Meaningless Argument about What's Feminism

Recently in the Feminist blogosphere, some very fine bloggers have expressed discomfort that some feminists believe it’s necessary for a feminist issue to center – or at least substantively discuss – feminism.

Holly, in her characteristically excellent post on the tragic and racist killing of Oscar Grant, states:

“I don’t want to have that meaningless argument about what’s feminism and what’s not. Fuck that shit, really. It’s not even necessary–everyone should care about this kind of thing going down, regardless of who you are, as a matter of human rights and people being crushed by state power. People with deadly weapons, who are supposed to be protecting our communities, and who far too often end up as panicked bullies exacting deadly retribution on anyone who gets in their way. It doesn’t even have to be a feminist issue if that bothers you so much; decent human beings still ought to listen up and speak out, and we’ll still talk about it on this blog.”

Now, I agree with much of this. Whether or not something’s a feminist issue, a critical human rights issue like the Oscar Grant killing is something decent human beings should care about and speak out about. It is generally true as well that there is a link between the way state power is used based on race and based on gender.

As I’ve stated before, however, I don’t think it’s meaningless to discuss what’s a feminist issue. Because I think there’s a difference between an issue that feminists (and people in general) ought to be concerned about and a feminist issue. I don’t think those who argue that an issue that is best analyzed through a race or human rights rubric first and foremost, unless links to gender are discussed in a substantive way, isn’t a feminist issue, are people who don’t get engaged in such issues on a human rights level. Most feminists, I believe, are engaged in many issues in their IRL activism that aren't feminism-focused.

For example, let’s say I am publishing an anti-racist-centered blog. I probably will not highlight an article about sexism against a white government worker, even though the same kind of hierarchical power abuse can be extended to a racial analysis. If my blog is to center race, then race will be prominent in all or a large portion of my posts. Racialicious is a great example of this. If you look at the ten most recent posts, you will see that each of them center race. If I were less lazy, I’d go to the next ten and I’ll bet you’d see at least nine out of ten of those centering race as well.

Similarly with an environmental blog. You’re not likely to find articles centering women of any race without specific reference and substantive discussion re the environmental relevance. Or an anti-poverty blog. You won’t find articles about women generally that don’t deal specifically with income or poverty, even though one might argue that issues of economics are intrinsic to discussions of gender. If it’s intrinsic, then we don’t learn much by simply checking the box – we either discuss it honestly as a human rights issue centering the appropriate category, without a pretense that it’s a feminist issue, or we draw a substantive connection to feminism that goes beyond the basic human rights link.

When it comes right down to it, feminist blogs have every right to cover the subject material their authors wish to cover. I have no wish to police that. But it’s important to me that feminism be afforded the same centering that other human rights movements get. So if it’s not feminist-centric or even something-else-centric with a specifically discussed feminist intersection – don’t call it feminist. To state the obvious, intersectionality is about an actual intersection, not a discussion of things which absolutely do intersect with gender but without any treatment of this intersection. We know other movements don’t ignore themselves in treating how they intersect with others. Women tend to put ourselves second (or fourth) too often.

I agree with Michelle. It's not healthy.