Intersectional Feminism: Evolution and Contemporary Issues

In this week's readings, the subjects that writers, feminist theorists, feminist advocates, and (or) professors Bell Hooks, Sara Ahmed, Roxane Gay, Mary E. Swigonski, Salome Raheim, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards explores tend to be broad, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The topics that resonated throughout the readings included feminist “movements” as micro-events, the loss of feminism’s two long-standing goals (political equality and personal freedom), the buzz phrase of the early radical groups, the exclusion of African American Women in the feminist's movement, the interconnection of Social Work and feminism, the feminist’s lifestyle and its complexities, and most importantly, the evolution of contemporary intersectional

Even during those bittersweet years and now, I advocate for intersectional feminism, but I too was, and remain to be a bad feminist. I wear dresses, all year, and I listen to thuggish music, at a very loud volume, during most of my drive to work. However, I consider myself to be an independent, and intelligent woman. Yet, I am deadly fearful of experiencing infertility (the idea of missing out on motherhood, frightens me). Gay’s essay confirmed that lifestyle feminist should not narrow women to “non-women” activities, but rather articulate and infuse the importance of personal freedom. Contemporary feminism seems to be more interested in parsing good and bad television shows, rap, and women’s clothing preferences than in income inequality, or parental leave, and the inclusion of all women in feminism’s efforts. From my perspective, such wrongful interest has led many women, such as myself and Gay, to believe that we are

I tussled with the stances “I advocate feminism” versus “I am a feminist” written in Feminist contributions to understanding women’s lives and the social environment. To me, both stances exclude some aspect of feminism’s goals (personal freedom or political equality) and forces allies to confine to one or the other. For class discussion, I would love to explore the following concepts: The misconception of feminism being anti-male, should women be treated equally in certain cases and as women in others (e.g. promotions-equal opportunities, but when traveling during pregnancy, better transportation) and lastly, what does intersectional feminism exemplifies, and (or) resembles in