We’re Gonna Talk About It Podcast
Episode 16: The New “F” Word: Do You Call Yourself a Feminist?
PART TWO
Welcome to part 2 of our discussion on feminism in America. YIKES. That’s right, you heard it here…YIKES! We skimmed across the history and the possible future of the movement, but barely scratched the surface, and there’s a good reason why. Feminism needs to do better. The good news is, there is a way.
Intersectional Feminism is the current wave of feminism in America and it’s about time it was. According to Nancy J. Hirschmann, (former) director of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Pennsylvania (now known as The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies The Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies (upenn.edu)) “Intersectional feminism is the idea that ‘gender’ or ‘women’ doesn’t just refer to a single unified concept: all women have a race, whether white, black, Asian, Latina, etc. as well as a class, ethnicity, religion, etc., and their experiences as ‘women’ differ because of those other differences. The different aspects of our identity intersect — white women’s experiences ‘as women’ is partly defined by their race, just like black women’s experiences are, it’s just that it’s easier for white women to ignore their race. So if ‘feminism’ is supposed to represent ‘women’ it has to attend to those differences.”
In this episode we try to figure out what Intersectional Feminism means to us as well as how we can actively incorporate it into our daily actions AND interactions. If you believe equality is for everyone like we do, there are a few basic beginning steps to get started on this important quest.
First, examine your own privilege. Whether it’s societal such as being a white/cis/straight identifying woman, or, economic or class privilege, recognizing who has more advantages in this fight for equality is an incredibly important initial step.
Next, Listen to each other. This means making space for everyone to share their truth, even if you find yourself uncomfortable or if it forces you to confront some of your own prejudices.
Then, continually practice feminism through the broader and more inclusive lens that you are learning.
As we talked about in the first part of “The New F-Word”, the great writer bell hooks is a wonderful introduction to intersectional feminist theory and practice. More about bell hooks here, or in our previous blog post. Get to Know bell hooks – The bell hooks center (berea.edu)
And here’s a great article from the Black Feminist Collective with more incredible feminist writers. A Look into the Women Behind Intersectional Feminism – Black Feminist Collective
Finally, you can take action today by finding your local NOW organization, such as About (mnnow.org) and join and support them at various events. You can also subscribe to one of our favorite resources, The Feminist Book Club. Feminist Book Club a Complete Feminist Experience FBC has so many terrific and actually entertaining resources on intersectional feminism, you’ll love learning more about this important movement.
As always, let us know what you think at [email protected] and as always, thanks for listening!
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