Before listening to the power point and reading The Combahee River Collective, I never realized how much intersectionality really does play a role in our society. In general, women are seen as subordinate to men and are not given the same rights that men are. In another sense, African Americans are seen as subordinate to White Americans in the United States. Hence, being both a woman and an African American is a double hit. According to intersectionality, if you are a non-white, poor, gay woman then you will have a very unique experience of offpression and privilege.
I am very surprised that many white women were racist during the women's movement. It would seem that they would want as many women fighting with them as possible, regardless of race, class, and sexuality. Maybe if white women would have embraced black women we would not have as much of a racism problem as we do today.
I think that if we had consciousness raising groups today, they would fail miserably. The idea of women sitting around rapping about their problems and experiences would be very humorous to their opponents and wouldn't get anything done. It may entice more radical feminists to join in the fight, but I don't think it would get much done in terms of legislation and the way that women are viewed in general.
If I wrote a manifesto I would want it to be about violence from husbands to their wives. I feel that this is a huge problem in society today and would want to push for harsher punishments for this crime. Even something that the state sees as not being a big deal, such as emotional abuse, should be illegal and have a harsh punishment. Many men today think that it is ok to abuse a woman if he is married to her, which is simply not the case and this way of thinking should be stopped immediately.
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I agree that if white women had embraced black women during earlier femminist movements that things would have been better. I also like your point about how intersectionality can work to put people at more of a disadvantage than if they were only in one oppressive position. Random fun fact, when I went to Costa Rica a couple of months ago there was/is a black lesbian woman running for president. It was a pretty big controversey to have a white woman and a black man in the presidential election, I wonder how our country would handle a canidate who fit many different oppressed categories.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that you included emotional abuse with your discussion about violence against women. Emotional abuse is often overlooked, but it is still a big deal, and this class is making me realize how easy it would be for a man to abuse a woman in that way and for it to go unoticed.