Your Room Is Still Messy
By Jo Lorenz
Like the pic? Have I got your attention? Great! Then let’s talk about white feminism **Janice spits coffee out**
Here’s a little litmus test: does your feminism take racism, bigotry, ableism and poverty into account? If not, then who exactly are you trying to help?
White feminism refers to feminist endeavours which only elevate and address the needs of white women, while simultaneously — and perhaps unconsciously — ignoring or excluding feminist issues faced by minority female groups.
This morning I asked my four-year old, Jude, to clean his room. He stood up, huffed angrily with hands on hips and pointed at the small train set he’d just put back up on the shelf. “Yes, that’s excellent Jude, but the rest of your room is still messy,” I said in my best ‘I am calm, I am goddess’ mother voice. Acknowledging the sense in this — albeit with a massive dose of side eye! — we then started to clean the room together.
Ever noticed that when we're asked to do more, we get defensive and demand we be acknowledged for the things we’ve already done? I’ve def been guilty of this in the past. Yet intersectional feminism is about the bigger picture — the entire messy room! — and about how we can do more; how we can acknowledge our failings to feminism; how we can learn more; and how we can support ALL people.
Hey, I’m not claiming to be perfect, and I know I am far from it. Yet I recognize there’s very little value in simply connecting the power of my own privilege. And also recognize that my feminism has to facilitate the needs and rights of ALL individuals, including women of colour, disabled women, gay women, female-identifying women, and marginalised women (et al).
Has this caption left you with a little squirmy pit in your tummy? Good! This likely means you’re open to the possibility that you may be guilty of narrow feminism and in acknowledging this you’re allowing yourself to grow and improve. And that, my friend, is where the magic happens!
Yet for now, I am back to spreading the good gospel of room-tidying . . .
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