In the current state of the world affairs to word Feminism is a hot and sticking topic.
Just to clarify, I am a feminist and always have been even when I didn’t know the word existed, and I’m proud as can be about it.
In recent months and years, the conversation around Feminism (the belief that any and all people are equal) has flourished, albeit with a heightened perspective from the white, cis, straight community. I can’t help but feel that intersectional feminism is something of a taboo subject to be brought up. Saying anything on this bring comments of being ‘angry’ and ‘ungrateful’ – something that I, a black woman, have been described as many a time.
Following the inauguration of Cheeto Voldemort as the President of United States of America; and the millions of marches worldwide that followed I started to wonder where all these nice white women were when #BLM protests and hashtags were being shared or when LGBTQ+ people were being oppressed.
Don’t get me wrong, I went to the Women’s march in London and loved seeing the amount of liberal, open-minded, beautiful people (kids and dogs the most – my heart was meltinggg). But such people are often very silent in times when their voice is needed. To paraphrase Desmond Tutu – why be silent in the times of turmoil? You’re actively siding with the oppressor.
What can be done? Listen and learn. Don’t interrupt those who are telling you their experiences, you do not know better than them. Learn, empathise, resist the fascists.
And yes, that includes Black, Hispanic & Muslim Women. Women with disabilities, physical and mental illnesses. Transgender women (side note: pls stop putting female emphasis on having a vagina), gender non-conforming – and any and everyone else in between!
I don’t have all the answers to anything at all, but what I do know is that it makes no sense to not fight for everyone. Intersectionality is the crux of feminism – without it, we will literally get nowhere as without the liberation of all we are all being oppressed.
