Photo by Hannah Adair Bonner
Feminism Lifting Up
This photo by Hannah Adair Bonner documents a dance performed by SonKiss’d Dance at The Shout, as an interpretation of what it means to set the oppressed free.
A week ago, I wrote a piece on feminism. I was tired after a decade of hearing female friends and colleagues say they were not feminists, while simultaneously serving in the traditionally male roles the feminist movement had opened to them. I was tired of hearing female pop singers, and uninformed celebrities demean the movement. I was tired, and yes, I was a little angry. Which, in my struggle to undermine stereotypes, I, of course, denied.
And then, I really found a reason to feel angry. On November 24, a press conference was held to announce the news I already knew in the pit of my stomach, but that felt like a punch in the gut nonetheless. Up until the moment it was announced, hope, that kindest and cruelest of all emotions, tempted me; permitting the opportunity for me to really feel the news when it arrived. The officer, Darren Wilson, who had shot an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, would not even be charged. Despite inconsistencies in the story; despite the fact that Michael had been shot multiple times and then twice in the head; despite the fact that Darren Wilson said he had the time to think about whether he could shoot Michael before choosing to do so; despite all of the voices in the community crying out, the decision had been made: this did not even warrant a trial.
It was the news I had been expecting ever since I sat in a St. Louis coffee shop in early September with friends involved in solidarity efforts in Ferguson. We listened while local law professor Justin Hansford explained to us the legal situation. He explained the serious concerns the community had that the man responsible for prosecuting Darren Wilson, Bob Muccullough, had lost his father when he was twelve years old, after his father, a white police officer, was shot by an African American man. He explained the frustration over the unwillingness of the Governor to appoint a special prosecutor, despite that factor and the importance of the case.
To my left sat the woman who had claimed me for the struggle several years ago; the woman who had loved me enough to refuse to allow me to play the “white card” and walk away when things got so painful that we did not know if we would survive; the woman with whom I had sat in silence, only a year ago, when the news came in that George Zimmerman was deemed “not guilty” of murdering another unarmed African American teenager, Trayvon Martin.
Yet, what is happening in our nation now is bigger than Michael Brown, bigger than Trayvon Martin. The time is long past due for us to face a system built for centuries upon white privilege and racism.
While we hear a lot about playing “the black card” or the “race card,” we rarely recognize that white men and women play the “white card” every day of our lives. We play it every time we accept the privileges the culture gives us in the way our bodies are portrayed on television and the media. We play it every time a police officer pulls us over for speeding and we feel only fear of having to spend some money on a ticket, rather than the fear of arrest or death. We play it at work, at school and at home without even realizing we are playing it. Then, with the deck stacked in our favor, we accuse others of playing the “black card” or the “race card.”
bell hooks described the situation perfectly in Feminism is For Everybody,
No intervention changed the face of American feminism more than the demand that feminist thinkers acknowledge the reality of race and racism. All white women in this nation know that their status is different from that of black women/women of color. They know this from the time they are little girls watching television and seeing only their images, and looking at magazines and seeing only their images. They know that the only reason nonwhites are absent/invisible is because they are not white. All white women in this nation know that whiteness is a privileged category. The fact that white females may choose to repress or deny this knowledge does not mean they are ignorant: it means that they are in denial.*
Sisters, we need to talk.
I hear you say you are not a feminist? I hear you are under the impression that feminists are “angry women who hate men.” I hear you are under the misconception that in order to “love the men in your life,” you have to distance yourself from your more assertive sisters.
This is by no means your best option. From the 1970’s onward, womanist and mujerista theologians have been working to help people understand that no one moves forward unless we all move forward. They recognized that as feminism morphed into an academic discipline, it became increasingly evident that the conversation was, and had been, dominated by privileged, white women who often did not recognize that what they were fighting for was not equality for all, but rather equality between white men and white women.
Therefore, a powerful response arose from African American female scholars known, after Alice Walker coined the term in 1979, as womanist theologians. Around the same time, a powerful response arose as well from Latina theologians and scholars known, after Ada María Isasi-Díaz coined the term in the early 1980’s, as mujerista theology. Both of these movements were able to articulate that oppression comes in many forms and, if we are to end it, we must end it in all its forms.
That means that women who seek to live in a just world must work to promote justice for all people, not merely advancement for themselves. Oppression recognizes true oppression and seeks to end it. This means that the conditions of immigrant men in detention in Texas must matter to us. This means that the body of Michael Brown lying in the streets of a quiet neighborhood in Ferguson must matter to us. These injustices must drive us to action with just the same fervor that the injustice we personally experience does.
Feminism is not anti-male; it is anti-injustice and anti-oppression; it is anti-sexism, anti-classism, anti-racism. It is pro-wholeness and pro-community.
Justice and equality are never merely handed over by those who benefit from a system that grants them more power, influence, and profit than others. People must demand it and fight for it. This is what we are seeing take place in Ferguson, as leaders there know that life should not and cannot continue in this manner, and that anger has its place.
Persons who possess privilege, that being special rights and advantages based on race/gender/ethnicity/language, will be forced to resist change if they want to continue having that privilege, in the form of a surplus of money/influence/education/rights. Thus, those who fight for equality and equity and basic human rights can expect to be punished and shamed by those with privilege as a method of resisting a change that would mean that some of their surplus might be taken to meet some of the needs of the poor.
This shaming, mockery, and caricature leads young women who are uninformed to distance themselves from the very people who are fighting for their rights. They do this because they do not understand what is truly happening, and they do not want to be associated with the thing that is being mocked. They insist that they are not feminists without knowing what a feminist is. They vocally ally themselves with male privilege and traditional power structures and claim they are doing it out of love for their brothers, not understanding these structures do harm to men as well.
As bell hooks puts it,
Sadly, as opportunism within feminism intensified, as feminist gains became commonplace and were therefore taken for granted, many women did not want to work hard to create and sustain solidarity. A large body of women simply abandoned the notion of sisterhood. Individual women who had once critiqued and challenged patriarchy re-aligned themselves with sexist men.*
While it seems popular these days to say that you reject feminism because men and boys you love feel oppressed by feminism, we are missing a crucial fact: Oppression is not a feeling. Oppression is a lived reality.
Feeling oppressed does not mean you are being oppressed. When those who are being oppressed demand justice from men who have privilege, that does not mean they are oppressing those men, although it may feel uncomfortable. This discomfort lies in the expectations of patriarchy, the unacknowledged role of privilege, and the anxiety created by the possibility of losing the benefit of making more money and having more influence, visibility and power. Here is a tip: if equality and equity is what is feared, it is not oppression that is being experienced.
This is important because there are other men who truly are being oppressed. Men who are being paid less because of classism or racism. Men who are being mocked and abused. Men who are being gunned down in the streets without a gun in their hand. If you look around, you will see that third wave feminists – with an understanding of the intersectionality between gender, class, race – are out in the streets advocating for their brothers.
If we choose to be ignorant of this difference, seeking to ally ourselves with privilege and avoid the shame heaped upon those who threaten privilege, then we are not being radical and edgy, we are merely being accomplices in oppression.
If we are ever to see justice, we must reject attempts to define, demean, and condemn those who fight for all of us. We must be willing to speak up and take action ourselves.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stated: “Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”
bell hooks wrote: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”
Unless you are one of the people who truly disagrees with these statements and believes in the inequality of the sexes, you are probably a feminist.
Have the courage to claim the words and actions that go along with being a feminist. Have the courage to claim the words and actions that go along with being anti-racist. Stand in solidarity with your sisters and brothers who live this out in a multiplicity of ways. Grow in your understanding so you can educate others. Take action and be a part of creating a just world.
“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal.” – Galatians 3:28
Read these:
*hooks, bell. Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics, Cambridge: South End Press, 2000, p. 55, p. 16
**Photo is owned by the author and documents a dance performed by SonKiss’d Dance at The Shout, as an interpretation of what it means to set the oppressed free.
***The author would like to thank Laura Patterson for conversation in the writing of this piece.
Hannah Bonner
The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner
The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference. She currently serves with the pastoral team at St. John's Downtown in Houston, TX. This post is reprinted with permission from UMC Lead.