Rebecca Searles kicked off the month of November with a blog post that featured in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-searles/). This, among other things, prompted me to write the following. Rebecca Searles fell into the trap of oversimplying feminism as something that just deals with seeking “equality between men and women.” Searles claims that the simple flowchart she created allows people to be able to tell if they’re a feminist in just “two easy steps.” In my view, fulfilling these “two easy steps” does not make one a feminist.
Sorry to break it to you, dear, but feminism thought does not branch from two simple steps. It never did and it never will. I must agree with one point Searles makes, though. People do misuse the term “feminist.” She writes:
“I get tired of hearing teen role-models like Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry misuse and reject the term “feminist.” It perpetuates the myth that feminists are a bunch of bra-burning man-haters, and that’s just not true. Misusing the label and sounding like an idiot isn’t good for anyone. So, I made a simple flowchart to make it easy on you.”
Are you misrepresenting feminism here, Rebecca Searles? Feminism is not a flowchart.
Rebecca, your essay has potential in stating that the term feminism is misused and rejected by numerous people. But the very basic flowchart also severely and quite problematically mischaracterizes and oversimplifies feminism.
Feminism is NOT only about women and men having equal rights and opportunities. At least not according to the feminist efforts, writing, and conversations that I have had the pleasure and privilege of being part of. Through my various feminist endeavors, I’ve realized that the hardest thing was coming up with a definition of feminism or explaining what feminism really is. The reason is because feminism is a lot more than women demanding their rights. Feminism calls for an individual’s emotional and physical involvement in ways that they likely do not expect. A perfect example of this is my very own journey in feminist thought.
Before taking courses in gender studies, I always wondered, what’s there to learn? I am a woman and I want my rights. I want to be equal to men. Do people really need to go through so many classes to learn this one small thing? It was when I took my first gender studies class, however, that I realized how narrow-minded my approach was. In fact, I was overwhelmed when I discovered the various facets of feminism and feminist thought. Feminism is difficult. Not difficult in the sense that it cannot be done. It’s difficult because it takes one to challenge all accepted notions and behaviors and it further visiblizes the interconnectedness of systemic injustices.
Soon, I came to the realization that only a bit of what we were reading and discussing had to do with women being equal to men. Of course, this was not a cause that was forgotten or left behind. It was just that the approach of feminism was much broader than that. What feminism provides me, rather, is the means to critique systems of power and injustices that affect not only women but minority populations, people of color (not generalizing here; of course I recognize different groups experience marginalization and injustice in different ways), people of lower socioeconomic status, differently-abled bodies (not disabled, because to say someone is disabled would be to take away agency), caste-based discrimination, HIV-positive populations, certain religious groups, and of course, LGBTQ groups, among others.
Feminism is more. It attempts (and is not always successful) to reach a level that is whole in its analysis. True feminists don’t believe that they are superior because they view the world through a feminist lens. True feminists don’t believe that they can feel the problems of communities in danger and communities facing discrimination, because they have not themselves been part of similar struggles. True feminists acknowledge the privilege they carry (and how these privileges change and mold from space to space) and also realize how this privilege has allowed them to enter doors, which have forever been closed to others.
Feminism very deeply explores the way that injustices play out in different social contexts. I don’t believe true feminism is practiced until it addresses the various injustices that are a product of our social conditioning. It is hard to condition yourself to think differently. It is hard to see the different inequities that exist in our society because, for the most part, it is inconvenient. People don’t want to explore those things that make them uncomfortable, that paint a grim picture of the world. Such involvements make them feel uncomfortable.
As I mentioned before, I always thought feminism was women trying to become “powerful” by being equal to men. In fact, equality was a word that was central to my initial “feminist” endeavors. It was only after I turned in a couple essays in one of my introductory feminist classes that I became aware of the issues that arise when using the word “equality.” I used the word equality in my first of couple essays very freely, just throwing it out there, thinking it was something that, of course, all people concerned about human rights desire (especially women). However, I noticed that my professor, a feminist scholar, would often cross the word “equality” out. She would cross it out and write “do you mean equity?” I finally started wondering why she wanted me to replace the word equality with equity. I went to her after class. She told me, “Nira, what do you really want here? Ask yourself….Equality or equity?” I, Rookie Feminist, asked, “But what’s the difference?” And she said, when you say women are trying to be equal, who do you think they are trying to be equal to?” I responded, quite matter-of-factly, “Men!” She said, which men? I said, “All men.” And she laughed, and asked me, “And you think all men are equal? Do you think a black man has the same access to opportunities as a white man in this country? Do you actually believe a black man is equal to a white man?” And I was NOT able to answer, “Yes.” This made such a solid point that has stuck with me forever. I started re-thinking equality. I realized that equality is flawed because it has not yet been addressed wholly. I realized that we cannot try to deal with gender inequities without dealing with ALL inequities in the system at large. I started picturing a word that is more equitable. This is when I realized that feminism isn’t just about women being equal to men. Logically, women shouldn’t want to be equal to men because all men haven’t even achieved equality amongst themselves. There are various faces of oppression that affect different groups differently. We cannot solve this issue of “women being equal to men” in that manner. In fact, this doesn’t even really get at the crux of the issue. The system as a whole is flawed. Privilege is assigned to people differently, and even among men, privilege is assigned differently.
We have to work towards dismantling all systems of power and tearing them all apart before we can envision such a society. That’s why equity is the way to go. After all, who are we trying to be equal to?!
femenergize: 