Why Intersectional Feminism Matters
[Music]
you just gotta switch to microphones
oh this is the right one never mind um
okay so hello how many of you
consider yourselves feminists
all right now how many of you consider
yourselves intersectional feminists
oh okay
um so there’s just one word difference
between these two ideas
yet a world of meaning so feminism
essentially states that men and women
should be equal
and that’s great but unfortunately
however unintentionally there’s also
kind of this idea of inequality between
women
in it because there’s pre-existing
social structures of oppression
which exist in our society creating
inequality along the lines
of race ethnicity ability and sexuality
and class and so unfortunately
when we’re fighting for equality
by just dismantling the patriarchy we’re
not actually
getting rid of all these systems
oppression which means not all women are
equal
take for example um the rallying cry
75 cents on the dollar is not enough
well
this only holds true in the us for one
and even in the u.s
it only holds true for some women wait
women
um for hispanic women it is 54 cents on
the dollar
for black women it is 64 cents on the
dollar and for indigenous women it is 59
cents on the
dollar while globally only 20 to 30
percent of the disabled population is
even employed
and for women with disabilities they are
two times less likely than them with
disabilities to even get a job
um so this is where intersectional
feminism comes in
which essentially states that a woman’s
oppression
is a result of many facets of her
identity
which cannot be separated from each
other as they function
both to create and her oppression
as well as stating
that so in order to liberate women and
create equality for all people
and between women we need to fight to
end all systems of social
oppression um so these are great
academic definitions i love them
but they’re a bit distant from
reality so what i’m going to tell you
today is a story of our history and
that’s the history of eugenics feminism
so one day i was sitting across from
this kid in debate class
and he turned to me and said you know
your life probably would have been a lot
better for you if you were
never born you know because you’re
disabled
and what he said in this one sentence
essentially summed up
the main idea of eugenics which is this
19th century social
movement and pseudo and debunked
pseudoscientific idea
that certain people are inherently more
worthy
because of real or perceived biological
differences
and as a result we should socially
select for the genes that we consider
most desirable um so some of you might
start
to think well doesn’t this mean we can
get rid of genes that
code for deafness or blindness
or being born paralyzed um
one this kind of stems from enables
thinking that people with disabilities
leave these horrible awful lives that we
get rid of our disability in a second
that we cannot meaningfully contribute
to society
news flash not true um
and two who gets to decide whose life is
worthy
and the answer in
around the turn of the century when this
was a really popular movement
was scientists uh predominantly white
male scientists who had
able-bodied scientists to perfect the
pseudoscience
which said that immigrants of color
black people
and indigenous populations and the poor
were those with unworthy genes um and so
had to go
and unfortunately a lot of early
feminists
adopted this thinking in order to
position themselves as citizens
essentially saying give us reproductive
rights and freedom
and we will be responsible citizens with
them we will contribute to the moral
betterment of this world um and it was
feminists like mary stroups the founder
of mis
international in the uk um that is now
an international organization hence its
name
and margaret sanger who founded the
organization which would become planned
parenthood
and i want to specify my talk is not
to dismantle or destroy any of the work
these organizations have done
they are wonderful organizations that
have taken steps to distance themselves
from these women and their original
founding legacy
um however eugenics feminism has played
a part in our world and has
even to this day shapes the struggle for
reproductive freedom especially for
women of color and disabled women
um take for example a 2015 court case
from kenya
in which five women sued the kenyan
government and mis
international claiming that because they
had aids they had been forcibly
sterilized
in government hospitals which mis had
recommended to them with some knowledge
of what happens there
um and it isn’t just these five women a
kenyan activist
wrote a report called robbed of choice
in which she
concluded that this is a systemic issue
across public health facilities and
many women went out to protest this
wearing shirts that said
and the forced sterilization of women
with aids and
my body my womb my rights and you think
in 2015
we should that shouldn’t have had to ben
said yet it did because a multitude of
different
systems of oppression had acted upon
these women to take away from them
their choice over their own body and
reproductive rights
to start with um they contracted hiv
and then become disabled because um
once you a chronic illness is considered
part of the disability community
and so someone had decided
or that these women no longer could have
control over their body or make their
own responsible
choices about their reproductive rights
and so they took them away um this stems
from the idea that people with
disabilities cannot be in control of our
own bodies
at its very least harmful it’s people
who physically move me when i use a cane
or people in wheelchairs it’s doctors
not listening to people with
disabilities and at its most harmful
it is women getting forcibly sterilized
um the second thing is that these women
were poor and they had no other choice
but to go to these hospitals even if
they had an idea of what might happen
and lastly as someone with a uterus you
have a lot more power
over what the future demographics of
this world are going to look like
simply because you have the power to
create another living being
um and so this can be scary to people
who are used to having control over the
world in its population
and while they aren’t the ones carrying
out these unconsensual
sterilizations they are the ones who
have every reason not to put stories
like these on the front pages of
newspapers
and to sweep them under the rug and this
is why we need intersectional feminism
because stories like these are not the
ones being told in
across the media we don’t know that 75
cents
is on the dollar is still a dream for
many women and that disabled women
struggle to get jobs today
and so why don’t we hear about these
stories why aren’t feminists why are we
out in the streets with our pink
hats
telling people that these things are
happening that for sterilization is
still a thing
and it’s because these things do not
happen to
white cis women in wealthy western
countries
and so feminism moves on to different
fights and different struggles
leaving many women behind and when these
issues are
brought up as part of the present rather
than the past
it said oh no that’s an issue for the
disabled community oh no that’s an issue
for the indigenous community
well one we’re stronger we’re far
stronger united than we are divided
and two no because
these are issues facing women and these
struggles are facing them
because they are both women and part of
these communities and you cannot
separate the two
um and so we need intersectional
feminism
so that we can address this we can look
at the multitudes of different ways in
which
systems of oppression affect women and
we can truly end them all
to help all women reach equality and so
before i go i want to leave you with
what you can do to help support
intersectional feminism
the whole theme of tonight theme of
tonight is starting conversations
and that’s exactly what i’m asking you
all to do when you talk
about feminism frame it in a way to
address the multitude of ways
women encounter inequality and equality
and talk about it frame it in an
intersectional
lens additionally know our past
know the past of feminism and know the
past of its leaders the good
the bad and the ugly and finally
when talking with your little siblings
your nieces your nephews and your
cousins about
powerful women from the past tell them
the full truth about these women
and make room for a new set of women
from the past who are equally as
powerful like ida b
wells doria shafik rosa may billinghurst
and audrey lord
in conclusion our world is moving
forward
we are discovering more about our
history every day and the same should
apply to our feminism we need to know
its past so that we can define its
future so that it truly fights
for equity for all women and we frame
and we do this by framing it in an
intersectional lens
thank you and good night