Equality Myth: Why Young Women Need Feminism →
What bothers us most about their post, though, is how important it is for feminists to stick together—especially when there’s not much discussion of the F word in the mainstream media at all. Tearing each other down for writing about feminism in a way that could attract young women—black, white, whatever—seems counterproductive. Especially in a personal essay written by, yes, a white woman, about her own, yes, personal experience.
Whoa, wait a minute. So there’s no room in feminism to criticize each other, to challenge what other people think or say or write? I think feminism can only get stronger when we allow ourselves to think critically about what it means and who it represents. I think the Jezebel post (and Anna writes in the comments that they’ll be doing a more substantive post on it today) raises some important issues (just take a look at the debate that’s raging in the comments!) that weren’t addressed in the Newsweek stories. That doesn’t mean the Newsweek stories don’t have value, though—and I don’t think Anna was “tearing [them] down.” I think she was raising some issues that are really important. Who gets to write the feminist narrative? Who is included in it? Who does it matter for?
My take is that it’s great that the Newsweek articles sparked a debate—one that should not in any way be monolithic. And criticism is, yes, a part of that.
