Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021, and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint. Blending political history, literature and lived experiences, Rafia Zakaria, a Pakistani-American journalist, attorney, writer and feminist, provides receipts on how white, liberal feminism eats away at the revolutionary core of feminism and, by so doing, erases the contributions of women of colour. This book helped me pinpoint my issues with the mainstreaming of feminism, and the palpable unease that washes over me when I find myself/ have found myself in feminist circles that are predominantly white, both in numbers and in thought.
(If you don’t have the time to read it, you can check out Zakaria’s interview on BBC 4’s Woman Hour.)
From the get-go, I’d like to say this: fuck girl-bosses, fuck patriarchy with a woman’s face, fuck white saviourism, fuck all attempts to feminist-wash institutions, corporations and other structures that are inherently racist, sexist, classist, homophobic and exclusionary.
“It is crucial that white women realize that being white and a woman are not what makes a woman a white feminist; it is refusing to recognize white privilege.”
We are against whiteness in feminism, “in the sense that whiteness has been synonymous with domination and exploitation”. It is a school of thought that excludes most women, specifically women of colour, by prioritising individualistic needs over collective ones.
“It is true that, by and large, the women who are paid to write about feminism, lead feminist organizations and make feminist policy in the Western world are white and middle-class.”
White feminism, as a manifestation of imperial superiority nourished by white supremacy, drains movements and concepts of their original meaning and intent, transforming them into bland and vapid marketing slogans, usurping and appropriating for financial gain and karma points.
Zakaria presents several examples of how feminism preceded its current mainstream and Western form. Indian women were already organising in the 1870s - they didn’t wait for the West to understand that their condition as women from the “Global South” needed to be specifically addressed.
I was surprised to learn that term “empowerment” was coined and implemented by Indian feminists. In the 1980s, Gita Sen and other feminists from the “Global South” created a collective called DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era”. She and her co-author Caren Grown wrote a book on DAWN’s work, making the case for a grassroots, bottoms-up empowerment of women. This position was diametrically in opposition to that of Western white feminists who were, at the time, mostly focused on equal pay and equality with men, thus in favour of a more top-down approach, or “trickle-down feminism” as Zakaria names it in her book. Today, the word “empowerment” has been emptied of its original revolutionary intent and the fact that it was “primarily a Brown feminist political project has been erased from mainstream development”. Easy test - how many times have you seen that word pop up on LinkedIn feeds or in corporate workshops?
If you think about it, the term “intersectionality” has also been stripped of its original intent and meaning with the mainstreaming of feminism. Intersectionality is a legal concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the 1980s to explain how race, gender and class overlap and intersect as a response to the “conceptual limitations of ... single-issue analyses.” Today, the term is thrown into conversations without addressing the collective and political nature of the word, oftentimes erasing the “race” or “gender” or “class” aspect of the term. It is not a word for everybody to use. It has a specific purpose, and it is meant specifically for Black women. Like the word “empowerment”, “intersectionality” has somehow transformed into a “neoliberal tool” for feminism lite events and projects, a vacuity that is a blow to the work done previously by so many Afrofeminists to shine a light on the multiple oppressions that trap Black women.
Zakaria also speaks about cultural appropriation, a not so subtle wink to how yoga, meditation, veganism, and so many other cultural products have been denatured and repackaged as a lifestyle made for rich, white, thin, able-bodied women.
“The idea that people of colour, their cultures and countries are just flavours in a wide buffet laid out for the white consumers’ consumption is rooted in and pervaded by white feminism’s earliest exchanges with women of colour.”
She also debunks the feminism of celebrated figures, such as Simone de Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem (who I used to love…). Simone de Beauvoir in particular is a poster girl for white feminism - her texts clearly “establish the white woman as the woman - the universal subject of feminism". She also failed to understand how intersectionality works, and constantly “uses the word “slavery” to describe the condition of women'“. This rhetoric is often seen in white feminist circles. In France, the now well-known Hymne des Femmes, written by French feminists in the 1970s, includes this cringe chorus that starts like this:
“Levons-nous femmes esclaves / Et brisons nos entraves”
Translation: “Let us rise, enslaved women / And let’s break our shackles”
Any intersectional feminist can understand why this line is problematic.
I could go for ages on Zakaria’s book - she covers an impressive number of topics, from white saviourism, “securofeminism” (coined by Lila Abu-Lughos, a Palestinian-American anthropologist to explain why Western feminists support war industrial complexes), the inherent islamophobia in white feminist circles, the idea that sexual liberation is a Western concept when in fact it was repressed, criminalised and undermined by colonisers in India, Senegal and other countries colonised by the West.
White girlfriends, please get your hands on this book and read it. Then read it again. Then lend it to your white girlfriends. It is a gold mine of information and sources for you to acknowledge your privileges, and points you in the right direction of how you can play your part.
If you’re a POC and never felt included or concerned by mainstream feminism, but feel strongly about social, gender and racial justice, don’t feel bad. That kind of feminism is not meant for us. It is highly individualistic, capitalistic, and thrives on domination and having one spokesperson for a cause instead of nourishing collective action. But we can look to our history and see that the struggles of our ancestors were real and consequential, and we have a real claim to their activism and its legacy. We need to focus on a type of feminism that is inclusive and collective, that uplifts all of our sisters and is concerned with fair redistribution and social justice for all.
Further reading:
AFROFEM by Mwasi Collectif (in French)
Feminism without Borders - Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo Lodge
Thank you for your clear and direct voice in the sea of washed out feminist views in the West
Omg, thank you for this. I just completed Simone de Beauvoir’s work and although I found it constructive, I will not disagree to what you pointed in your review. Absolutely loved how straightforward you have been to voice out your thoughts!