I was reading some blogs today wandering around the more liberal part of the blogosphere, and I happened across a blog called Womanist Musings. I had never heard of womanism before, and, being judgemental and silly, I assumed it must be yet another word that people call themselves like equalist or humanist or other bullshit when they don’t want to be associated with feminism even when they share the same beliefs.
Well, there’s me being silly again. Turns out womanism broke off from feminism some time during the second wave after women of color got sick of the racism in the feminist movement after how much they had contributed to feminism. I’m assuming the term “womanism” comes from the term “woman of color”, but that’s just conjecture on my part. I haven’t nearly given Womanist Musings the reading it deserves yet, but it looks like it should be a thoroughly eye-opening read.
I have only recently come to terms with the idea that I have privilege. Specifically, white privilege and cis privilege. For a good primer on what it means to have privilege, check out this essay on white privilege and how it affects the daily lives of white people. Reading an essay on what womanism is and why white women can’t identify as womanists struck a chord with me. My kneejerk initial thought was, “She’s being racist! I can call myself anything I want to!” Then I remembered how utterly irritating I found it when I saw other people the same thing – the whole “people of color are racist because they want spaces and a culture of their own without being marginalized” thing. My own mother has made that same argument, most recently in reference to the BET Awards. She demanded that I tell her why there wasn’t a WET network. Because I guess having a privately funded TV network that caters to black audiences is a bad thing. And yet you don’t hear the same complaint about networks like Logo that cater to gay audiences or networks like Lifetime that cater to exceptionally stupid female audiences. And it’s not like Whitey is banned from watching or appearing on the network.
And then I read further, and it became quite obvious to me that that exact perception of people of color having their own unique spaces as being racist against white people is just another facet of white privilege. Even though people of color are marginalized in many public areas where discourse takes place (See: second and third wave mainstream feminism), when they try to create areas of their own, there is always going to be a large group of white people who try to appropriate their spaces.
White women identifying as womanist is just another aspect of that. (For similar reasons, I also disagree with men calling themselves feminists. )
I apologize if this is a little rambly and confusing. Part of the reason I started this blog was for me to have a chance to work out just what exactly it is that I think about, and I get frustrated real quick if I have to explain everything that I’m talking about. But I suggest you give those two things I linked up there a good read, cause they’re really worth it.
