5 Ways to Start Being an Intersectional Feminist: A Guide to Stop White Feminism for White Feminists
by Melissa Enriquez
As a queer biracial feminist I often find myself excluded from the feminist conversation. There is always the feeling of “oh, we’ll get to that later” which often comes from a white feminist perspective. This happens with LGBTQ+ rights as well (though to me, and others, queer and feminist rights go hand in hand so I’ll be addressing both of them in this essay).
What is White Feminism? To put it simply it is a very basic form of feminism that really only focuses on the struggles only white people face under the patriarchy. Not only that but white feminists have the choice to ignore the different, more severe, struggles non-white people might face. White feminism is a broader term that really means white, heterosexual, middle class/upper class feminism, at least that is how I am using it. It’s also important to acknowledge being white and being a feminist does not mean that person participates in white feminism, anyone can be an intersectional feminist.
Intersectional Feminism doesn’t only cover the non-white, non-heterosexual people but people of different class, differently abled people, neurodivergent people, etc. However, since that is a lot for me to cover and I’m only a queer biracial person, who has no experience with the other categories that intersectionality covers, I do not have the authority to speak for them.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article uses the word “Queer” as an umbrella term but I understand how that term can be offensive too those in the LGBTQ+ community. The thing is, I identify as queer, it’s a big part of me and I can’t reject a word that I identify with. So if the term is triggering or offensive I would suggest that you read no further.
1. Don’t Use Race Analogy
Race Analogy: Using the suffering of a race as an example or analogy to support the suffering of a different group.
Example: When Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was first protested the race analogy was used to fight against it. However, the white homosexual males didn’t bother with contacting the homosexual black people that served in the army even though some of them were well decorated and respected soldiers whose voice would have made a difference (some argue this is one of the reasons they failed to take DADT down at first). The same thing happened when the Defense of Marriage Act was originally protest by comparing the laws against gay marriage to the previous laws against interracial marriage.
A personal example: I once edited a paper where a white Christian female compared being a non-Mormon in a Mormon-dominate culture to being an Asian-American/second generation Asian immigrant. Of course this wasn’t her intent when I mentioned it but intent doesn’t matter. But, talking about it helped the author and the other editors I was working with understand the issue.
The Problem: Why is this a problem? The act is basically picking and choosing what to see when you look at a person’s suffering because of a marginalizing trait without understanding the experience or trying to understand it for that matter. It also promotes the “racism is dead” rhetoric because it usually implies that the suffering from certain structures isn’t a problem anymore when it still very much is (it doesn’t matter what the intent is). It also implies that the experiences are synonymous; yes, they are sometimes similar but this homogenizes marginalized people’s experiences and that doesn’t help the either situation. Using the voices of non-white people (bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, Maya Angelou, etc.) for white feminist motives is disrespectful and mutes their experiences.
Possible Solution: Don’t use race analogy without understanding the suffering that occurred. Don’t use non-white voices for your own needs without recognize their experience. It’s really that simple. Explain this to people that use race analogy too so the idea spreads.
2. Don’t assume that every person has the same experience as the other
Example: Saying things like “the average woman makes only 78 cents to a man’s dollar.” when addressing the wage gap when you could say, “The average white woman makes only 78 cents to a the average white man’s dollar; the average black woman makes 68 cents and the average Hispanic woman make 54 cents.”
Another Example: Trans women and men are often sexually and/or verbally assaulted in the streets and non-white trans women often face death or have been murdered and yet the popular narrative features a eurocentrically beautiful white woman getting sexually/verbally assaulted. Am I saying the latter don’t have these experiences? No, I’m saying that they aren’t the only ones to focus on.
Problem: About 90% of deaf people, of all genders, are sexually assaulted. I bet you didn’t know that! (or maybe you did?) If you didn’t know that it is probably because deaf people often fall under the label of “disabled”. Therefore, they don’t fall under the rhetoric of mainstream feminism AKA white feminism. Why is this a problem? Well duh! It completely ignores the suffering of different marginalized groups. Putting one narrative over the other (the white, cis-gendered, heterosexual woman’s narrative) gives others that are suffering in different, harsher ways no voice. It shuts down the complex conversation of intersectional feminism. Again, this is a tactic of homogenizing all marginalized groups, forcing them together when their experiences and even their culture is different. Though the struggles of white, heterosexual, cis-gendered women are still important and should never be ignored that does not mean their narrative is the only one or the most important one.
Possible Solution: Don’t forget there are people out there who don’t have their stories told in popular media. Promote their voices and make them be heard whether it’s by sharing their story on social media or joining in as an ally to their causes. DO NOT SPEAK OVER THEM OR SPEAK FOR THEM! (Yikes, that is kind of what I am doing right now.)
3. Don’t accept whitewashing/straightwashing
Whitewashing: When a non-white character/historical figure in a movie, TV Show, or any visual representation is cast or drawn as white. (This also applies to the habit western historians have in crediting white people for non-white accomplishments but I won’t get into that as much.)
Straightwashing: The same as white-washing except it replaces queer people in media and history with heterosexual and cis-gendered people.
Example: Gods of Egypt just came out and it features Egyptian gods…who are all white (except one).
Another example: James Dean and Marlon Brando were both proudly bisexual but they are commonly portrayed as heterosexual. (On the flipside Marlon Brando played an Asian man in one of his older movies…)
And Another: Did you know that queer Jewish people were labeled with pink triangles when they were sent to concentration camps? Did you know that after the Nazis were defeated they were imprisoned by so-called allies?
And here is another: the Stonewall riot was started by Marsha P. Johnson a black trans woman and yet the movie about the same riots had a white cis-gendered gay male as the protagonist.
Aaaand another: Jared Leto played a trans woman and won an Oscar for it even though he’s NOT ACTUALLY A TRANS WOMAN!
I tripped and another example fell out of my pocket: West Side Story is one of my favorite movies and recently I found out that every Puerto Rican character, except for one, was played by a white person in brown face. That one exception was the character Bernardo who was played by a Greek man. Yikes. (Still love that movie though. Extra yikes.)
One more example: Jesus Christ is often, if not always, portrayed as white and blue-eyed when, if we’re being historically accurate, he would have been brown. SAME GOES FOR MOSES, CHARLSTEN HESTON!
Okay, some more examples: The Last Samurai, Santa Claus, Avatar: The Last Airbender (the movie), Katniss in The Hunger Games, Tonto in The Lone Ranger (though we might be able to excuse that because he was already an offensive Native American character…okay, no we can’t), Breakfast at Tiffany’s, John Wayne as Attila the Hun (I mean come on!), basically any biblical re-telling whether television or film (except Prince of Egypt. That movie was on point, because I’m sure Moses was a great singer), etc.. The list could take up the rest of this essay if I wanted it to (and I kind of want it to).
Just one more: Alexandre Dumas was a famous author probably best known for writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was also black and absolutely proud of it. Not only that, but some of his characters were also supposed to be black (at least ONE of the musketeers and the protagonist in Monte Cristo). In a biopic film about him they cast a white person to play him and almost no one knows that he was black (and just absolutely brimming with charisma and charm I might add.)
Problem: This is a problem because it, once again, erases the voices of non-white and queer people. It also erases their accomplishments and their contributions to the world. Not only that, but it excludes and alienates those same people! It gives them nothing to turn to if all they are surrounded by is white, heterosexual and cis-gendered faces.
I felt like didn’t have an identity or a place in the world until I turned 19 and left high school, I never had the words or the definitions until I started to dig for them because I was always surrounded by white, heterosexual, and cis-gendered ideology. You can say this isn’t a big deal but for people like me who have experienced it every drop counts, every source and validation of identity is important, I thirst for it. I don’t care if it’s in a cheesy commercial or in a 5 hour movie!
Possible Solutions: Stop supporting popular media that whitewashes or straightwashes characters. Don’t give them the time of day and talk about it! Explain it to people who might not understand what it does to people like me. Don’t let children like me grow up with no identity to hold on to. Whoa, got real personal there!
4. Don’t promote colorblindness
Colorblindness: The “we’re all human beings and we all bleed red” and “let’s keep things simple” narrative that essentially erases the culture, history, and struggles of non-white people. Usually when people say things like this they are merely trying to ignore the differences as a form of cognitive dissonance.
Example: saying “I don’t see race” really means “I’m shutting down this intersectional conversation because it makes me uncomfortable and makes me feel like things aren’t about me.” The truth hurts, I know.
Problem: Yes, it would be grand if we were all just colorless, shapeless hive minded species without differing cultures, histories, or identities. Okay, no that wouldn’t be nice it would suck but at least we wouldn’t know it sucked because we would all be blissfully unware and ignorant until one of us rebels and starts a de-brainwashing revolution! What would be nice would be some acceptance and attempts to at least understand where someone is coming from. Saying that you “don’t believe in race” or anything like that not only devalues the suffering of non-white people but it also implies that you think everyone is default-white inside.
Possible solution: stop assuming that we are all the same just because we are all human beings. It may sound simple but it’s not. Just know that though we are all humans it doesn’t mean that we grew up in the same world, want and need the same things, and see things the same way. Always tell people this whenever they say they are colorblind but do it respectfully because if there is anything we should try to make universal it is non-elitism (that is just the start of another power structure like the one we are fighting against).
5. Understand Cultural Appropriation and Privilege
Cultural Appropriation: I really can’t say much on this since I know little about it and don’t really have the authority on it. From what I understand it basically means when someone from one culture picks and chooses what they want from another culture without taking the stigma that comes along with it. I have linked some videos at the end of this video that should explain it further.
Privilege: Everyone has it! Some people have more than others and some people have less. Privilege is basically something you are born into whether it be the privilege of being white, being heterosexual, being neurotypical, abled-bodied, etc. Privilege means that you don’t face certain struggles because you aren’t born into them.
Example: A white female may struggle, be poor, and have autism but they aren’t suffering because they are non-white or trans, therefore they still have white and cis-gender privilege. That same person doesn’t have class, neurotypical, or male privilege.
Another example: Lighter-skinned non-white people have more privilege than darker-skinned non-white people.
Personal example: As a biracial, middle class, native English speaker in America I have white, class, and language privilege. This is especially true compared to my father, an immigrant from Guatemala and an artist who is unable to keep or find a job, gain the respect of his daughters let alone himself, and speaks in broken English with only a third grade education. My father has male, heterosexual, cis-gender, and neurotypical privilege but that doesn’t mean he does not suffer.
Problem: Knowing these things about privilege it’s safe to assume that everyone suffers in their own way and none of them should be ignored or devalued but often times the mainstream feminist narrative only focuses the underprivilege of white, cis-gendered, heterosexual females and doesn’t take it into any more detail which ends up erasing and devaluing the suffering of others.
Possible Solution: Understand what privilege you have and let them help you see why someone else doesn’t experience oppression the same way you do. It’s not about getting angry and calling people out, it’s about understanding and informing. This will help you not to speak over others or generalize too much.
Additional Reading
Do your research, read things, watch things, and spread things around that show and express the voices of the people you can’t and shouldn’t speak for. The point is to raise each other up, not step all over each other!
- Phenomenal Woman
- What's Wrong With Cultural Appropriation
- Checking Your Privilage
- Amandla Stenberg: Don't Cash Crop On My Cornrows
- Sweetness by Toni Morrison
- Intersectional feminism. What the hell is it?
(And why you should care)
Melissa Enriquez is a senior student at Utah Valley University. Melissa is a lover of rhetoric and literary theory as well as video games, television, and horror movies. Melissa sometimes goes by Mel (like Mel Gibson without the antisemitism and double the good looks…like when Gibson was younger and not super offensive).