we have brains

connected movements disconnected

January 30, 2004 12:36 PM posted by april : track it (0)

This week's topic was prompted by the questions Lenee posted sur la messageboard and the interesting discussion she and Kerri have been having on the topic.

In a nutshell, the question was: why did early feminists and early civil rights folk not band together, and how does this impact your relationship to people of other colors (well, specifically if you're white)? Something to think about.

My personal take is that the why is all about paradigm - specifically, people thinking in that-person-is-lesser being the norm certainly during the abolition/suffrage period, and to a degree in the sixties. Though there are certainly examples of women coming to feminism through civil rights action, which says to me that some people did find a connection between the two, it would have been possible for white women to see black men (and women) as inferior and vice versa. What do you think?

This also ties into a lot of my recent personal experience with various aspects of size acceptance, where I find that feminist ideas about the body, gender, and independence haven't always reached other fat folk. In fact, I hear fat activists talking about how you'll feel beautiful when you have a man, or how you should wear your hair X way to make your fat self more attractive. I'm not saying fat people or feminists need to reject conventional "beauty" outright, but I'm surprised to find us so uninformed as a community.

I know a lot of you have had similar experiences where you found that other political groups you got involved with were uninformed about feminism, or even outright misogynistic. I'm curious why you think these things happen.

So, the question (at last). What do you think keeps activist movements apart, both historically and today? Do you feel that movements need to work together, or are we all working on different things in different ways? And finally, how do you personally respond when other work you do seems to conflict with your feminist work?

While you're thinking on this subject, go back and answer Lenee's questions, too.

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your comments : post a new comment

My response is up. great topic for getting my lazy brain in gear.

Posted by: lauren on February 1, 2004 12:22 AM |

oh yeah, as i do not have the nifty ability to send you directly to the post, please scroll down to Jan 30th as necessary.

Posted by: lauren on February 1, 2004 12:23 AM |

Early American women's studies is actually my favorite era right now, and the reason was, basically, because it couldn't have happened. The woman question took nearly two generations to resolve and if it and civil rights were linked it would have taken much longer. It's really the guilty secret of early women's rights. The next item on the agenda was birth control and when that happened many of the women who had been fighting for the vote joined the KKK or church groups, leaving the battle entirely. It was a wake up call for a lot of women, but it came too late. The Rise of the New Woman by Jean V. Matthews is an *amazing* book if you want more info on this topic and the why of the split.

Posted by: Brigitte on February 2, 2004 11:15 AM |

I'd like to see feminists get more involved in education reform, since most educators are women. still. more

Posted by: kerri on February 3, 2004 09:51 PM |

i've responded, but i'll probably edit it again because i feel like there's more to say. enjoy, folks.

Posted by: lenée on February 4, 2004 12:59 AM |

Wow, great questions! As a woman of colour myself, when I first came to awareness about feminism, a lot of the books I found myself reading discussed race & gender, feminism and the civil rights movement, the places where the two intersected/overlapped or, more often, failed to intersect/overlap, the development of "womanism" as a response, maybe, to this failure. I can't say anything more or better than the writers of these books have already said, so I'll just promote: the marvellous bell hooks (of course), Valerie Smith's Not Just Race, Not Just Gender, Paula Giddings's When and Where I Enter, and a book whose title I will never forget All the Men are Black, All the Women are White, But Some of Us are Brave, edited by Gloria Hull et al.

Posted by: titilayo on February 5, 2004 08:17 PM |

What does our sexuality have to do with it?

Nothing, except that it is a powerful tool for putting shame on someone--or at least it is if the "shameful" one goes by the "traditional" value system.

I consider myself more of a human rights advocate than a feminist, but there is considerable overlap. People (like women) are the sole authority over their time, money, body, energy, and attention.

In the past, when I found my sexuality moving in a direction that wasn't consistent with this, I deliberately refocussed my attention, with good effect.

I don't often go to strip clubs, but when I go dancing with my girlfriend, I get pretty happy thinking about living in a world where women dance in next to nothing--and they are not bothered, and lots of people see to that. (Regulars at the night club we go to.)

Terry31415
(a man, living with his girlfriend and her husband)

Posted by: terry31415 on February 27, 2004 11:52 AM |