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White Feminism Is Not Feminism

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White Feminism is not feminism. White Feminism should not even be correlated as feminism. It is when one “picks/chooses” what they want to stand for. White feminism shoves intersectionality under the rug. White feminism is a set of single issue, non-intersectional, one-dimensional, clichéd, feminist practices. It is the “feminist” that we intersectional feminists strive to educate, but no matter what cannot get through to. It is the kindergarten level of feminism. White feminism neglects any kind of cultural context or race as a component in the battle for equality. White feminism is a concept that rejects women of color. Feminism is not just a crusade for middle class woman with white privilege and what they suppose involves them and only them; it is for those who are of color, have mental disorders, aren’t suiting to society’s beauty standards, are trans, are lgbt+, are too religious, or oppressed in ways harsher than the lack of equal pay.

While it is crucial to understand that the phrase “white feminism” is not aimed directly at white people, most white feminists are in fact white. This is due to the white privilege white people are given. Most white feminists are white, because white people do not have to worry about racial injustices. Basically, although white women aren’t the only ones who encounter misogyny, white women experience it in a comprehensively contrasting way than women of color. When I talk about white feminism, I’m talking about the feminism that utterly criticizes “twitter feminism” as meaningless, without considering that twitter is the main social networking site through which less privileged women can have a voice. I’m talking about the feminism that claims “Muslim women need saving” yet refuse to contemplate that cultural differences include different and culturally specific approaches to feminism and equality. I’m talking about the feminism who praise Taylor Swift and Amy Schumer (who are both white feminists), yet destructively tear down Nicki Minaj. I’m talking about the feminism that completely swipes the fact that white privilege is not assigned to all everyone at birth like others under the rug of white privilege.

The reason why white feminism is a colossal complication in today’s society is because it embraces the way white, straight, cis women experience misogyny is the same way everyone experiences misogyny. Although white feminism aspires to conclude the astounding wage gap standing between men and women, it declines to even recognize the wage gap between white women, Latina women, black women, and even Native American women (who all make even less than a white women, with the exact same education). Although it is a vague issue that isn’t recognized as much as it should, police brutality should be considered as and is a feminist issue. However, it is not perceived as a conventional feminist matter, because it does not affect white people (women, specifically) the way it does people of color. For instance, if Sandra Bland had been a white woman, would a slight traffic violation lead to an arrest? Would she have been viewed as the stereotypical “loud,

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