After months of being exposed to all kinds of women’s empowerment that is emerging in our digital age, I have come to a conclusion about feminism. From what I've seen, feminism has become materialistic and social, making it seem less like a civil issue. On top of that, it has become a debate that seems to focus on a single demographic. White feminists are second or first from the top in most situations, so I think there needs to be a bit of a reality check. I have recently been introduced to the idea of Intersectional Feminism, something I think everyone should become familiar with. It’s relevance in today’s society cannot be understated, and as millennials, we should strive for more serious conversations about the topic.
Modern feminism has taken many different forms of empowerment through every medium from music, to a Facebook post, to a strike in a major U.S. city. No one is denying that women’s rights are important and needed in this world, however, there is one major flaw in the formation of this movement we call “Feminism.” In the midst of all this hustle and bustle about the ideal way feminism should be represented, the inclusion of other races in this fight for equality has been lost.
Coming from the perspective of a white, middle-class female, I am in no way one to speak on behalf of the many races who are short-sided in this modern-day movement. However, being exposed to many different opinions on the subject – whether it be in person or through a piece of writing found online – has made me realize that jumping to call myself a “feminist” didn’t seem right, because no one has come to a just conclusion on the subject. A good friend of mine, an eighteen year-old African-American woman living in Boston, MA, expressed some opinions on feminism that caught my attention.
During a late night conversation that got surprisingly deep, she mentioned being fed up with the majority of feminists telling her it was “only about being a woman.” She was frustrated by the fact that white feminists didn’t understand that it matters that she is not only a woman, but a black woman as well. Her loyalties lie in Intersectional Feminism, and I have begun to wonder why everyone else's wasn't. This conversation opened my eyes to the fact that the kind of women’s empowerment I was being exposed to was closed-minded and nothing I wanted to be affiliated with.
The kind of feminism I was seeing was aggressive, fantasized, and predominantly white. “Equality for all” loses its effect when no one is recognizing that equality for a white woman differs from equality for a woman of color. Feminism has lost it’s civil integrity and turned into a digital battle over who will get the last word in. Facebook posts about feminism have become clouded with long and confusing comments about why someone's brand of feminism is not as decent as another person's. Many woman get angry with each other over what is the right way to express feminism and why everyone else is doing it wrong in their eyes. What every woman and person who associates themselves with feminism should be doing is having respectful and uplifting conversations that find a universal solution.
There seems to be an entire issue that people are failing to address. What I want to know is, what really is feminism? What’s the best kind of feminism? Why are we still not on the same page about it after all this time?
Intersectional Feminism. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it is most simply described as the kind of feminism that takes into account the fact that women of color have endured worse than white women, and why that’s a crucial factor. How all of this ties into my very harsh and skeptical opinion of feminism is a hard thing to explain. Because after all, this subject is a confusing one in any form. A brand of feminism that fails to advance all types of women in a way that accounts for their different struggles is a disappointment at least, and a failure at worst.
According to a ThinkProgress Chart by Dylan Petrohilos, white women are making 78% of what a white male makes, while an African-American woman is making 64% and Hispanic women are far behind with only 54%. This puts white women second from the top, which is much better off than others. There’s a clear difference between the races, and it is because women of color are getting bombarded with the basic struggles the average woman faces, as well as the racial discrimination that comes with it. Intersectional Feminism, however, addresses this issue clearly.
Feminists who can’t seem to articulate the different levels of oppression amongst every walk of life seem to feed the white-centric ideas I see revolving around this fight for equality. Being a white female myself, this is why I have avoided establishing myself as a feminist. I will never understand the daily struggles of a woman of color, but I will not deny the clear ignorance of the problem. Before you start to preach your aggressive comments about feminism, consider this: do you fall under the category of second from the top? Where do other people fall on the scale compared to you? How can we bring every woman- no matter what race- to the same level?
I would never dare to try to enforce my beliefs of feminism or my personal anecdotes of being a woman in this day in age to anyone who didn’t want to hear it. Because at the end of the day, I am not the one who needs more recognition for their struggle. The level of inequality for all women is bad, but what needs to be addressed is that it is worse for women of color. Maybe once that statement makes its way into the everyday conversations about feminism, we can all agree on how to solve the issue for everyone.
