intersectional feminism – Pike & Hurricane

White feminists: the dark side of Western feminism

Kristina Bartl — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:31:32 +0000

The thing with feminists, who are white, and white feminists is kind of like fingers and thumbs. Not all fingers are thumbs, but all thumbs are fingers. This means, that being a feminist who is white, does not necessarily mean that you are a white feminist. Unfortunately, it is very likely though. But before you start questioning yourself, it is time to look at the term and what it actually means.

Swallow the bitter pill

White feminists are, simply put, hypocrites. One second they are celebrating their equally white friends for wearing boxer braids and the next second they file a complaint about their black co-worker, for wearing cornrows at work. They want to have a male gay best friend, but sharing the locker room in the gym with a lesbian makes them awfully uncomfortable. They hype up their shy, but skinny, friend for posting a bikini picture, but tell fat women to cover up as soon she’s wearing something “too revealing”. They tell their friends to wear whatever they feel comfortable in (as long as it fits their body type of course), but try to tell Muslim women that they should get rid off their hijab. They do all of that whilst wearing shirts saying “The Future Is Female”, which were produced by women of colour in a developing country under terrible work conditions.

Further, slogans like the one mentioned before often ignore that non-binary people exist and transsexual people are affected by feminist issues as well. Yet, these women call themselves feminists. If you read this and think that any of these things above reflect your behavior, then I’m sorry to break it to you: If your so-called feminism is racist, homophobic, fatphobic, xenophobic, or transphobic, it is useless.

Break internalized patterns

Not all white feminists exclude minority groups on purpose. Sometimes they are simply so caught up with their privilege that they simply don’t see problems related to race, sexual identity, sexual orientation or social status. Yet, this is clearly not an apology, but it is an explanation. Emma Watson, for example, is a popular example for white feminism, before she started to reflect on her own words and actions. After being called out as white feminist for promoting feminism as something simple and asking men to come to save the female gaze from patriarchy, she started to educate herself on feminism. One can do that by simply asking themselves how they profited from their skin colour, straightness or social status. And most importantly one should not only be able to see how they profit from the inequality in society, but in what way they take part in maintaining it.

Calling yourself and your loved ones out on being inconsiderate is uncomfortable, but in the end it’s better to realize that you’ve been acting ignorantly, than to keep on excluding other people’s issues under the name of feminism. One mistake that feminists who grew up with certain privileges make, is asking to be educated by members of oppressed groups, rather than educating themselves. It is not the responsibility of people of colour to teach you about racism. Just read books and articles written by non-white authors and gain an insight into the struggles people of colour have to face on a daily basis. Don’t ask trans people what problems they are facing and how you can help. Just get familiar with concepts and works created by trans people and find ways to support the community.

No wildcards

Intersectional feminism means that problems and issues of all people—regardless of their sex, social status, ethnic background, religion or ability—are taken into consideration. And if I say all people, I mean all people. There are no wildcards. This means, for example, that being gay does not make one immune against being called out for racist comments or “jokes”. But beware, it does not mean that you are in any position to discuss issues of race with people of colour, if you are white. Neither, does it mean that you are asked to fight other people’s fights instead of them. This is not what being an ally is about. It is fine to use the benefit you gained from living a privileged life to give other people a platform. But, you should keep in mind that those fights are not about you. It is your time to listen, support and stand up, instead of acting like a hero, when no one asked for it, simply to be celebrated for your courage.

White feminists, who call themselves allies, tend to take up space, because they think their voices are louder and more likely to be heard. And yes, sometimes it is helpful and clever to do so, but it does not mean that white feminists should be fighting for other people – they should be fighting with them. As Roxane Gay put it: “We need people to stand up and take on the problems borne of oppression as their own, without remove or distance.” If privileged feminists want to rightfully call themselves intersectional or an ally, it necessitates first of all, that they acknowledge problems, regardless if they are directly affected by them or not.

Know your place

I am a white woman, who grew up in central Europe. I am very much aware that I am writing this article from a very privileged perspective. This article is not about me, nor am I glorifying myself as a woke feminist. There is always something new to learn, but personally I think the most important thing is to listen and realize when your perspective is lacking intersectionality. Internalized patterns are hard to overcome, but actively stepping away from them is one first step to distance yourself from white feminist beliefs. Actively following the work of members of the LGBTQ+ community, people of colour and other groups, who question and tackle the inequality of the social construct we are living in, can certainly help in this process. But it is not only important to actively work on your own behavior, but also to call out your white friends, when they are ignoring issues, simply because they can’t relate to them. I mean, you would probably tell your friends if they had some spinach stuck in their teeth, so I guess it’s only right to tell them that they have some racism in their feminism.

In case you want to broaden your horizon in regards to this topic, make sure you check out:

@elleschar

@munroebergdorf

@webcomicname

@nonwhitesaviors

@mattxiv

@goddessplatform

@bodyposipanda

@rachelcargle

@jvn

@alokvmenon

@iamrachelricketts

by Kristina Bartl

Photo Credits

White Egg, Olga1205

White Egg Shells, Corophoto

Egg Box, moiranazzari

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Transgender women are women

Aimée Niau Lacordaire — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:15:04 +0000

Small dictionary
A transgender person “adopts the appearance and lifestyle of a gender different from that of their birth. Whether born male or female, the transgender person changes or even rejects their biological sexual identity.” Cis-gender, is a type of gender identity where the felt gender of a person corresponds to his biological sex, assigned at birth.

Transgender women in history
You perhaps know Marsha P. Johnson. She was a black, transgender woman activist in New York City during the 1960-90’s and is the emblematic figure of the LGBTQ+ movement in NYC, she participated in the “Stonewall riot”, which was a series of spontaneous and violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place on the night of June 28, 1969. These riots are represented as the symbolic moment marking the real emergence of LGBT activism in the United States and around the world, taking place in a very homophobic context. After this a legal battle to obtain the right to demonstrate took place, as a consequence of that the first demonstration of a few hundred gays and lesbians takes place, and the pride march was born.

Today’s reality

Today, the rights and the distinction that a transgender woman, notably, is a woman, are being called into question. In fact, in France, even if Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist French icone said “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”, this fact is questioned by several “feminist figures”, who consider themselves as feminist but transphobic, nommed TERF:“trans-exclusionnary radical feminist”.

Recently, collage groups against femicides have been created on the initiative of Marguerite Stern, former Femen activist (feminist movement created in 2008 in Ukraine). Marguerite Stern, expressed herself in a thread on twitter, on her opinion that collages should not include messages including trans women, because for her, they are not real women, and do not face the same sexism as cis-women. Several feminist personalities such as Christine Delphy, a French sociologist and a feminist activist, joined her, signing a transphobic stand. Other famous “feminists” in all the world have the same stance as Germaine Greer a writer, journalist, art historian, Australian academic and known to be a major figure in a current of feminism known as the second feminist wave.

In the thread of Marguerite Stern we can read sentences like: “No, I am not a “vulva person”, I am a woman. I was born a woman, and even before I was born, in my mother’s womb, I suffered discrimination because of this. I have suffered things that a man who would like to become a woman can never apprehend.” Or “I am in favor of deconstructing gender stereotypes, and I consider that transactivism only reinforces them. I observe that men who want to be women, suddenly start to wear make-up, wear dresses and heels. And I consider it an insult to women to consider that it is the tools invented by patriarchy that make us women. We are women because we have vulva. It is a biological fact.” Up to saying: “I interpret this as a new male attempt to prevent women from expressing themselves.“

Why they are wrong

At first, we are not born as a woman but we become one, by building with oppression, and gender stereotypes imposed by society. Imagine being born in a society without what it would really be “to be a woman“? So, to reference Sartre we are not essentially a woman, so a trans woman is a woman. Trans women are also more discriminated than cis women. They suffer daily stigma, sexism, transphobia, sexualization, exposed to physical or sexual assault, domestic violence, rape, unequal opportunities on the job market, to the health system… and many other forms of discrimination due to sexism and transphobia. So how is it possible to speak of less discrimination? In addition, transgender people have never been the starting point for gender stereotypes. Cis women themselves convey these stereotypes, and people don’t blame them to shave, to wear heels, to make up…

@Aggresively_trans, the pseudonyme of Lexie a French transgender woman on instagram, return to this controversy by explaining that, “gender codes are sometimes not a choice but a need for visual inclusiveness, so yes it is partly to join stereotypes but that cruelty to refuse to a person what is necessary for him when himself is estimated to have the right to perpetrate the same stereotypes just because we are cisgender“. Society and the system have interwoven these stereotypes and it is against them that we must fight.

The feminist should not include only white heterosexual cis women, but be inclusive for all women, whether Black, Asian, veiled, disabled, bi, lesbian, intersex, trans, fat, slim, sex worker… we are fighting for the same thing: equal rights and the death of patriarchy!

To end this article, I would like to say that I wrote this article as a white, cis, privileged woman, but as an ally in the fight for recognition and right of LGBTQ + people.

by Aimée Niau Lacordaire

Photo Credits

Marsha P. Johnson, Steven Oldak, CC BY 2.0

“Trans Women are Real Women”, Alec Perkins, CC BY 2.0

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Feminism and Islam: Does feminism cater to Muslim women?

Ola Kaddoura — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:48:42 +0000

Feminism needs to include women of colour, Muslim women, women from all religions and no religions, disabled women, sex workers, trans women, gay women, queer women, fat women, skinny women. It needs to cater to all women. The fact that the term ‘intersectional feminism’ (acknowledging the fact that all women have different experiences and identities) exists proves that the general movement is often exclusive and largely white.

Mainstream, western feminism isn’t always intersectional. There are feminists who often don’t realise or can’t relate to the fact that for women of colour, of different faiths, abilities, it’s not just gender that they’re discriminated on.

Such women are affected by these circumstances professionally, socially and mentally, and yet don’t always receive the help and support that’s needed. Issues are all too often seen through white lenses and how they affect white women, such as the pay gap that’s based on gender, sexual harassment and everyday sexism. We don’t see many platforms which seek out Muslim women’s experiences of these topics. Think of the countless articles, research pieces, features that looked at sexual assault, how many of those included Muslim women’s stories? Given the wide scope of women affected by sexual misconduct, there were definitely Muslim women who were affected, so why have we not heard any of their voices?

There have been many discussions about the age we should enforce sex education, for example, but do we ever see Muslim women being given a platform to discuss when they think it’s a good idea? The problem is that a large slice of western, 21st century feminism seems to be white feminism (meaning feminists who prioritise main issues that influence white women and preclude the ones that affect women of colour). And that’s because white voices are amplified the most when it comes to women’s issues or even represented by a white face. There are of course the intersectional ones, the comrades, the ones who get it, but they’re rare and few.

Feminism often feels like it only accepts those who look like they subscribe to its ideals. Someone in a burka or a niqab isn’t seen as having influence therefore is pitied or only accepted if their fight is against the religious imposition. A Muslim woman who not only wears a headscarf, but a burka, a niqab, and/or who has conservative views about sex and sexuality, is not usually accepted into feminist groups as easily because the idea is that Islam is inherently oppressive and the only way to be liberated is to become more liberal.

But Muslim women shouldn’t need to conform to western ideals and show that they’re Muslim but they’re not that religious, that they date against their parents’ will, that they’re sexually liberated, to be accepted.

Differences but…?

Muslim women shouldn’t need to water down religion and culture to be accepted. Why should we as feminists only unite because of common denominators? Yes, Muslims don’t believe in sex before marriage, they believe in modesty (for both men and women), they live in patriarchal communities, which is considered a very normal thing because who practically doesn’t. These things might not scream freedom to a lot of people, but it works for Muslims, while some of it doesn’t.

Muslims are not a monolith and you’ll come across every type under the sun. The point is, people should be equally receptive of a person, no matter what their beliefs. The western feminist movement should be able to deal with the idea that some women believe in things that might otherwise contradict their idea of feminist thought, like the headscarf, niqab and so on.

If we’re supposed to be all about choice and letting women do what they want with their bodies, why do we have a problem when they want to cover it up? Sure, not all women are afforded the luxury of choice, and we should support them too. But some choose to cover up, to obey God. Many women are empowered by hijab, by religion, and these women need to have their narrative accepted.

In conclusion

Submission is a big part of Islam. Muslims do things, sometimes without question to please Allah (God). And somehow the perspective of submission isn’t seen as a free concept and may even seem like an antithesis to freedom itself. But we’ve got to respect that people are exercising their free will when they choose who to submit to. Some of us are perfectly happy to subscribe to such ideals, and that deserves some respect.

One woman might want to become a homemaker, another might want to be a sex worker. One girl might grow up, waiting her whole life wanting to get married. And maybe one of them wants to serve God and be a nun. Let’s accept them all. The point is, let’s support and stand for all kinds of women, even the ones who choose to do things you don’t agree with, as long as they’re not hurting themselves or anyone .

by Ola Kaddoura

Photo Credits

Noor Fadel, Sally T. Buck , CC BY 2.0
Women’s march in Seattle, Suz , CC BY-NC-ND 2.

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“Not just a feminist.”

Ida Scharla Løjmand — Wed, 10 May 2017 13:11:13 +0000

“I am not a feminist. I am an intersectional feminist.”

This is how a friend of mine described herself when our conversation one day touched upon women’s rights. To me, this first sounded slightly paradoxical. Wasn’t a movement like feminism supposed to be united in the fight for gender equality? What was the point of separating it into more subcategories?

My friend’s counter-argument was that there is no such thing as just one united kind of feminism as women’s needs differ all over the world. That seemed legit. However, since the term of “intersectional feminism” was new to me, I still didn’t understand what it covers and where it comes from. This is what I aim to do in this article.

Photo: Lindsey Jene Scalera

The term “intersectional feminism” is defined in different words by different feminist scholars. What unifies them is the emphasis on the fact that a woman is not a universal category and that different women fight different battles all over the world.

Juliet Williams, professor of gender studies at UCLA, puts it this way: “Intersectional feminism is a form of feminism that stands for the rights and empowerment of all women, taking seriously the fact of differences among women, including different identities based on radicalization, sexuality, economic status, nationality, religion, and language.”

Recognizing these differences is crucial, according to Ruth Enid Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland.

“Intersectionalism is crucial,” she writes. “How do we begin to disentangle ‘women’ from ‘African American women’ from ‘Puerto Rican’ women from ‘Mexican American women’ from ‘international women’?”

Maybe it is a rising awareness of diversity that have shed more light on the term intersectional feminism the past years and put it on the lips of, for instance, the women protesting against Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year.

However, intersectional feminism is not a new concept. It was named already in 1989 by the American professor of law Kimberlé W. Crenshaw. Her definition frames intersectional feminism as “the view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity […] Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.”

So, intersectional feminism is aiming to raise awareness of the different challenges and discrimination women

experience. It stresses that women of different class, ethnicity, sexuality etc. have different experiences and problems.

Back in 2014, the British comedian and feminist Ava Vidal wrote in a column in The Telegraph: “There is no one-size-fits-all type of feminism” as a comment on what she defined as mainstream feminism – “a feminism that is overwhelmingly white, middle class, cis-gendered and able bodied.”

Nasime Naseri, Human Rights-student and volunteer for the Swedish association “Kvinna till Kvinna” (“Woman to Woman”), has similar views as Williams, Zambrana, Crenshaw and Vidal.

“Intersectional feminism, to me, is inclusive,” she says. “This type of feminism considers how women face gender discrimination in multiply different ways, for example being a woman, coloured and lesbian. These factors put in a disadvantaged position compared to white heterosexual women.”

She explains: “For example, people tell me I look exotic and it makes me feel objectified – it’s a word you use for plants or animals, not humans. When people say this, they refer to white beauty standards like I’m not normal.”

Photo: Paul Sableman

When asked if feminism – being the belief that men and women are equal – does not automatically include all types of women, Naseri answers: “Mainstream feminism only focuses on issues based solely on gender. It forgets to consider that for e.g. ethnicity also has an impact on how a woman faces gender discrimination. Intersectional feminism considers this.”

She stresses that she does not consider intersectional feminism an only black women’s movement.

“I don’t identify as an intersectional feminist just because I’m a person of colour,” she states. “Everyone can be an intersectional feminist. I identify as such because of my own experiences and because of seeing how my friends and family face discrimination. By only focusing on one part of a problem, we will not find a solution for everyone despite ethnicity, social group and who they love. By being inclusive and joining together we have more chances for change.”

At the same time, she also rejects that intersectional feminism is separating the whole movement into different categories.

“I don’t see intersectional feminists as a sub-group,” she says. “Intersectional feminism is representing people from different social classes, identity groups and it considers how different people face discrimination. So instead of creating a conflict, I think intersectional feminism, by considering things that the first feminist movement did not, is adding more and making feminism more inclusive.”

According to Ava Vidal’s column, it is necessary for the feminism movement to recognize the intersectional development. Otherwise it can possibly cause a backlash to the whole feminism movement.

“Until the mainstream feminist movement starts listening to the various groups of women within it, then it will continue to stagnate and not be able to move forward,” Vidal writes. “The only result of this is that the movement will become fragmented and will continue to be less effective.”

By Ida Scharla Løjmand

Image credit:

Picture 1: Lindsey Jene Scalera, lincensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture 2: Paul Sableman, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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