This week in class we discussed hegemony feminism. I'm not sure why, but this issue really resonated with me. Feminism is a movement and an idea based off of equality. Therefore, feminism should include EVERY type of woman despite race, social status, age, sexual orientation, or physical appearance. To think that some woman have felt secluded from a movement that should make them feel empowered and confident is so upsetting. As I was finding a picture for this blog post the majority of the pictures that popped up on Google search were of middle aged white woman holding protest signs. It took a fair amount of effort to find a feminism picture that included woman of different races.
All of this really causes my thinking to come back around to something else we learned in class, intersectionality. Woman are not just about nice bodies and makeup; we have so many more qualities and characteristics which make us uniquely who we are. Thus, making feminism a movement that should include woman from every walk of life because every one of us is different in such a beautiful way. In order to conduct a successful movement that ensures equality for woman all across the globe, feminism should be open to ALL women and cease to make some feel unequal.
I really like this image, especially the saying that says, "Feminism is worthless without intersectionality and inclusion." I think some prominent figures in the media that represent a diverse image of feminism would be Beyonce and Missy Elliott, specifically for black women. It seems too often that women of other ethnicities or races are not represented in the feminist ideal. When Beyonce released her song "Flawless" on her recent album, she featured the feminist speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her song. This song was empowering, because I think it showed that all women could be feminist, regardless of the many characteristics and qualities they possess. Even Missy Elliott, who has been an icon for her versatile style, has shown that a thick black women can be a feminist too. Missy incorporates a different style that isn't oversexualized and plays off of more masculine style, which isn't common of women in the music industry. I specifically like a poet's feminist poetry slam poem about Missy Elliott, who interprets how Missy gave her the confidence to be who she wanted to be as a feminist. Such artists like these allow people to see that feminism does not fit into one category of being a white women. I think more women of multiple backgrounds should be more represented in the feminism movement.
ReplyDeleteHere are the links to the two videos:
Beyonce - Flawless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyuUWOnS9BY
Miss Haze - "For Colored Girls (The Missy Elliott Poem)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-dM0j3Qygg
I completely agree with your comment that women have so many more qualities that make us unique as individuals. I relate this to the video we watched where the young male described gender on a scale of 1 to 10 -- we all define ourselves differently in terms of gender, and no one specific identification should be deemed "less feministic" than another. Feminism should include all possible characteristics that a woman can present in order to achieve its goal of being "all inclusive." I also agree with you that we too often see feminist protestors as "middle aged white women" who society seems to deem as the more "appropriate" race to stand up for civil rights. However, we should not continue excluding those women who are not in that category who are fighting for the same rights. I am glad that you were able to find a photo that depicts the, for lack of a better term, the "minority feminists."
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate that you made a point to say that the whole goal of feminism is equality, yet it's become an exclusive group of white women fighting for the rights that they believe all women should care about. One of the things we've talked a lot about in this class is that being a woman means something different to each individual. If we're not fighting for the rights of each individual woman, then we are marginalizing people who are being oppressed. I love the image that you found, but it's sad to hear that it was so hard to come across a picture with diversity. One of the main problems women face is a lack of representation in media and I'm disappointed that even where women are being represented as feminists there are many women excluded from the picture. Because they are not in the picture people forget that they are even in the conversation, but like the girls from the Brave New Voices Poetry Slam said "no one is invited because everyone is already here." It is important to remember that we are all here for the same cause.
ReplyDelete