The feminist divide

By Helen McDonald

Recently, someone submitted a question to my personal Tumblr blog that I did not expect to receive. “What is white feminism?” one of my blog followers asked. “I honestly didn’t know there was a difference between feminism and white feminism.”

This question is all at once humorous and heavy. My first reaction was to laugh because the term “white feminism” indeed could sound like a term you’d find in the Social Justice Vernacular Dictionary somewhere after “heteronormativity” and “kink”. But this fellow blogger unknowingly stumbled upon a conundrum that has been dividing the feminist community for decades: where does an inclusive feminism begin and where does the brand of feminism that only serves one type of woman end? Can there be an all-inclusive brand of feminism?

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When people use the term “white feminism”, it is often a derogatory label given to a quasi-social activism that addresses the needs of only white, straight, able bodied, middle to upper class, cis women. Starting in the early 20^th century with the first wave of feminism, “white feminists” who would only advocate for the agenda of “white feminism” have been prioritized as the face of what should be the feminist community regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, ability, class, and sexuality. Individuals who have felt alienated by this exclusive type of feminism have often distanced themselves from the feminist movement in exchange for movements of their own. (Take, for example, the Cohambee River Collective was a Black, lesbian organization based in Boston from the late 70s until the early 80s.)

 

But why is this type so-called “white” feminism problematic? “White feminism” often masquerades itself as the panacea for patriarchy but ultimately silences and oppresses anyone who does not fit into that very narrowly defined mold of womanhood. Historically, “white feminism” has campaigned for a woman’s right to work outside of the home without recognizing that some womyn* have no other choice but to be bread winners; it equates sexism with slavery without recognizing the relationship between white upper class women and black “mammies” or Latina house workers; it encourages that a woman can have sex with however many men she wants to sleep with, but ignores the fact that some womyn would rather sleep with other womyn; and disappointingly , white feminism collects signatures to support abortion rights (which is great in and of itself), but does not address the 52 killings of trans* individuals in the U.S. alone between 2008 and 2011.

In spite of this discrepancy, many people within and without the womyn’s rights community don’t see a difference between feminism—in a general sense—and “white feminism” — a feminism that replicates the kind of discrimination patriarchy and other forms of oppression hand out. Perhaps the differentiation seems like a petty language issue. Maybe turning “white feminism” into an inclusive feminism should be a matter of word choice, of dropping the “white”. But, as with almost any form of injustice, the remedy is rarely found in simply a language fix. The question feminists should be asking themselves and each other is: if feminism becomes synonymous with oppression, is it really feminism?

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One solution that many womyn of color (WOC) organizations advocate is “intersectionality”. “Intersectionality”, a feminist sociological theory proposed by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, is about understanding how different elements of identity (i.e. - race, sexuality, ability, class, etc.) interact and contribute to social inequalities. It understands that one oppressed group cannot be socially uplifted if other groups are still suffering. Intersectionality acknowledges its privilege so that the needs of the marginalized are met.

The problem with intersectionality is that it might eliminate the need to bridge the feminist divide. Feminists of color, transfeminists, and other sub-feminist communities have embraced this theory and seem to be doing great social work on their own. Marginalized groups are cooperating with other marginalized groups… But is this cooperation a form of auto-determination or a modern segregation?

* Inclusive to any female identifying individuals; I make the distinction between woman/women and womyn in this piece because I do not believe that “white feminism” is inclusive to the trans or gender queer community.