Queering feminism: Women paving the way for change
Contrast that with the most recent movement, in which histories have converged.
The feminist and queer feminist movements are more complex due to what Talbot calls – the alignment of multiple marginalized identities in a single person – and what Talbot believes is the most important contribution to the feminist movement in the last 40 years.
“Intersectionality embodies the idea that there is a whole host of [female] identities, and the concept is that those identities (race, class, gender and sexuality – that are the four that get the most play), are overlapping, and co-constitutive of each other,” Talbot said. “Such that what it means to be a working-class lesbian of color is very different than what it means to be a middle-class white heterosexual woman.”
Talbot, who noted that teaching the subjects of queer studies and feminism can be tricky in the academic world, said that the umbrella of feminism, today, means something different for all female, and male, players. “[Feminism is] really about the notion that identities are overlapping and co-constitutive of each other,” Talbot said.
“This notion that there can be a feminism that works for everybody becomes difficult once you begin to think about the multiplicity of the kinds of women that feminism is trying to work for.”
“Queer feminism,” Talbot said, “is the attempt to sort of theorize the intersections of gender and sexuality. The entire movement has really run with it, which I really think is a great thing.”
Alongside racial ethnicity in which black lesbians like Rebecca Walker, poet Pat Parker and activist Barbara Smith have been steering, the notion of gender and sexuality is another notable marker on the totem pole of feminism.
For Long, her work as a queer activist continues to be much more encompassing of human inequalities. For her, anti-violence, transformative justice and prison abolition are at the forefront of current day activism.
“I choose to work with people and organizations that hold feminist consciousness and intersectional anti-oppression politics … I don’t know that I think feminist identification is that important,” she said. “While I definitely think it’s important to recognize the work done by feminists and to keep doing feminist work, people’s identification is less important to me than the work they do and how they interact with women and feminine-expressing folks in their lives.”
She said that she continues her activism to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression, and it is important to look at the rights of all people.
What's Your Reaction?
