You’re A Feminist? Ask Yourself If Your Feminism Is Selective Or Inclusive

Even ‘feminists’ often don’t include all women in their feminism. Don’t believe me? Read how the author calls out the hypocrisy.

Our feminism is selective.

We are reading and writing and making much noise. But our feminism is selective. We are crying and yelling and taking mutual stands. But our feminism is selective.

Our feminism is selective.

We pick t-shirts with feminist slogans and clothes that speak our mind. We make lines and stay awake to buy our favourite celebrity endorsed clothing line. We forget the women employed as cheap labour to make them. We pick “I am feminist” t-shirts that have cries of our tribe who weave them in sweatshops in conditions we won’t survive.

Our feminism is selective.

We praise our athletes when they win grand slams and bring gold medals. We post and repost and slam people who don’t speak about them. But we don’t want our athletes to be loud and angry. We don’t want them to be gay, lesbians and trans. We don’t want them crying in anger or being bossy. We appreciate them only when they are what we want them to be.

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Our feminism is selective.

We follow internet celebrities who make fun videos. We subscribe and like and share and comment. We popularise videos that mock maids and “parlour didis”. We relate with the YouTuber who’s “tired of going to parlours and getting picked on by the parlours workers”. Workers who make less than 6k/pm. The YouTuber spends more than that on a bag. We relate with the youtuber because we don’t see class divide. We mock those didis because our feminism doesn’t include them.

Our feminism is selective.

We unite on Twitter and Facebook to teach the Delhi aunty a lesson in rape culture. We remind her that our clothes don’t define us. That we are not asking for it when we wear shorts. But we snicker in corners at office parties and judge middle aged women who wear backless blouses. We subtly remind our colleagues that it’s “too much cleavage and looks slutty”.

Our feminism is selective.

We consider women goddesses and witches. We have the power to change and become the change. Yet we exclude trans woman because they don’t share our anatomy. We want woman to look woman. Be woman. Born a woman. We accept nothing else as woman.

Our feminism is selective.

We follow body positive influencers on insta and fangirl over their styles. We tell them they inspire us with their confidence. But we pass snide comments at our overweight friends and classmates. Mock that guy about his tight shirt buttons. Giggle when we see that girl flaunt a dress at college. We want to be body positive on the internet, but to keep our jokes off the internet.

Our feminism is selective.

We appreciate women working all jobs. House maids and investment bankers. Homemakers and teachers. Doctors and fighter pilots. We exclude sex workers because it disturbs our morals. We don’t mention or talk about it because it’s not our territory. We subtly let our feminism run without acknowledging sex work.

Our feminism is selective.

We appreciate our favourite actresses who do women centric movies. We fangirl and book first day first shows. We stand with them when they talk pay gap and feminism. We also dance on their item songs objectifying women. We let them stereotype women as gold diggers in relationships subtly in songs. We like the bubble we live in.

Our feminism is selective.

We have become women we always wanted to be. We are yet to accept our sisters who aren’t what we want them to be. Our lens is different for different people. We pick our icons and feminist battles. We are yet to unlearn and learn. We are yet to allow women to be women.

Our feminism is selective and yet to start.

First published on the author’s Facebook page.

Image source: pexels

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