Hashtag Feminism Archive Tara Conley Hashtag Feminism Archive Tara Conley

#WhiteWomanPrivilege Highlights Intersectionality #F #WhitePrivilege

This post originally appeared on January 15, 2014 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.

This post originally appeared on January 15, 2014 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.

Yesterday #WhiteWomanPrivilege trended around the online feminist community. According to Topsy, #WhiteWomanPrivilege was tweeted over 15K times, just on Tuesday.

It may surprise followers that the hashtag originated from a white woman, @Auragasmic who started the day tweeting about the privilege white men experience:

#WhiteMalePrivilege is saying that because you don’t personally experience something, that it doesn’t exist. #Sexism #Racism

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

After several tweets about #WhiteMalePrivilege, she flipped the script and began commenting on her own privilege, which launched the conversation.

Can we talk about the privilege we white women have now?

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is being the idealized as the epitome of femininity and beauty.

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is being able to express your sexuality/relationship without judgement from MSM (see: the way Beyoncé was judged)

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

The conversation that followed @Auragasmic‘s original tweet sparked further discussions from white feminists who spoke about recognizing their own privilege, and from feminists of color illuminating on their experiences, which differed from the stories from white women.

#whitewomanprivilege means never having the talk w/ ur sons about appearing non-threatening and law abiding when you’ve done nothing wrong.

— Tasha L. Harrison (@dirtyscribbler) January 14, 2014

Unlike the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen trend, #WhiteWomanPrivilege focused more on the experiences and realities of women of color (WOC) as parents, consumers, and as viewers.

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is not having to celebrate the few times a character on tv looks like you and DOESN’T play a maid or a drug lord.

— Iris Estrada (@Iris_Estrada) January 15, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege means that when you have 10 kids you don’t get called a welfare queen, you get a reality show (see Duggars fam)

— Lil Luna (@LunaGemme) January 14, 2014

Many of the tweets attached to #WhiteWomanPrivilege illustrated that white women are privileged because of things they don’t do while emphasizing issues WOC face daily.

1st grade: wanted to be a pilgrim in school play, teacher made me play an indian while white girls were able to choose #WhiteWomanPrivilege

— champagne mami (@nabeyakiqueen) January 14, 2014

Your race isn’t a Halloween costume. #WhiteWomanPrivilege

— Bougie Black Girl (@BougieBlackGurl) January 14, 2014

Several #WhiteWomanPrivilege tweets let pictures do the talking. Google Image searches of “beautiful women” and “smart women” turned up almost exclusively photos of white women.

#WhiteWomanPrivilege pic.twitter.com/D83WJBbpUG

— ् (@HabibahPerez) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege this!!! pic.twitter.com/zTM0e4vCTK

— Seghen Abraham (@SeghenAbraham) January 14, 2014

The conversation of #WhiteWomanPrivilege joins the ranks of the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomenand #NotYourAsianSidekick (and on the other side: #relcaimintersectionalityin2014 and #stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity) debates.

Read more about #ReclaimingIntersectionality2014 and#stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity

Though each hashtag has taken on a different tone and focus, the central message is clear: This generation of feminism has serious internal obstacles to overcome.

What these tweets have indicated about privilege in 140 characters or less, several skilled writers have expanded into well-articulated posts. Here is a round-up of the best pieces I’ve seen addressing #WhiteWomanPrivilege and how we as a feminist community can address it:

These articles express more fully what the conversations attached to the #WhiteWomanPrivilegehashtag were unable to express; that is, the deeper meaning and nuanced perspectives of privilege. We learn that defensiveness from white feminists is counterproductive to the feminist movement, and that expressions from WOC isn’t about blame or guilt, but rather, it’s about the need to address institutional privilege clearly, directly, and without apology.

I also wrote a piece about #WhiteWomanPrivilege and feminist infighting on my blog yesterday. Check it out: (I want to emphasize I am not including this on the “best” pieces list, but I would appreciate your feedback!) 

What are your feelings about the #WhiteWomanPrivilege trend? How do you think WW and WOC can work together in the coming year to reach feminist goals? What are the goals? Tweet me @kellybycoffee or all of us @hashtagfeminism.

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Hashtag Feminism Archive Tara Conley Hashtag Feminism Archive Tara Conley

In response to #ReclaimIntersectionalityIn2014 and #StopBlamingWhiteWomenWeNeedUnity #F

This post originally appeared on January 3, 2014 written by founder, Tara L. Conley. This was Hashtag Feminism’s first post of 2014.

This post originally appeared on January 3, 2014 written by founder, Tara L. Conley. This was Hashtag Feminism’s first post of 2014.

My short response to #relcaimintersectionalityin2014 ? No, I will not be reclaiming intersectionality in 2014. Thanks though!

And from Adele Wilde-Blavatsky’s (@lionfaceddakini) Huff Post piece:

So I propose a new hashtag campaign for women (and men) tired of the misguided cultural relativism called #stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity. It is not acceptable anymore to ignore white privilege and intersectionality in feminist discourse but at the same time let’s stop blaming white women for issues that clearly effect them too. Issues such as marriage, physical safety and autonomy, access to good family planning and health care, pregnancy, abortion, rape, domestic violence, slut shaming, denial of opportunities in work and education and so on still effect women across all cultures, races and nations (albeit in differing ways). If we allow race and ‘culture’ to divide rather than unite women then the patriarchs have won. On the other hand, women united can never be divided.

My short response to #stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity ?

No, actually I’m over re-centering white women, or white liberal feminism via hashtags to understand what inclusion means because, at this point in my life, oppositional politics, no matter how you slice and dice it, or dress it up as critique or solidarity, hasn’t done much for me spiritually.

Longer response below.

A friend of mine recently reached out to me asking what I thought about Ani DiFranco’s re-apology, and to get my perspective on what might be the best plan of action that we, particularly allies can take towards healing.

Post by Ani DiFranco.

I admit that I really haven’t given Ani DiFranco or her multiple apologies much thought before my friend reached out.

But I’m glad my friend did reach out because in responding, I was able to think through how I feel about intersectionality and allyship currently emerging within mainstream and public critical discourse.

My response is below the jump (tweets added for emphasis).

###

Thanks for reaching out.

As I was reading your message, a few quotes and a movie reference came to mind.

The first quote comes from Jasbir Puar in her discussion about intersectionality and why assemblage as a concept is as, if not more, necessary than intersectionality to consider when theorizing difference and critiquing the status quo.

Puar writes,

“What does an intersectional critique look like—or more to the point, what does it do–in an age of neo-liberal pluralism, absorption and accommodation of difference, of all kinds of differences? If it is the case that intersectionality has been ‘mainstreamed’ in the last two decades—a way to manage difference that colludes with dominant forms of liberal multiculturalism–is the qualitative force of the interpellation of ‘difference itself’ altered or uncertain? […] Has intersectionality become, as Schueller argues[6], an alibi for the re-centering of white liberal feminists? What is a poststructuralist theory of intersectionality that might address multicultural and post-racial discourses of inclusion that destabilizes the WOC as a prosthetic capacity to white women?”

Then there is the line from the movie Malcolm X, when Malcolm X (played by Denzel Washington) was walking out of Columbia University, a white woman approached him and she asked: “What can I do to help?” Malcolm responds coldly, “Nothing.” Then he walks away.

To address your question about what will it take to heal the wound, I’m inclined to respond similarly to the way Malcolm responded, but for different reasons.

I think there comes a moment in critical discourse when some, like myself experience fatigue with critique, especially intersectional critique. While in the midst of the call outs and apologies, some of us with semi-public platforms prefer to reflect for a moment. Log off Twitter, don’t publish any critical or ally pieces for mainstream publications, or on Facebook.

Just pause.

Even though this makes us look like we’re not “producing” anything, or that we’re being “silenced”, what actually happens in these moments of reflection is that we stop participating in Otherizing discourses.

When Jasbir writes about the “mainstreaming” of intersectionality, and the subsequent critiques that are informed by well-intentioned allies, she’s saying that when we discuss inclusion and allyship, we end up, as always, re-centering white liberal feminism, only to render Women of Color as ‘subverted, resistant, and grieved’ bodies.

Intersectionality helps us to understand the multiple ways our bodies live, particularly within structures and systems but what it doesn’t do particularly well is de-privilege the body. The organic body isn’t all there is to our human circumstance. When we start from the position of the body, when we critique from the position of/against white woman (or white liberal feminism), we remain in a perpetual state of seeing difference as different. We’re unable to genuinely imagine what inclusion looks like, or what healing looks like because we reside is a stagnant state of resistance without ever really considering the alternatives. When doing this, we also fail to think about what might actually happen after the shift, after the healing, or after transformation takes place. We’re unable to envision, as Puar states, “what is prior to and beyond what gets established.” Our visions for inclusion therefore become shortsighted, if at all visible.

I recognize fully the unpopular perspective of my critique of critique. However, I’ve realized over the years that I can call out, resist, and write 1,000 amazing articles about status quo and allyship, but in the end, these critiques of the status quo do nothing for me spiritually, but to simply re-center the status quo.

What can/should Ani DiFranco and allies do to heal? Right now, nothing. Just reflect. If you must write something publicly, keep it short, and tell us that you’re going to do nothing, for now, because you need a moment. And while reflecting, be very thoughtful about every public and private action you take thereafter. Ask yourself: Who’s who am I aligned with? Is performing a public benefit concert or writing another public statement in the next month necessary for my personal well-being and for the spiritual healing of the collective?

You, we need to pause. We need time to re-imagine.

Also read the following books and essays at least twice:

I hope this helps, if not challenges you more.

In solidarity,

Tara

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