Feminism Might be for Everybody, but Can Everybody be a Feminist?

            As a Women and Gender Studies minor, it irks me when professors stand in front of the room and say “Do you believe that men and women are equal? Then you’re a feminist.”  This statement is problematic on so many levels.  Over the past five years, “feminism” has gone from being “the other f-word” to a buzzword.  Celebrities toss it around in casual conversation and more and more young people are identifying as one.  Don’t get me wrong; I love feminism.  I’m a big ole patriarchy-smashing feminist and I think it’s a philosophy that everyone should embrace, but I’d rather have people say they’re not feminists than have them be pop feminists.

            For one thing, feminism is no longer about men and women.  We now understand that the gender binary is a social construct and that with a little abstract thought, we can deconstruct that reality.  There are so many genders outside the binary: genderfulid, transgender, gender nonconforming, agender, third gender, pangender, and an infinite number of others that I can’t think of or don’t even know exist.  Feminism isn’t about men and women being equal, it’s about equality amongst all the genders.  If you’re asking, “Do you believe that men and women are equal?” you’re missing half the message.

            I also don’t think you can claim to be a feminist if you’re not pro-choice.  Not “pro-abortion” or any other negatively connoted phrasing slapped on people who respect a woman’s right to choose, but pro-choice.  As a feminist, you have to believe that even if something’s not right for you, that doesn’t mean it’s not right for someone else.  In the wise words of Amy Poehler, “Good for her!  Not for me.”  It’s not fair to call yourself a feminist and not to trust other women to make the right choices concerning their bodies.  Every person’s circumstances are different, and it is our job to understand that just because something is a right decision for me, doesn’t mean that it’s the right choice for you. 

            It’s not right to call yourself a feminist if you regularly and consciously body shame and slut shame.  Society has conditioned us to exist in this constant state of policing other people and what they do with their bodies, but that’s not how we should be wasting our energy.  Who cares if that person is fat or that one is skinny?  Who cares if that woman you pass on campus has slept with more people than you can count on your fingers and toes?  Why is that any of your business?  As long as that person is healthy and confident and happy, why should we stop hir from living hir life?  They aren’t hurting you and more importantly, they aren’t hurting themselves.  Until I start to notice actually unhealthy habits in their lives, I’m not going to intervene.  It’s not my job to tell people to live their lives a certain way.  If you’re a feminist, you will understand that that person has autonomy over their own body and that it is nobody’s goddamn business what they do with it.

            If you’re racist, you’re not a feminist.  Welcome to fourth wave feminism where we realize that the intersectionalities of our existence work together to create our experiences as humans.  A white woman’s experiences are different than those of a black woman are different than those of Asian or Latina or Native American women.  You’re also not a feminist if you claim that you are so not racist that you don’t even see race.  Don’t you understand how important a person’s race is to their identity?   As a white woman, I know that my race is normalized to the point that it almost doesn’t exist.  I can go days without realizing I’m white.  When I look in the mirror, I say I am a woman before I say that I’m white.  But by ignoring the fact that everyone has race, even though it is a social construct, you are ignoring what could be a person’s main identifying feature.  You are telling them that their race-based experiences are unimportant.  Irrelevant.  You are removing part of their identity.  There are reasons that black women identify more readily as womanists than feminists.  As a new generation of feminists, we have to work together and realize that race causes us to experience life differently and that those differences are all relevant and they’re important.  If you can’t see that, you’re not a feminist.

            I love feminism.  It is a topic near and dear to me and I believe that it is a political ideology that can benefit everyone involved.  I think the world would be a better place if everyone identified as a feminist.  However, if you identify as a feminist, but you’re doing nothing to advance people of all genders and backgrounds, then you’re not a feminist.  I understand that many times we are conditioned to act a certain way, but we need to work beyond this social conditioning and think for ourselves.  We need to be sure that feminism isn’t exclusive and that it is working to improve the conditions of everyone, but the only way to do that is by realizing that feminism is more than just thinking that men and women are equal.

Racism is Never Far from Home

             I'm from a small town in eastern Pennsylvania.  You’ve probably never heard of it.  However, you might have heard of our more famous neighbor: Jim Thorpe.  For a good portion of my life, I didn’t realize that Jim Thorpe was a person, a real living, breathing person.  Even today, it sounds weird to me.  Jim Thorpe.  Mr. Jim Thorpe.  Mr. Thorpe. 

            For several years now, the real Jim Thorpe’s family has been trying to take his body back from the town bearing his name.  Right now, Jim Thorpe’s body is a tourist destination; that was always the point.  After his death, Jim Thorpe’s third wife sold his body to the converging towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk.  These small towns needed something to attract tourists.  What better way could there possibly be to attract tourists than the body of a dead Olympian who had never even visited the place?

Jim Thorpe
Photo courtesy of the Heritage Auctions

            But let’s not forget to mention one key detail: Jim Thorpe was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, a Native American tribe in Oklahoma.  Although Thorpe’s parents were mixed-race, Thorpe himself was raised as a Native American.  Today, Thorpe’s son, Jack Thorpe, simply wants to remove his father’s body from the town in Pennsylvania to bring him back to Oklahoma so he can have a proper burial and be laid to rest next to his family a short distance from where he grew up. 

            Under the Native American Graves Protection Reparation Act (NAGPRA), any federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding must return any Native American “cultural items” to their lineal descendants.  Yet somehow Jim Thorpe, the place, not the person, does not fall under this category.  A museum would have to return a headdress back to the Apache tribe, but Jim Thorpe doesn’t have to return the body of a real man back to his family.

            How is that fair?  How is it fair that we see ourselves as this enlightened and just nation, yet we can’t afford basic dignities to groups of peoples who inhabited this land long before many of our ancestors came over?  We don’t respect them.  We pushed them onto these tiny reservations and stripped them of the glories of their culture.  Today, the Native American culture is a fashion statement you can find at almost any retail store.  They are one of the many cultures we can appropriate for Halloween.  We can laugh and shake our heads and say we aren’t causing any harm when we dress up as Pocahontas and Sacagawea for Halloween, but look at the bigger picture.  If we disrespect you enough that we will dress up as you and mock your culture for a holiday, then we won’t respect you enough to return the body of your dead father to your family. 

Becoming the FOURTH Wave

            My introduction to feminism occurred through the Internet.  My “Feminism” Pinterest board has over seven hundred pins and is my most popular board, by far.  I use Facebook to connect with feminists across my state and across my country.  I am a fourth wave feminist.

            I am female, but I am also cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, and white.  I acknowledge that I have privileges that many do not.  I can rest assured that on my favorite TV show, there will be characters who look like me.  I know that when I choose to marry, I will be free to marry whomever I choose, wherever I choose.  I can be certain that I will have no trouble navigating my college campus every fall.  I know that no one will make harsh, negative, snap-judgments about me based on the color of my skin.  All of these privileges, and many more, are mine, but I am not afraid to recognize them, because I know that the first part of stopping the problem is by recognizing that I am part of the problem.  I am both the oppressor and the oppressed.  I am a fourth wave feminist. 

            I understand that not all women have vaginas.  I understand that not all women want vaginas.  I understand that the phrase “my body, my choice” applies to others, as well as to myself.  I understand that not every person is comfortable with she/he gendered pronouns.  I understand that sometimes I will not understand everything.  I understand that my experiences are not universal.  I know that sometimes experiences outside my realm of understanding will confuse me or make me uncomfortable, but I am okay with that.  I am a fourth wave feminist.
             Even as a woman, I have many privileges that my mother and my grandmother did not have at my age.  If I am raped, I know that there is a growing culture that will work to ensure that the blame is placed on my rapist, not on me.  I know that there are women’s centers across the nation that would be able to help me through my time of need.  I know that if I required an abortion, it is still possible for me to have one performed legally in all 50 states, although it may be more difficult in some places than in others.  I recognize the advances that feminism has made over the past one hundred and fifty years, but I can also see where it has fallen short.  I was born in the middle of the third wave, but I am a fourth wave feminist.