Lack of unity

Last Monday it was the first table talk I ever attended this semester. Our discussion at the table talk was centered around feminism and a book by called This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. From what I understood this is one of the very first books that tries to link across women’s writings from diverse backgrounds. I really liked the idea behind this book because I thought for women to find greater achievements for equality in society they all need to be united despite all the differences they might have. It kind of remains a question for me despite there exists a common ground for women of how do they identify as feminists, the ways that different groups were treated was completely different throughout the world. For example, to this day I do not know why is some countries women do not have the right to drive or vote or why does there exist such a high gap between salaries. I even heard one time heard some studies have even shown that women with the same qualifications are less likely to get the same jobs as men. I think the reason why women are not facing so many issues in the society like wage inequality is the lack of unity and anything that would contribute to uniting women is of great value. I sometimes have this sense of hopelessness for women to find greater equality in the society. However, I think the future will be better as I compare my experience with women of previous generations.

Women of Color in Feminist Spaces

During last week’s table talk we discussed the role of women of color in mainstream feminism, a traditionally white space. Many WOC at the talk discussed what feminism means to them, when they decided they were a feminist, and how they practice feminism in their everyday lives. The talk was attended by a wide range of women from all different walks of life, so we got to hear many different experiences. Personally, I officially became a feminist in high school. I have always believed in equality amongst all genders but I had never previously had a label for this belief. After hearing of a friend who faced discrimination for being a women in an all-male workplace, I began to look up sexism in general around the United States. I became extremely shocked on this is an institutional problem that keeps women from achieving what they can and deserve due to sexism. I began to look up feminism and the history behind feminism. While I was definitely empowered by reading the struggles and accomplishments of women before me, I also felt a little disheartened. Historically feminism has been a vspace that didn’t fight for the rights of minority women. Through extreme work from women of color, trans women, and queer women, the idea of intersectional feminism began to grow and is now starting to become more and more popular.

We also discussed our opinions on certain demonstrations and movements that are occurring around us such as the women’s march in February and the women’s day that recently passed. Feminism is an extremely important topic these days in this political climate. Feminism is tricky subject since it should be intersectional as possible, but it is currently not. Trans women, women of color, disabled women, and women of all religions should all deserve to have equal rights to each other and to men. Mainstream feminism is currently a very homogenous space where it is hard to feel like you have a voice as a minority in any sense. In order to fight women in positions of power must make spaces for minority women to be able to empower all women. Feminism is for all women.

A New Experience

This was my first table talk and I enjoyed the fact that I was the only male at the table. We discussed the anthology, This Bridge Called My Back. Even more than the content in the book we discussed the message that novel was giving which was about women of color feminism.

We went around the table and talked about what we thought women of color feminism was. One person had discussed that it was its own dimension of feminism because of suffrage pioneers like Susan B. Anthony wanted women to have the right to vote but they did not want that same right for Black women. I discussed how planned parenthood was for women to have contraception and safe sex options, their founder Margaret Sanger wanted to sterilize women of color so they could not reproduce. Someone else discussed how in Chinese, marriage for men and women were different because in the language it was as if men were getting married and if women were being given away.  Another example that was discussed was the wage gap and how women of color are subjected to double jeopardy, and this results in them having the lowest wages out of white men, white women, and colored men.

All of the people at the table discussed: When were they aware that they were a feminist? I particularly have been able to earn progressively through reading between the lines in my history classes and having discussions with people who thought about these things more than me. I also have a mother and have witnessed other women be marginalized in this society.

Women of Color Feminism

This past Monday, I went to the table talk about women of color feminism. It was an interesting chat with everyone around the table and I feel like I gained a lot from hearing about others’ perspectives–especially when we all went around and shared what was that “moment” where we decided that we were feminists. I thought it was really wonderful that the consensus at this table talk was that we definitely needed feminism. A lot of people say that we are in a post-feminism world, but there are so many obvious signs that we are not.

Another very important topic that came up was what women of color feminism meant. We didn’t mention a specific, exact definition, so I’ll talk a little bit about what women of color feminism means for me here after thinking about it for a week (I articulate thoughts better over writing anyways and though I shared my definition at the table talk, I feel like it wasn’t good enough/well developed). I feel like women of color feminism is inclusive feminism. We see “iconic” feminists fighting for women’s rights, but sometimes that doesn’t include women of color. Something I mentioned at the table talk was Susan B. Anthony, often thought of as a women’s rights icon. Though she fought for women’s right to vote, she failed to include African American women. In fact, in a notorious, racist, statement, she basically said that a woman’s right to vote is more legitimate than any African American’s. Modern day “women’s rights champions” include the likes of Taylor Swift and Amy Schumer. From Taylor Swift’s cultural appropriation and objectification of women of color in her Shake It Off music video, to Schumer’s parody of Beyonce’s Formation–these self proclaimed feminists are perfect examples of why white feminism is so problematic. White feminism essentially assumes white, cis, able-bodied, upper-middle class, thin, straight women as the “default.” The issue with that is that it ignores all the other -isms and -phobias that women from other backgrounds face every day–racism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc–and instead of fighting for the rights of all women and taking in consideration the experience of all women, white feminism is limited to the experience of the “default” women, as I’ve described above. I mention white feminism as I feel like it is the complete opposite of the idea of women of color feminism. And though the term is explicitly ‘women of color’ feminism, I don’t feel like that feminism is exclusive to women of color. As in, because of the inclusive nature of women of color feminism, there is no ‘default’–which means white women aren’t excluded from this type of feminism. I see women of color feminism as feminism that considers all the voices, and supports everyone.

Something that was mentioned at the table talk was that can you just have one single women of color feminism? As in, are there more than one type–Asian American feminism, Latinx feminism, African American feminism, Indigenous feminism, and so on? I think the answer is yes and no–at the end of the day I think women just wants visibility. We want to be heard and we want people to pay attention to us. We want to be treated equally in the workplace and not have to fight so hard to have basic human rights, such as what we choose to wear or what we chose to do with our bodies. But, it’s also important to consider that each group may want different things–though we are all women, we still come from different cultural backgrounds. We have shared, overarching goals, as well as individualized ones. In that sense, I think there are more than one women of color feminism–one that focuses on the individualized goals. But at the end of the day, I think it’s also important to have one overarching women of color feminism to achieve that one big goal–gender equality. We can all take small steps to get there, but what is important is that everyone supports each other–one small victory can be everyone’s victory.