to call ourselves feminist in order to act against gender oppression.