Reimagining Our Feminist Futures | Amira Pierotti | TEDxOakParkWomen
Transcriber: Parvathi Pappu Reviewer: Sebastian Betti Feminism. It’s a movement meant to provide gender- and sex-based equality. Depending on your point of view the word feminism means a freedom cry or signifies an overuse and outdated concept. But regardless of your opinion sexism is alive, well and in need of dismantling. And that’s why I want to talk with you about the future of feminism. I’m a youth activist for gender justice and a self-proclaimed feminist. But when I came out as non-binary, neither a boy nor a girl, I was transformed from an advocate to a threat in the eyes of too many feminists. That sudden shift in attitude keyed me into the limits of our current definitions of feminism and particularly how they lead to widespread exclusion. I believe feminism can and must do better. We must redefine feminism to be the fight to dismantle all forms of sexism. Even before our particular moment in history, feminism has never been monolithic. There have been countless movements across the globe tackling specific community needs. Feminist values and practices have been revised myriad times in the service of making a more just world. In the US, feminism began as the fight for suffrage, but has since evolved. So the fight for larger socioeconomic equality. But under the banner of feminism, many privileged white women have fought for equality solely for themselves. For centuries, groups of feminists have fought back against that approach. In the US, two of these groups, black women and black people assigned female at birth have been particularly concerned about the ways that mainstream feminism have treated black liberation as an unrelated or even unnecessary issue in the ways that anti-racism movements have treated feminism as a secondary, albeit a necessary goal. And response to the disconnect between movements and based on their own lived experiences, black women and black people assigned female at birth develop the theory of intersectionality, a term coined by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. Intersectionality states that all oppression and all privilege is interconnected. So, we can’t really understand sexism without understanding racism or ableism or classism, etc. For instance, black women cannot separate their blackness from their womanhood or their womanhood from their blackness, and they can't defeat one oppression without defeating both. And understanding of intersectionality has led to coalitions between previously separate movements allowing us to grasp at the root of oppression. As Angela Davis so eloquently put it. But mainstream feminism has not fully implemented intersectional work. This has led to a lack of liberation from marginalized people who face multiple oppressions. In one track mindset has led us to view these multiple marginalised people as having separate identities and experiences. In reality, we embody all of our identities at once whether that includes being a disabled Asian woman or a Jewish non-binary person like myself. When looking through this intersectional lens, you can see that it is impossible to achieve gender and sex equality without racial justice, disability justice or any other freedom. But mainstream American feminism has been run by and for white middle to upper class women, leading to a lack of awareness about or care for intersectionality. This has meant that mainstream feminism has not tackled discrimination within itself. In response, many more typically marginalized feminists have created their own movements. For example, native feminism in North America centres gender justice and indigenous sovereignty, and the fight against colonialism. Their feminist work did and would continue to uphold racist 19th century suffragists and frustratingly it is still marginalised by mainstream feminism today. Along with racism and colonialism, mainstream feminism has struggled with prejudice against transgender women. The debate about the womanhood and even humanity of transwomen continues. As recently as 2015, The Michigan Women’s Music Festival enforce a women born women policy banning entrance to trans women who by definition were not assigned female at birth. Scholar and activist Emi Koyama notes that such exclusion is demonstrative of a larger issue within mainstream American feminism, where all womanhood is defined as white, cisgender and privileged. Not only have we inaccurately defined womanhood, we have an accurately defined and misunderstood sexism. And if we cannot define what we are fighting, how can we defeat it? Sexism is commonly understood to be misogyny. But women aren't the only people who face sexism. Transgender, gender expansive and intersex people, or TGI for short face oppression because of our genders and biological sexes. This makes the discrimination we face called interphobia and transphobia a part of sexism. Transgender and gender expansive people cross the lines of what their society or white supremacy deem acceptable, and intersex people have biological sexes that do not fit into either of the two most common categories. A recent Trevor Project study found that one quarter of LGBTQ+ Americans ages nine through 27 are non-binary or gender expansive. The world has also seen a dramatic uptick in Intersex Justice advocacy, which has been spearheaded by youth. This generational growth has led to the myth that TGI people are a new phenomenon. But prior to European and American colonialism, countless societies recognized and respected TGI people from Chivados and Andongo culture to the myriad genders under the two spirit umbrella in North America. And perhaps it’s unsurprising that in many of these cultures, women had great status and were respected for their whole selves, not just an ability to give birth. After I came out as non-binary, I was shocked to learn that Jewish communities once recognised gender expansive and intersex people. The discovery of ancestors like me was incredible, which made their sudden and conspicuous disappearance from history all the more heart breaking. What ended generations of acceptance? In a word, colonialism. European and American colonial rule instituted the gender and sex binary, the notion there are only two biological sexes with corresponding and unequal genders. This binary was one brute of white supremacist mythology, transgender, gender extensive and intersex people, all of whom by our very existence prove this binary to be a myth were viewed as threats to white Christian control. Columnists often killed or imprisoned TGI people in targeted communities that resisted the binary. And women who once had equity now found themselves marginalised. Over the centuries, white people have reinforced the gender and sex binary, including by embedding this myth into scientific theory. In the 19th and 20th centuries, white male scientists used their power to fabricate scientific evidence in order to prove the existence of the gender and sex binary. They based their methods of experiments performed on enslaved black women and black people assigned female at birth. Havelock Ellis, the driving force of the effort measured and analysed the internal and external genitalia of black and queer people assigned female at birth and then compared the results to those of white, straight, cisgender women. These measurements were used to create the guidelines for normal anatomy, creating the boundaries of biological sex. The goal and result of this effort was to separate queerness, blackness and brownness from a white, idealized version of womanhood. Our categorization of biological sex was created by white men to uphold racism and sexism making biological sex a social construct. We still use this categorization to determine biological sex today and when intersex infants are born the majority of doctors recommend surgery to alter the appearance or anatomy of the child, bringing them in line with the gender and sex binary and denying an entire community bodily autonomy. All sexes power inequities stem from the gender and sex binary making the oppressions and liberations of TGI people and women interconnected. Up until this point, we have failed to accurately define sexism and feminism has failed to achieve intersectional liberation. But feminism can evolve. Instead of just advocating for the liberation of women, feminism must become a place where all people impacted by sexism can work together in coalition. A redefined feminism would house the fights against all forms of sexism; interphobia, transphobia and misogyny. This coalition would combine the organizing power of previously separate movements and help ensure no one is left behind. Rather than erasing each of the component movements, feminism would simply become a place for joint work. And under the umbrella of feminism, each community would define and lead their own liberation with the support of dedicated allies. This movement would be better equipped to dismantle sexism. The Reproductive Justice movement has mostly ignored TGI communities. This both limits access to reproductive care, including abortion, and overlooks the wealth of strategies TGI people have accumulated and created while fighting for our bodily autonomy. The good news is partnerships between women's rights and TGI Justice movements are already flourishing. Sister Song is a black and brown led national organization doing incredible reproductive justice work for black and brown women and people assigned female at birth. This movement would also help shift us from some colonial roots. We would centre intersectionality, encouraging partnerships with anti-racism movements, uplifting black and brown feminists and hopefully embracing decolonization within mainstream feminism itself. This movement is not as distant as it may seem. I have worked with activist groups excited by these possibilities. How do we create a coalition based feminist movement? Through mutual aid. Mutual aid is just what it says. Instead of donating your time, energy or resources as a form of charity, mutual aid means realizing all of our freedoms by supporting each other's work. We advocate based on communities instructions and solely for their benefit. Mutual aid can also help us heal past harms. Feminism has perpetuated many violences against TGI communities, even going to the base level of denying the womanhood of trans and intersex women and forcing womanhood on all people assigned female at birth, including some intersex folks. Feminism has a responsibility to support healing. Respect boundaries and uplift TGI communities. The first step to advocacy is to educate yourself and your community about allyship and equity Call in friends to make sure TGI folks are welcome, and if your friends, family, neighbours or colleagues continue harmful behaviours after being given chances for growth, call them out. You can use these tools to support other historically marginalised communities as well. Educator and activist Bell Hooks describes feminism as a fight against sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression. And we need feminism to fully embody that definition. The gender and sex binary upholds white supremacist patriarchy. We know the oppressions and liberations of all historically marginalised genders and sexes are interconnected. Colonial logics will continue to rip us apart, but a transgender, gender expansive, an intersex inclusive feminist movement can help bring us together. And to reimagine feminism can lead us to an equitable world. Thank you.