Hello everyone,
As many people have noticed, throughout the years, more and more people have been claiming the title of 'feminist' for themselves. But for several other people, particularly Black women, another title that more accurately describes their beliefs and movement is used. Womanism, a term coined by Alice Walker, is a movement made by Black women for Black women.
This article better describes the experiences of a womanist who found her place in a movement that typically focuses on and caters to the white, cisgender woman. Hopefully after reading this you should be able to see how terms such as 'womanist' are used to inspire and connect those in a movement that hardly caters to them.
-Tarryn Priestly
I think that in any social movement, there are aspects of it which could be criticized. I think that what these women are doing is great- critically looking at a popular movement to see its setbacks- and I even agree with them on how the feminist movement falls short of reaching actual social justice. However, while I respect and understand the intent behind it, I dont know if making more groups that distinguish from each other will help us become united in the end. Instead of saying "you're feminist, but I'm womanist", which perpetuates a sort of 'us versus them' mentality, maybe we could work to expand the social movement and improve upon it rather than separate from it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I did my article review, one of the things my article was talking about was the importance of expanding social movements not just to find justice for white women (with feminism) or white middle class homosexuals (with the LGBT movement), but rather to focus on social justice for all. I think if we can try to pull together all the social movements into dealing with overlapping kinds of people rather than pulling the movements apart to make them more in specific groups, we will better be able to serve and relate to every part of society.
- Sarah Reasoner
The thing about feminism that it's supposed to include all women regardless of race. If you're fighting for equality you can't leave people out, that's called hypocrisy. The fact that black women feel like they can't be a part of feminism shows that they're might be something wrong with it. Although the post was from 2010, and I think that feminism is becoming much more inclusive nowadays, that doesn't mean that people aren't getting left out. It's important to remember that we're all fighting for the same goal, and leaving people out is only going to make us weaker.
ReplyDelete-Casey Coulter
Feminism is a very good idea and something I highly support. Often there are sometimes flaws in some people's feminism (such as racial exclusion) but also the exclusion of trans* women. As stated before, there may be a flaw in mainstream feminism as some women may feel as though they cannot be a part of feminism. Further more, the forgotten aspect of men that get discriminated against need to also be included as feminism. I feel it would be helpful for feminist representation in interviews also include male feminists.
ReplyDelete-Elijah Zagorski