This will be a brief post, because I am enraged and also I have been drinking lots of coffee. This is a bad combination. It gives me palpitations and sweaty palms! When, when will I learn? But I have something to say and, because I have a blog, I will say it. The thing I want to say is this: sometimes, people should just shut up, listen, and learn to apologise. I know it sounds scary, you guys! But it has to be done.
The reason I feel this so acutely is because I just finished Suzanne Moore’s article in the Guardian about why she isn’t transphobic, really, because once she had friends who were trans! And she’s read Judith Butler and bell hooks and, well, you know how they magically inject you with feminism? They totally did that, for her! This following an impressively transphobic outburst on twitter, in which she manages to be both deeply offensive and deliberately hurtful. In her article, Moore objects to the use of the word transphobia, because it shuts down discussion. Presumably, the discussion is, “Should Moore be allowed to say transphobic things?” in which case, I am sorry, Suzanne, but the answer is no. Forever! SORRY.
Moore’s argument (to the extent that there is one) is that focusing on the oppression of trans people within and without the feminist movement is silly, really, in the Grand Scheme of Things. Cuts are happening across the UK! Women are being hit hard by them! And those things are bad, true. What Moore doesn’t seem to realise, though, is that her contribution to the oppression of some women – and her participation in transphobic culture – is deeply problematic for the movement as a whole. At one point, she even turns on intersectionality, which, what. I mean, WHAT. According to Moore, intersectionality also “shuts down” debate, but I’ve a feeling that, to Moore, “shutting down debate” is the same thing as “asking someone to listen respectfully before they explode in rage on twitter”.
Intersectionality is about respect. It is about understanding. The feminist movement requires it because, otherwise, the diverse experiences of all women risk being subsumed into the wants and needs of one particular kind of woman: someone white, and middle-class, and straight, and cisgender.
Personally, I am a black woman. When white feminists are dismissive of my experience (hello, there, Caitlin Moran, you are still not forgiven!), it feeds into a culture of racism and affects me negatively. Pointing that out, however, almost inevitably leads to a popular silencing tactic I like to refer to as ‘Because Patriarchy!’ Allow me to illustrate:
POPULAR WHITE FEMINIST: Dubious race joke!
ME: I wish you wouldn’t do that. I find it hurtful, you know, that you belittle my experience. Isn’t feminism about the rights of all women?
POPULAR WHITE FEMINIST: Ugh, you people! Always with the in-fighting! Shouldn’t the sisterhood stick together?
ME: Well, yes, but you’re actively oppressing me in a movement ostensibly about equality! I’m a black woman; those two things both make up my identity. You’re asking me to separate the ‘woman’ part from the ‘black’ part and I can’t do that. Why should I?
POPULAR WHITE FEMINIST: Because PATRIARCHY.
ME: …
What Moore (and Moran, for that matter) refuses to acknowledge is the way in which she, through various social privileges, contributes to the exclusion and oppression of a marginalised group of women. And, you know, no one’s perfect! That is fine. I’ve most definitely messed up in the past and, despite my good intentions, will probably do so in the future. When that happens, though, you shut up and listen. Then you apologise. Then you join hands and burst into song as my Vision of Inclusive and Intersectional Feminism comes alive! And the song will be a song of victory and go on to be Christmas no. 1.
Here are some links with which you may compound your fury! Or learn more, whatever.
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