-Aijah Johnson
Friday, August 4, 2017
Feminism
Women and men across the world have been petitioning, fighting, and advocating equal rights between sexes for an extremely long time. Whether the cause be suffrage, equal wages and maternity leave, or ending domestic violence, there have been countless reasons worth uniting for. The majority, if not all of us, have heard of various marches and campaigns put together to induce these equal rights. Feminism is a global movement that is believed to include anyone despite their gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, or social background; anyone who believes women and men should have equal rights can be a feminist. However, many people believe that feminism doesn't always include everyone. While reading an article entitled "Women and Their March on Washington" on Room for Debate, it was evident that many people were apprehensive about its inclusiveness. Aishah Shahidah stated that all the organizers of the march were white women and that "the original framing of the march ignored the role of race in the struggle for equality for women". This march took place back in January of this year, but today, people still wonder if feminism is all inclusive. Media, especially social media like Twitter and Instagram, tends to contain a lot of discussion about how feminists have twisted their agenda into bashing men. These modes of communication also have people voicing their opinions about how feminists don't support intersectionality. It's easy to say that controversial matters like these have made it hard to focus on what this organization IS fighting for. There are also aspects about feminism that a lot of people don't agree with, so they don't support ANY of it. What do you think about this? Do you think feminists include everyone in their campaign? How do you think people who do consider themselves feminists should go about making EVERYONE feel included (even though it is impossible to please everyone) ? Do you believe it's impossible to be apart of a movement where you don't agree with everything it stands for?
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Though the idea behind feminism is often simply summed up as “equal rights for men and women,” it isn’t that simple. Some people have different ideas as to who is included in their “feminism.” We must remember that feminism isn’t true feminism unless it is intersectional! Feminism means fighting for and supporting women of any color, sexuality, size, occupation, or socioeconomic background, including trans women and women with disabilities. Feminism has a problematic history of focusing on mainly straight, white, middle-class women as mentioned in the debate, and this is a huge issue. Privilege is a pyramid, and even if white women are not at the top, they cannot disregard the women that are even lower than they are. Women of color, queer women, women living below the poverty line, and many others are often overlooked. It’s easy to see how these women might be upset, and we can’t ignore them. Race, sexuality and other seemingly separate social issues play a huge role in the fight for equal rights for women, and it’s not right can’t shove female minorities in the background and pretend as though all women have the same disadvantages. So no, not all feminists include all women in their idea of feminism, but if they don’t, are they truly feminists?
ReplyDeleteI think it's very interesting that you bring up this issue. I consider myself to be a feminist, but I have recently found myself conflicted on whether or not I want to be affiliated with events such as the Women's March. Like other minority girls and women, I didn't feel like the march was very inclusive. I don't see a problem in the fact that white woman organized the event. My problem was that it seemed as though people decided to just forget about the racial issues that are not allowing all women to have equality. It's no secret that the march was partially directed towards President Trump, so why didn't people acknowledge the fact that over half of white women voted for him? While scrolling through all the pictures of pink beanies on my social media that morning, I ran into a picture that really caught my attention. It was of a black women at the march carrying a sign that said, "Don't forget: white women voted for Trump." The moment was captured as the holder of the sign had a nonchalant look on her face with a lollipop in her mouth. She was standing in front of three white women with pink beanies who were smiling at their phones, presumably taking photos to share on social media. For me, this photo really symbolized one of the problems we are facing. Feminism isn't effective if it is not inclusive of all woman. I personally believe that the decision to ignore the racial issues this country is facing and privilege that the white population has is damaging the meaning behind the whole movement. After all, these issues are what resulted in the current political situation that the march was targeting. If women can't feel included in a movement that claims is working for them, then there is a problem. In order to make a difference, we need to address and not be afraid to bring up racial issues in feminism.
ReplyDeleteIn order to be a true feminist you must actively care about the issues of discrimination that don’t necessarily apply to you, especially the issues of injustice that affect people who are not as privileged as you are. Feminism needs to be intersectional if we truly want rights for ALL women. It is not fair for white women to only care about their issues when women of color make up about forty percent in the U.S. population. How can women expect to have equal rights as men if they do not see other women equally?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was scrolling through Instagram that day, I saw too many selfies of people at the event, rather than people marching. I found it ineffective to see that there were people just using their phones to take selfies at the Women's March. Of course it added awareness to women's rights, but those should not have been the majority of photos to pop up on my social media. It took away from the idea that women want equal rights as men. It almost seemed as though some people went just to say "I was there, so I made a difference". Participating in the Women's March was just the first step, the next step is to actually fight for rights for all women, and that includes any race, sexuality, low-income women, and anyone who identifies as a woman.
As a young lady myself, I do agree with some of the issues feminists fight for. Equal wage? Yeah, of course I agree with that. There are a lot of people (not just women) who agree with me. The only problem with some feminists is that they attack everything. They believe that the people who do not agree with them are wrong. If you are a man, do not even try to reason with them. You will just offend them for no reason. The women who are this extreme do not realize that they just hurting themselves and their protesting as a whole. When some people think about feminism, burning a bra on a stick and shouting freedom comes to mind. In order to be taken seriously, feminists have to show that they can be mature about this. Being mature will allow them to gain more support and reach their goal.
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