Western Feminism and the Need to Label

As a white woman, the legacy of western feminism seems to be in my DNA. I went through my angry phase in my early twenties, following the trail of bread crumbs in every human culture toward the certainty that men had single-handedly destroyed the planet and subjugated women for eons. I grew up a bit and allowed some nuance to filter into my understanding, especially once I found myself the mother of two little white boys whose responsibility it is to raise into good men. Feminist discourse will inevitably be a part of their education; but I will be damned if it ends up being what defines them.

We are obsessed with categories: categories help us organize our brains, they help us to form alliances and limit the vast potentialities of life so that we can feel sane. We do this thing, it's a natural thing called ethnocentrism. We think that our categories are the right categories, or at the very least, the best categories. We can take them for granted because we grew up with them and so they make the most sense to us. Every group does this; no matter what they believe they have their reasons why it's right.

So this week we heard that Malala Yousafzai now calls herself a feminist, because as she said “feminism is just another word for equality”. Okay. She has stated a new understanding. Super. But please stop hailing it as the breakthrough of the year. Defining herself by our western categories does not suddenly legitimate her. She has not suddenly been freed from some of the bondage of her non-western upbringing. The woman took a bullet in the head for her beliefs and risks her life everyday. She knows more about living her convictions than all of us combined. Plastering our labels on her will never add any more to her legacy or to who she is as a person. They might serve to make the rest of us feel more comfortable giving so much praise to a Muslim in a headscarf, but she does not need our categories to empower her. She is already empowered, on her own terms, in her own understanding.

Asking non-western women to adhere to the rules of western feminism (which has a specific historical context and which is important and valid in its own context) is a form of philosophical imperialism. Shouting victory every time a Muslim woman removes a hijab does nothing to support Muslim women in their distinct, unique issues. To deconstruct someone else's experience according to our own understanding and then applying our own tired markers of “liberty, equality, justice” is a copout, because you never have to challenge your own understanding. You can just sit in your self-righteous, birth given superiority, and insist that everyone else get on board with “truth.” This is evangelical feminism at its worst; insisting that you hold the truth and making it your life's work to save other women's souls by helping them find the light of feminism. Get. Over. Yourself.

What can western women do to support other women around the world in whatever their struggles might be? Well at least momentarily, sit down. Shut up. Listen. Don't assume you have the answers; don't tell them how they should define themselves; don't assume their fight is the same as yours; at least attempt to look past Marxist notions of gender inequality that, while entrenched in our own understanding of gender issues, is not the only possible view of things. Allow other women to define themselves in ways that makes sense to them. If a woman does not want to call herself a feminist it is not because she is oppressed. Coercing her to adopt the definition is a form of oppression; it removes the very thing that feminism is meant to protect: autonomy over oneself.

The world is full of diversity of every kind, biological and cultural. For myself, that diversity is the surest sign of God in the world; it shows the hand of a prolific artist at work. Diversity is a sign of health; of a strong gene pool. It leads to innovation in science and philosophy. Labels do not like diversity; it is too challenging, too grey. It requires too much thought, too much willingness to adapt, too much effort. It is the antithesis to the homogeneity required by Western culture. It is the ultimate threat to the status quo.

A mass media that produces content that justifies the limiting of possibility, the silencing of fresh and unique voices that challenge our understanding and grow our minds. Limiting people based on colour or religion robs us all of a life that is vibrant and honest. Seven billion other people in the world besides you; the odds are pretty slim that your way is the only way.

Your terms and labels may work for you. They may explain the world to you in a way that makes sense. But your terms do not invalidate other people's terms. Nor should other people's terms be seen as a threat. Allow room for the possibility that you are wrong; allow room for the possibility that other people may have something to teach you; and if you 're not certain, before you make a judgement, try being quiet for awhile, and listen to how they have already defined themselves.