Intersectional feminism | Living In Colour

welcome to living in color I'm your host for annoucer and today we're talking about intersectional feminism what it is why it's important to include a women of color and discussions about feminism and why some racialized women say the feminist movement doesn't represent them today I'm joined by Aisha Otto who is the founder of power to girls foundation and be Kwame who is a freelance writer and a radio host ladies thanks so much for being here let's start with intersectional feminism so how does it differ from the framework of regular feminism I'll start with you B so I think the first thing to do is define what intersectionality is to understand it so it's a framework that was coined by dr. Kimberly Crenshaw like exactly 30 years ago in 1989 and it's a framework to show and highlight the ways that different identities experience the world differently and face discrimination in different ways and kind of layering and intersecting ways so that could be through race through gender through sexual identification you know socioeconomic status all of those different parts of your being that are pretty much marginalized in larger society when they're all packaged or packaged in different ways and individuals that means that they experience discrimination and inequality differently so in relation to feminism that means that you know kind of the mainstream version of feminism is well we're all women so we're all fighting for the same thing we all have the same struggle that's not the case when you look at it through the framework of intersectionality because then you understand that different women have different struggles and if we are moving forward to push for more equality we have to take those differences into consideration so it's one is kind of going a bit deeper and looking at women as individuals and the other is just kind of a more of a blanket statement which I think people would think is a lot simpler in the fight for equality but it's not that simple and really I mean we're looking at the POC contacts but there's so many other context where we talk about intersectional feminism I shall talk to me about how you perceive this term so it's interesting that you mentioned that because for a very long time I asked personally didn't want to be associated with feminism I didn't want to be called a feminist because just like be said there is a lot of like differences and there's a lot of struggles depending on where you're coming from you know all of that stuff as an African girl woman it's actually different because feminism in Africa is totally different from feminism here in North America and then you're talking about also being black on top of that so for me it's sort of like recognizing the differences and the different challenges that everyone faces why don't some women of color want to be associated with feminism I mean you just touched on the fact that you didn't want to and I want to get to that African context tooks I'm very curious about what it's like yeah but I'm gonna start with you B why do you think some women of color don't want to be associated with them and isn't because I think the way feminism has been marketed it has a very white face so if we think about even in the u.s. you know in the 60s with women's rights movements and things of that nature it was mainly championed by white women who are looking for the opportunity to work outside the home and and get equal pay and what's missing from that equation is the fact that in order for them to work outside the home black women and other women of color were working inside their homes to take care of their children but those women were not taken into consideration in this movement so that creates a barrier I think for a lot of women especially maybe in older generations who kind of live through that to say if that's what feminism is that has nothing to do with me so I think that the the marketing aspect and the face of who do you think of when you think of what a feminist is can create that disparity let's pick up on the fact that you said you didn't want to associate an ism and what it's like in Africa what how its how feminism is perceived in different places so I'm gonna I'm from Ghana so I'm gonna use gun as a pressure example so for a lot of folks most African countries actually were very major ago before colonization so as a result of that you know we have sort of like adapted to the colonizers way which is patriarchy essentially and back home every time you bring up the idea of feminism it stops conversations because people are like okay you know you're all for these like you know whatever rides and all these different things I don't want to have a conversation with you and for me navigating that space and also navigating Caledon having the experience of being here it was really a matter of like how can we still have conversations about this about patriarchy about all the different challenges that people were fading out facing about LGBTQ rights all of those different things but then still understanding who we are as people and what our roots are and where we're actually coming from and actually part of the reason why I didn't want to be associated with the whole feminism agenda was exactly what you said that fight was not inclusive that fight did not include us because if you actually look at it when white women didn't get the chance to work we were already working black women were already in the homes they were already working when they got the right to vote black folks did not get that right as well so it wasn't something that was created to include everyone else it was sort of like you know an elitist Club that's like we're the only ones that belong in it and I think as time went on and as you know the even the civil rights movement and all those different things evolved women recognize that like know our voice matters as well do you think I should our responsibility and be do you think it's our responsibility to you know get into this space to be part of the movement to make a space for ourselves in this movement that is what that is dominated by white women I think it goes two ways so I think there's definitely the responsibility if we think of you know kind of black women and other women of color who have felt you know excluded on the basis of race it's definitely our responsibility to not allow that to tamper our voices and I think what's interesting is I think about women in my own family you know my mother and my grandmothers and I look at their lives and how they have always led their lives and I know that they are like my feminist archetypes they would never call themselves that there was no word like that for them and and they when they heard feminism it didn't reflect they didn't yeah like you said right yeah so it's like I'm I'm gaining my understanding of feminism through watching them even though they would never create that title for themselves but I think what they show me is that model of they have been out in the world in whatever space they inhabit making change pushing boundaries and doing things to fight for equality and and to kind of dismantle some of that patriarchy and the ways that they could so that's been their responsibility however I think on the other side of it too we can't do all of the work so I think for people who are you know maybe white women in more mainstream areas who are pushing for feminism as well they need to do that work to unlearn and relearn different things to understand how they can be more inclusive what do you both think though about people who say who might be watching the conversation and saying why are you splitting splitting up women why are you creating a divide here and saying okay well now we have to talk about an intersectional feminism why can't we just all be united and you know I want those people to ask themselves have you ever been in a space that is supposed to be for you but you feel so excluded because that is exactly what this is right when you talk about families I mean you're you see we are also at the older now so our experiences are totally different but then let's even bring it back down a notch to the little girls that you know are fighting within their school systems alone for their voices to be heard but do not feel hurt that you know there you have your white counterpart speak up and then it's her out there and then they speak up and it's like no you're being too loud you know what I mean so it's all those like little microaggressions that little ones are picking up on that in a sense is going to be come to fight 10 15 years from now so I think it's really important for us to understand that it's not necessarily a separation it is an on learning and relearning men have a huge role to play here and men from racialized communities because you know you talked about how it was made you are equal before colonization when I think about my own South Asian community there are other struggles when you know a community where it's so male-dominated decision making is male dominance there's another layer or another few stairs to climb right so how do we get men involved in this conversation in particularly where we've realized men I think there are a lot of men and and maybe some white women who also get kind of get their backs up about it too but I think that men look at it like oh now you're trying to find a way to flip the hierarchy and put us down at the bottom and put women at the top and you know forget about our issues and all those types of things that's not what the point is the point of intersectionality and as it relates to feminism is to break down those those barriers so we are aware of the different intersections as it's called and the world is able to shift in order to make room for those things so that whatever you know differing identities you have there's still room for you to navigate the world without you know duress so it's not about it's not about creating a new hierarchy where anybody else is at the bottom but it's about leveling the playing field in a way so I think with men what's really important for men to understand is the role that they play like you mentioned as well with how kind of society shifted from matriarchal to patriarchal and for men to understand that that came with a lot of issues and those issues affect men as well absolutely so a lot of these things are detrimental to men so if we have men who are involved in the conversation who do maybe more listening than speaking because I think if we talking about feminism there's a lot that men need to unlearn as well and and think about as it relates to their own lives but I think if men looked at the fact that there's a lot of you know a lot of different aspects around patriarchy and around masculinity and around misogyny that are detrimental to them as well and their own developments as human beings they would probably be more open to understanding how they can be more beneficial as allies for women but how this can also help them as well - you mentioned that because it is about equity right I think a lot of times when the word feminism comes up folks jump to equality and then the conversation with men is that all you want equal rights for then what about this one of others and then gender roles comes into play but what the fight is about is equity and equity is that there are no barriers equity is that if there is an opportunity you're looking at the person's talents the person's skills and not their gender and that's not a deciding factor now when we talk about men being involved for them to recognize that the fight for equity or the fight for equality is not to take away from you it's not saying that oh this water it's just you know we're gonna share this water and we're gonna share it equally no it's like you have your bottle of water and I have my bottle of water there is enough water for all of us we recognize that you have skills and I have skills and then my skills is not based on my gender or the color of my skin and all of those different things you know I think it's interesting though because what I found and maybe this is more just kind of thing on social media that I've seen where I've seen more men self-identify as what they call male feminists like the Prime Minister exactly exactly a very famous example right there I think the problem is a lot of men don't understand their role within that or they don't really understand what that means is that when a woman who identifies identifies as a feminist is in seeing that label and I found a lot of men who you know like I mentioned before that I think men in the conversation need to start out by listening first I find a lot of these men who've taken on this title of I'm a male feminist they're not listening you know they're speaking about what they think they know the struggle to be and speaking over women's experiences and not allowing room for women to identify what the issues are for themselves before they you know show up as the ally to save the day yeah thank you both so much for your insight this is something that I am actually now thinking about a lot more to into intersexual feminism it was a great conversation and thank you so much for watching living in color thank you for watching living in color if you enjoyed the show please subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you have an idea for a future a living in color episode we'd love to hear your thoughts

Channel: Global News

Views: 22,278

Keywords: Intersectional feminism, Intersectionality, feminism, gender, gender equity, exclusion, inequality, prejudice, What is feminism, What is intersectional feminism, What is the concept of intersectional feminism, What are the different types of feminism, What is intersectional feminist theory, What does intersectional feminism mean, How does race effect feminism, How does race influence feminism, Exclusion within feminism, Intersectional feminism 101, Toxic feminism, Kimberlé Crenshaw

Id: eT1EC51xgVw

Length: 12min 29sec (749 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 11 2019