Abstract:

This essay discusses white feminism and its detrimental effects to the feminist movement. The subtopics discussed within this topic are the support of white women when they did something wrong (in a situation concerning race), white feminism being in accordance with white supremacy, and overshadowing the voices of WOC (Women Of Color).

Introduction:

White feminism is feminism that focuses on the struggles of white women rather than including WOC and the unique struggles that WOC face. In the process of ignoring the struggles of WOC, white feminism also tends to overshadow the voices of WOC when discussing the issues they face. This essay will examine how white feminism affects the feminist movement and explain that is tends to be a result of white feminist’s issue of overlooking WOC. 

Literature Review:

To commence with, one way in which white feminism affects the feminist movement is by supporting white women when said women did something wrong (in regards to racial situations) instead of having them take accountability for their actions. One example of this is when Jessie Daniels, in her article “The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet”  mentioned a journalist’s article sympathizing with a white woman who lost her PR job over “ ‘one stupid tweet’ ”. The same tweet that said, “ ‘Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!’”. Instead of addressing the racist tones in that tweet and correcting the woman that lost her job, the journalist caped for the woman instead. This aspect of white feminism is detrimental to the feminist movement because it condones prejudice behavior by white women, which cannot benefit the feminist movement when true feminism includes WOC (Women of Color). Feminism concerns women’s issues, not just white women’s issues.

Another way that white feminism affects the feminist movement is by supporting white supremacy. Since white feminism “articulates a limited version of gender inequality without challenging racial inequality, then white feminism is not inconsistent with white supremacy”. An extreme version of white feminism being in coordination with white supremacy is a “Ladies Only” discussion board within the white supremacist global portal for white pride called “Stormfront”. In this group, white feminists fully  support ideas such as abortion only if the termination is of a non-white child and go as far as somestimes supporting gay rights, but only if said gay person is a white supremacist too. 

 Further examples of white feminism being in accordance with white supremacy–specifically within the system of patriarchy– include the 2016 presidential election of Donald J. Trump. While campaigning, Trump boasted that he used to grab women “by the pussy”. Despite this alarming statement admitting to sexual assault, 53% of white women that voted in the 2016 election still voted for him. Despite his “anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments”, 53% of white women who participated in the 2016 presidential election still voted for him. Sadly, this does not necessarily reveal anything new about white feminists.  It corroborates the already-known fact that white women have historically voted Republican, despite their own interests considering the fact that the Republican party tends to hold beliefs that do not favor true, all-inclusive feminism (Jesus, A, 2018, p. 307-340).

In Daniels’ “The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet”, she supports the notion that white feminism overshadows and ignores the struggles and voices of WOC. (The second wave of feminism, which took place in the 1960s and 1970s, fought against “employment discrimination, unequal pay, legal inequality, and meagre support services for working women that needed to be corrected through legislative guarantees of equal pay for equal work, equal job opportunities, and expanded child-care services” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Brittanica). The first wave of feminism, which took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries, focused primarily on women’s suffrage.)  She supports this argument by examining a couple of examples of white activist feminism, two of them being “Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In and “Ban Bossy” campaigns and Eve Ensler’s movement One Billion Rising”. In Sandberg’s book Lean In, Sandberg implores women to assert their rightful position in the workplace while not acknowledging the fact that that’s not going to be a simple process for all women because of systematic challenges and nowhere in her book did she mention the LBGTQ+ community. Next, the movement One Billion Rising  (which I will from now on refer to as OBR) founded by Ensler is an example of white feminism because it overshadowed the idigenous women’s movement in Canada that had already been happening for decades. OBR’s latest endeavor is V-Day events, in which there is activism against sexual violence. However, Ensler chose February 14th for her events. This was problematic because February 14th was already a signifier for the indigenous women’s movement, in which native women highlight the violence against native women and honor missing and murdered native women.

 Conclusion:

The major themes in the articles are white feminism overshadowing the voices of WOC and being parallel to white supremacy. The authors of the articles strongly supported their points with a myriad of details, such as Daniels supporting her points with examples of books and movements from white feminists. Good questions for further research would be “What are less talked about ways in which white feminism manifests itself?”, “How has white feminism changed forms from the early 20th century to now?”, and “Will white women be responsible for dismantling white feminism?”.

Bibliography:

1. Daniels, J. (2016). The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet. CUNY Academic Works.
2. Jesus, A. M. Beliso-De. (2018). Confounded Identities: A Meditation on Race, Feminism, and Religious Studies in Times of White Supremacy. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 86 Issue 2, p307-340. 34p.
3. 3. Bulbeck, Chilla. (2010). (White) Feminism and Foreigners. Vol. 25 Issue 66, p493-503, 11p