Blending perfectly the two topics we covered this week, intersectional feminism calls for women to realize that we need to be united not just among our peers, but among all women which includes those of other races, classes, religions, and especially transgender women. Most arguments against feminism are uninformed garbage that come down to "But men have it hard too, ya'know!!!" but intersectional feminism is an attempt to correct the one very valid complaint against the mainstream movement: it has largely ignored those that fall outside of "white and middle class."
A good definition of intersectional feminism is "The view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity. Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated, but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.”
A big mistake we make, I believe, in trying to fight for equality, is that we try to fight for "a seat at the table." We try to force the system to accept us, to allow us to integrate ourselves into it. But why should we try to be accepted by such an awful racist, classist, ableist system? Why do that when that would mean leaving behind chunks of our sisters?
You'll often hear the statistic that women make 77 cents to a man's dollar for the same job and that is indeed true. However, what many people forget to mention is that if you take a closer look, black women actually make 64 cents to a non-Hispanic white man's dollar and and Latinas make 55 cents to a non-Hispanic white man's dollar. Feminism must be used to push for more than equality. We should call for justice.
We are half of the world's population and yet look at our representation in governments. How is that fair? Feminism is a call to everyone, include men, to stand up and demand fair representation, demand equality, demand justice. We are not less than men. Sexism did not end when women earned the right to vote less than a hundred years ago, in 1920. Racism sure as hell did not end when slavery ended or after the civil rights movement or after President Obama took office. We're all still fighting, and we can all make a choice to support a movement that calls for things to be set right.
From my understanding a man and a woman at McDonald's that work for minimum wage they earn the same. So on what kind of jobs do you refer that women earn less?
ReplyDeleteI would argue that any movement has its share of problems, but I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said- people of any gender or orientation (ethnically, religiously, etc.) need to say when things need to change, because the only way anything will change is that the vast majority of people fight against a powerful minority who don't want to bother with the paperwork or the expense of power.
ReplyDeleteI think the big problem in any movement however is one of unification. The whole point of what you're talking about is that key word there- "Intersectional"- which is that unifying factor. Therein lies the greatest problem of all this, in that coming together would resolve a lot of the problems. But most people can't agree on such things, since they have different sets of ideals and purposes for fighting. Though it may look like on the surface that people are all fighting for equality, I'm not sure I buy that entirely. Until one becomes "informed", one usually only fights for the group one belongs to- most people don't even have the mental capacity to wrap their head around stepping beyond that, let alone trying to identify with someone whose life experience they have absolutely no basis for even understanding. I have no idea what it's like to view the world from a wheelchair, or from a woman's perspective, or from a black persons, or anything besides my own. I can make rough sketches and outlines certainly- I can also boost their message, and say "Hey look, you should listen to this person / these people, because they have a voice, too." This is all well and good- but does that really unify me with that group? Am I really a part of that movement, being that I'm simply trying to help people claim their voices? Again, I'm not so sure I'm sold on the idea that we can simply unify these movements under one banner. It is simply too diverse to possibly create a group like that, because the likelihood of them getting along- thus splitting and making smaller groups who now might hold animosity for one another thanks to that split- is not realistically possible (again, this is all conjecture of course; I really just don't have faith in the goodness of human beings at all).
Fighting is important- and accepting help and helping others is key. Create unified things- try to work with one another and push for equality for everyone, regardless of race, ability, or gender. But trying to possibly steer a ship that big seems impossible, or certainly not worth the payoff for the effort. Let groups fight and have their own voices, instead of just trying to combine it all into a giant and singular movement.
I don't think broad terms are a really good idea, or idealism that seeks equality for people whom one may not truly be able to understand. I can fight for feminism all I want, and for feminists to have a voice- I can even call myself a feminist if I wanted to. But I'm not a woman. I need to be told, being a white male, when I'm stepping into a place where I really would just be splattering my version of someone else's truth everywhere. Better that it were from someone who is oppressed, and that I were to do everything in my power to make other people listen, than to voice my own opinions from a perspective I can't even have thanks to my own human experience.