ETA: Tammy has since clarified.

Tamora Pierce, an author whose books I mostly adore intensely, recently wrote a post in her livejournal regarding her involvement in the feminist movement, as is frequently her wont, and something I adore even more than her books.

Unfortunately, this time I found some of her post deeply problematic. I have linked it above, and encourage you to read the whole thing, but just in case, I have summarised .

She begins with:

I have been thinking about feminism lately. Actually, I think about feminism a lot, but some of it is apparent, and some of it is just part of the way I think. Some of it is stirred up by comments like, "I'm not a feminist," or "I don't think of myself as a feminist," uttered by women of all ages. I read a version recently, "I'm not sure if I feel comfortable calling myself a feminist," over on Feministe, from a blogger responding to a chunk of racist folly enacted by Seal Press last week. The blogger of that entry, Holly, felt that her issues with the feminists she has dealt with on race and continuing to call herself a feminist are mutually exclusive. Those people had not responded to issues presented to them by people of color (I've heard this before, particularly in the comics sphere last year and this, resulting in walk-outs by comics critics who were people of color). And so you get women, be they people of color or others, who for one reason want to disassociate themselves from feminism.

Tammy then writes brilliantly on why she became a feminist: because she has been judged lesser since birth; because she has noticed gender-based prejudice direct, indirect, and diverse for a very long time; and because she recognises such prejudice is unfair, and should be fought.

She concludes with a general call to arms and a statement that one group's agenda ought not to define feminism; that "Feminism is all of us. All of you. All of our work, our writing, our dreams, our kids, our issues. Groups may help us to focus, but they do not define each of us"; and she mentions that many people don't like to call themselves feminists because they're afraid of the public perception of feminists as humourless man-hating lesbian freaks.

The paragraph that troubled me is this one:

So you see, I do not understand how anyone can say "I don't want to be a feminist" or "I don't want to call myself a feminist." If you are a woman of color, or a woman transgendered, a gay woman, a straight woman, a celibate woman, you are a woman. How can you not be in favor of some manner of improvement in the lives of other women? How can those of them with brains not be in favor of improvements in your lives?

Comments following the post mostly concentrate on personal experience of prejudice as a catalyst for feminist awakening, and agreement that indeed, many people don't want to call themselves feminists because they are afraid of the stereotype, and that is a terrible shame.

My comment:

I see a lot of comments here saying "I know! People don't like to claim the name "feminist" because they think people will hate them!" That is not the issue for these WoC.

This is the issue:

So you see, I do not understand how anyone can say "I don't want to be a feminist" or "I don't want to call myself a feminist." If you are a woman of color, or a woman transgendered, a gay woman, a straight woman, a celibate woman, you are a woman. How can you not be in favor of some manner of improvement in the lives of other women?

You might not want to join a movement that is largely in favour of the improvement in the lives of *other* women: white women. And not you.

You might not want to join a movement that excludes you, or dismisses you and your entirely valid concerns, or assures you that we'll get to them later, or never sees them in the first place, or outright betrays you by making promises that are not kept and praises women that steal the words out of your mouth and claims them for their own. And when those issues are pointed out, and the fact that they have been ignored is pointed out, you are usually greeted with "Stop attacking me! I'm not racist!"

You might not want to stay in a movement where everyone assumed you would fetch the coffee during breaks, where somehow, no one listened to in meetings unless someone else repeated what you just said, and then that person got the credit. You might not want to stay in a movement where you were asked to consciousness raise for their friends, or sisters, or mothers, or cousins, but when your cousin got in trouble it was a "Black Issue".*

It's not a Black Issue. It's a serious feminist problem.

My initial response concentrated on women of color, because it is currently WoC who are being noticed for pointing out the problems with the movement as it stands. However, I want to say that queer women and transwomen have also been neglected or abused or dismissed by the feminist movement, as have disabled women, lower-class women, and women with jobs or religious faiths that feminism finds politically uncomfortable or disturbing.

You know what they have in common? They're all women.

Feminism has to address racism, because every ethnicity on Earth includes women, and where racism exists, women are oppressed.

Feminism has to address transphobia, because transwomen are women and where transphobia exists, women are oppressed.

Feminism has to address heterosexism, because every lesbian is a woman and where homophobia exists, women are oppressed.

Feminism has to address ablism, because there are so many disabled women, and where ablism exists, women are oppressed.

Feminism has to address class prejudice, religious intolerance, and tyranny, because wherever those things exist, you can be sure there are women at the very bottom of the hierarchical pile, getting the crap kicked out of them.

These are not separate issues. Women are suffering. That is what feminism is supposed to be fighting. And right now, the feminism I see is focused very tightly on the suffering of white, middle-class, cisgendered women. That suffering is real, it is genuine, and it absolutely must be addressed - but not to the exclusion of women who do not fit into those categories. There are other groups made up of or including those women and fighting incredibly hard for them, but mainstream feminism is strangely reluctant to listen to their voices, especially when those voices are raised in criticism of the mainstream movement.

My area of focus is media and pop culture feminist criticism. I'm not giving up on feminism, just like I haven't given up on TV, or comics, or academia, or gaming. I hold fiercely to the hope that the feminist movement can be improved, expanded, enlightened.

But I will not condemn anyone who looks around, and sees mainstream feminism has abandoned them, or never wanted them in the first place, or will suffer them in the back of the room as long as they keep their voices down and play nice, and says, "Right, that's it, I'm out of here."

I can understand why those women might not want to call themselves feminists.



*This paragraph wasn't my creation, but lifted (with permission) from a conversation with a friend regarding the original post.