As social media veterans, most of us are probably familiar with the Buzzfeed brand of feminism which touts ‘period blood art’ or ‘women try mansplaining for a week’ videos, ‘how much of a feminist are you’ quizzes, and articles like ‘Jason Mamoa - and I can’t stress this enough (yes, this is literally a part of the article title), could spit in my mouth’ as feminism.
This tragic portrayal of feminism as the #girlboss feminism that’s rooted deep in liberalism doesn’t solely exist in Buzzfeed content.
White feminism and liberal feminism in the media is ripe with examples of exaggerating issues that aren’t really pressing problems (think the free the nipple movement), while ignoring intersectional issues that have a negative impact on women from marginalized communities and misogyny affected people such as micro-aggressive racist behaviour. Liberal feminism also creates problems like the exclusion of trans people, tone policing POC's outrage (eg: ‘say things a little nicer’), enabling a white savior complex, and centering discussions around themselves (while excluding others within the community).
This should come as no surprise if we are to consider the history of this form of ‘feminism’.
Liberal feminists of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries argued for women to not be treated as legal dependents of their fathers or husbands. They called for the right to participate in public life, examined the institution of marriage and divorce, property laws, challenged the practice of denying women access to the same education as men, and promoted women at work.
At the time, this form of feminism was considered radical and revolutionary, and achieved a lot. Sounds great, right? It is however important to remember that liberal feminism was (and is today) very much a white women’s feminism. The things that they fought for were not equally handed out to women of color throughout the world, let alone in the west.
These white women who are now hailed as feminist icons have a long history of betraying black people and catering to white supremacy. Examples include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a suffragette who referred to African-American men as ‘Sambos’ (a racial slur) and rapists (a common stereotype).
Liberal feminism as an ideology focuses on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the existing socio-economic hierarchy rather than doing away with the hierarchy that reinforces inequality in the first place.
Liberal feminism also strongly espouses a person’s free will and ability to choose what they want to do, and that one should respect a woman’s choice no matter what. This sort of choice feminism is especially important if you consider the current liberal feminist thinking on the sex work industry. Liberal feminists argue that sex work can be empowering for women who choose to do it as they have agency over their body and the choice to do as they wish.
It makes sense in theory, but it forgets the larger picture in play. The porn industry is owned and controlled by men who profit off of women.
This view also does little to address the women who are coerced or forced into prostitution (often women from marginalized communities). At the same time, while more research needs to be done, numerous studies have also shown links between porn and sexual violence. So who does it cater to in the end?
An example that might shed more light into that question can come from Playboy. Interestingly, over the years Playboy has started churning out seemingly feminist content (yes, that playboy) that emphasizes women’s choice to be sexually subjugated, conveniently fitting their business interests, of course.
This is why we believe that Liberal feminism, which waters down feminism to a ‘do good or bad’, ‘respect a woman’s choice’ marketing tactic to fill pockets (usually of cis white men) headed by disillusioned (and oftentimes, very self-aware) white women, takes away from the revolutionary spirit of what we believe is real feminism that acknowledges the larger socio-economic structures that perpetuate the oppression of women and misogyny affected people.
So yeah, f**k liberal feminism.
Comments