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.
It isn’t surprising to me that more males didn’t attend, but it’s also indicative of the fact that feminism is often perceived as mostly a woman’s problem, rather than an issue that affects everybody. While I had heard of Susan B. Anthony’s insistence on not fighting for WOC suffrage, I hadn’t heard about the planned parenthood founder’s beliefs.
I think the example of marriage in Chinese is something I’ve personally felt weird about. Not only that, but when a man is pursuing his crush, he is literally like chasing after the woman, which always came off inherently creepy to me. The wage gap is an interesting topic, because it’s so much more than just the amount of money for equal jobs, but also opportunity for equal jobs.
I think it’s interesting that you mentioned that you have a mother and have witnessed other women being marginalized, because it’s more fundamental than that. It’s humans, men and women, being treated unjustly because of some preconceived notion we’re raised with that there is and should be an inequality and it has nothing to do with personal connections to those who have been affected.