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