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Feminism is defined as an organized activity on behalf of women? s rights and interests. To me, this statement encompasses all women; regardless of race, class, ethnicity, sexual preference, age or religion. While I agree that these factors do influence and shape a woman? s individual experiences, I believe that women everywhere are oppressed just for being biologically different than males. In Feminist Frontiers, it is stated that?
women everywhere suffer restrictions, oppression, and discrimination because they are living in patriarchal societies? (1). Why then, are many feminists centered on these factors? I believe that in order for there to be a successful women? s liberation movement, all women, regardless of race, class, etc. , must come together in order to achieve equality. In reaction to the Million Man March orchestrated by Farrakhan, Joan Morgan states, ? ? moved by the awesome sight of so many black men of different classes and sexual orientations gathered together peacefully for the sole purpose of bettering themselves? (51).
If African-American men of different classes and sexual preferences can congregate to demonstrate a common goal, then why can? t women seem to do this? If black men, ? the one group in this country most likely to murder each other? (Morgan, 51) can manage to show a unified front, then why can?
t? feminists? seem to get past class and race for the betterment of all females? Pharr seems to agree with this, asserting that racism has been one of the major causes of the failure of the women?
s movement to make permanent and meaningful change (25). The women? s liberation movement is beginning to gain strength again because there are women who are now expressing ideas about? liberation for all women? (Pharr, 26). I agree with Pharr, that women have to examine racism, classism, etc to see how everything is connected (26), yet women cannot get stuck on these issues if serious change is to be made. I do understand that feminism and?
femininity? is different for women of various races, classes, and sexual preferences. Being an upper-middle class WASP-y white female, feminism meant acquiring an education, obtaining a career, and being emotionally and financially independent (Morgan, 58). Race and class didn? t figure into my feminism because they weren? t issues I dealt with on a daily basis.
Learning to change my own oil or fixing my own flat tire made me feel like an independent superwoman. I realize that growing up African-American or Hispanic would change my concept of what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a? feminist? . Being a woman for a middle-class black woman might include? providing financial support for her children or taking an active and influential role in her church and community, yet still being stereotyped by dominant white culture? (Feminist Frontiers, 1). Isn?
t feminism not just about? analyzing the ways that social structures shape and restrict the lives of women? (Feminist Frontiers, 2)? I do believe that it is important to report upon the inequalities faced by different groups of women but it is more important to examine the ways that women have been? oppressed and victimized based on gender? (Feminist Frontiers, 2). Isn? t this the essence of feminism?
Job discrimination, sexual harassment and violence are undeniably pivotal to gender. These are ways women are oppressed, just for being biologically different than males. This is the reason I consider myself to be a feminist. In order to exercise control over our own lives and resist social constraints (Feminist Frontiers, 2), women must know?
that we won? t get there until everyone gets there; that we must move forward in a great strong line, hand in hand, not just a few at a time? (Pharr, 26).
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