So I think a good place to start is with a definition.
What is Feminism? — Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights based on equality of the sexes.
Two words stand out here for me and that is ‘women’ and ‘equality’. Without going into all the different strands of feminism we must understand that there are so many different theories of how we must go about achieving these rights and what caused this inequality in the first place. So what do we really mean by ‘women’ then, if there’s many different theories how can we possibly embody every woman of whom have such different experiences?
I don’t want to go all philosophical on you but that is an important question to think about as well as recognising that to be a liberated woman has a different meaning depending on the individual herself. On that note one of the areas of feminism I think that is often dismissed is the idea that a woman can want to be the domestic person in a relationship; stay at home with the kids, cook and clean, and that should still be celebrated in the same light of a woman who is career driven and not into the domestic lifestyle. It’s always been the idea of dismissing domestic roles and going for careers typically male driven that women saw as breaking the patriarchal chains, however going back to the word ‘equality’ are we not being hypocrites if we look down on women that feel liberated being the domesticated wife or devoted mother?
Personally, I’m a feminist that is career driven and not very ‘domesticated’. However after reading some female accounts on the importance of the ‘other side of feminism’ I’ve recognised that we should also acknowledge women that feel free to want that type of lifestyle as long as it’s not coerced or their only option as a woman. Further to this discussion, I was reading a text from feminist writer Adrienne Rich where she reflects on her old thoughts and writing and compares to her understanding now. Not only was she ahead of her time in recognising the exclusion of black women when it came to feminist theory but she was self-critical which is rare to find. This leads me on to another area of feminism that fails to be appreciated by mainstream feminism, which is the racial-sexual oppression that BAME women face.
Rich takes the concept of ‘the body’ and says to reclaim it by stripping of all stereotypes and aesthetics, but rather recognising you as a woman of your experiences this means moving away from conventional white western feminist thought but realising that it is impossible to apply a theory to women as a whole. In other words, you cannot claim a whole category by ‘we’ when you do not know every feminist and their experience. This type of thought is exceptional for the 80’s yet we still fail to get this right today. A relevant example is this ‘Women’s March’ where all women were meant to be standing together in solidarity. But it’s funny that they want to march with us now when white women clearly weren’t standing with us with over 50% of them voting for an open misogynist.
All I ask is that we think about what we are really fighting for and how we include all women when it comes to feminism and remember that the real purpose is embodied in the words ‘women’ and ‘equality’.
