Ever since coming to Emerson College, I’ve turned off plenty of people by ranting about how much I hate white feminism. “Why do you hate white people?” they asked, offended. “But you’re white,” they insisted.
It’s true. I am white. No, I don’t hate all white people. I find white feminism and white feminists being ignorant and detrimental to feminism as a whole. And if everyone understood exactly what these terms meant, they wouldn’t be so offended when I brought them up. Therefore, let me explain them to you.
All white people who identify as feminists are not “white feminists”. And all white feminists are not necessarily white. “White feminism” is a term used within the social justice community to define a version of feminism that does not consider issues of privilege, especially racial privilege and class privilege, but also including cisgender privilege, heterosexual privilege, etc. It could also be considered non-intersectional feminism. White feminists do not consider the fact that women of color are faced with a different set of problems to white women, based on their disadvantaged position in society. As a Jezebel “Groupthink” post declared: “It is ‘one size-fits all’ feminism, where middle class white women are the mold that others must fit.”
As a result, white feminists tend to say, write, and do things that are not progressive. One of the most frequent offenses of white feminists is policing the bodies of women of color. The British singer Lily Allen provided us with a poignant example of this last year when she released the video for her new supposed feminist anthem, “Hard Out Here”. In the song, Allen talks about how hard it is to be a woman in the music industry. Unfortunately, her lyrics and visual representation in the video make it clear that she’s only thought about how hard it is out here for white women. She makes clear references to hip-hop culture, declaring that she “won’t be bragging ‘bout [her] cars or talking ‘bout [her] chains.” Lyrics like these make it clear that, to Allen, such common images used in the lyrics of many female black artists’ songs are less valuable than what she has to say. This is a clear example of a white feminist trying to critique women of color within the boundaries of a privileged white woman’s position in society. But this still isn’t the most offensive part of the video. Throughout much of the video, a number of black female dancers dance behind her in a highly sexualized manner. Allen’s lyrics demonstrate that she finds this kind of dancing to be anti-feminist: “Don’t need to shake my ass for you ‘cause I’ve got a brain.” Apparently, the women of color in her video are brainless. They don’t fit into her narrow-minded mold of what a feminist “should be”.
However, beyond the obvious act of critiquing women of color and cultures of which they know little, a huge part of being a white feminist is not having the ability to understand why a lack of diversity and visibility for feminists of color is an issue. The classic example of Lena Dunham comes to mind. When Girls premiered in 2012, white feminists everywhere worshipped a show that Dunham claimed was giving visibility to women who did not have it. When the show won a Golden Globe last January, Dunham declared in her acceptance speech that “this award is for every woman who felt like there wasn’t a space for her.” Too bad Dunham’s show focuses on the lives of four privileged middle class white women. When white feminists model themselves after women like Dunham, they are affirming the idea that there is no room for women of color in the fight for equality – which is not okay.
Thus, it’s likely that many people reading this article or another article on the Internet that defines “white feminism” are going to get defensive. I get it, you identify as a feminist. You’re not racist. Okay. Yet white feminism is a detrimental concept. Feminism can only succeed with intersectionality. It can only succeed when feminists who are white own up to their privilege, and understand that the position of other women and people with non-traditional gender identities is defined by racism, classism, ableism, and heterosexism, which white middle class women aren’t likely to encounter any time soon.
If you think you might be a white feminist, guess what? You don’t have to be one anymore! Educate yourself. You’ve been told this many times before, but we live in the Internet Age. Research privilege if you don’t think you quite understand the concept. Check your own privilege. Get involved by volunteering in your community. Should you be unsure about a trending feminist issue, read many different perspectives on it, from feminists with diverse experiences.
Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of feminists of color and feminist icons of color to look up to. It’s important to understand the diversity of the world we live in. It’s important to understand that sociological minorities have very specific experiences that change the way we look at individual issues under the larger umbrella of feminist issues. Issues of equality cannot truly be understood and tackled without taking diversity into consideration.
Maria DiPasquale is a sophomore Writing, Literature, and Publishing major at Emerson College with a concentration in fiction. She is working on minors in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Post-Colonial Studies. She owes a lot of who she is to Maplewood, New Jersey, the liberal and diverse commuter town outside New York where she grew up. She wants to dedicate her career to writing stories that draw on equality issues. For now, she can be found ranting about feminism, racism, or her love for velvet.
Image Credit: everydayfeminism.com and whitefeministcollectionagency.tumblr.com