Blog Post 1

Is Feminism Personal or Public?

Some of the ideas that I have noticed threading through these recent readings are two seemingly antithetical ideas of what exactly feminism is. Specifically, I noticed this dichotomy the most in Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist Introduction and Mariam Khan's essay "Feminism Needs to Die". Both authors discuss their struggles feeling excluded from either White Feminism, or just Feminism, as women of color but they suggest very starkly different ways of handling these issues. Gay says "I learned to separate feminism from Feminism or Feminists or the idea of an Essential Feminism--one true feminism to dominate all of womankind" (xii). She clearly holds the idea that there is no way to make feminism universal, that there are just too many different types of women to ever create a "Feminism" that works for all of them. She even says "Feminism will better succeed with collective effort, but feminist success can also rise out of personal conduct...I say, let us (try to) become the feminists we would like to see moving through the world" (xiii-xiv). Khan on the other hand takes a very different stance, stating: "Feminism as we know it needs to die so it can stop building walls, so it can develop and move forward to nurture a sisterhood of Intersectional Feminists. Feminism is no good to me if it doesn't fight for every different type of woman" (113). Khan here is making demands on all of Feminism to change, not just on individuals to change the way that they promote or execute feminism or feminist practices in their daily lives. 

Through these two different women, I see two drastically different ways of dealing with the failings of feminism, failings that we see over and over and over again throughout all the different waves, from Sojourner Truth to Audre Lorde to Khan and Gay. Neither author argues that this is not a problem, and neither author lets those who disseminate and cultivate these ideas off the hook--both demand change. The core difference here is the level on which that change occurs. Khan seems to suggest a complete overhaul of the way that feminism is. That there is no way to solve this problem that is so deeply seeded at the core of what Feminism is than completely changing it, building a better Feminism from the ground up. I do not mean to suggest that Gay would oppose this kind of Feminism-wide change, but on the other hand that perhaps she views it as unrealistic, that the only difference one person can make is attempting to make their small corner of Feminism a little better, a little more accepting, to embrace being a "Bad Feminist". 

I do not think that there is any need or possibility for me to determine which of these two ideas is the "better way" of fixing Feminism. To destroy it and build a new one certainly sounds more effective, but it also seems like it may not be possible. However, I also do not know whether just attempting to change the small portion of Feminism that each person has access to will be effective at combatting the problems inherent in the structure of Feminism--the exclusion of women of color, trans women, queer women, disabled women, and--as Mariam Khan points out--women of different faiths. These are deeply rooted issues in the construction of Feminism that have been there since the beginning, and there is almost certainly no simple way to fix them. But that said, more thinkers like Khan and Gay writing more pieces on their thoughts and personal experiences will certainly not hurt. 

References:

Gay, Roxanne. Bad Feminist: Essays. Harper Perennial, 2014. 

Khan, Mariam. "Feminism Needs to Die." It's Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, 

     Sexuality and Race, edited by Khan, Pan Macmillan, 2019, pp. 105-14.