the diversity of feminism

As the semester progresses I am becoming more and more aware of how complex the idea, theory and history behind feminism is. I continue to learn that there is no one definition of feminism nor is there one type of feminist. Being a feminist is not limited to just women, men can be feminists too and not all feminists are male bashers. A problem with our society today is that we are so narrow minded no matter how open minded we consider ourselves to be and the only way to become open minded is to immerse ourselves in knowledge.

Of the readings for this week I chose to blog about: the Asian Pacific American, Chicana Feminism and Indigenous Women articles. These articles stood out to me because they as I mentioned above, collectively represent the diversity of the idea of feminism.

The Chicana Feminism fight for liberation seemed very much like that of the fight of American women. They confronted with those that dislike them because of what they choose to fight for. They are put between a rock and a hard place and expected to fight for the race OR their gender (gender being the least important of the two). They also believe that the reason they are oppressed by their own people is because Chicano males feel deprived of power in the Anglo society and therefore seek some kind of dominance over their women. This reminds me very much of Audre Lorde's "Age, Race, Class and Sex" and the Chicana fight for women's liberation sounds very similar to the plight of black women in America.

Indigenous women's liberation was actually quite different than that of the Chicana feminists. They have been raised to put the "natural law" above any man made law and because of that women are believed to be the "manifestation of Mother Earth in human form"(525). Their fight is not a battle of the sexes rather it is a "struggle to recover [their] status as Daughters of the Earth"(528). Basically, they just want to have control over their own destinies and not let their futures be dictated by corporations. If that happens, then there will be liberation among not just Indigenous women, but all of the indigenous people.

The fight for women's liberation among Asian Pacific Americans is another different type of fight. Believed to be the most docile women, Asian Pacific American women are fighting to be acknowledged and represented within the global community of women. This group of women seeks the assistance of white feminists to aid them in their struggle for liberation, but have come to an obstacle not created by men, but by the very women struggling for the same liberation. "One young woman said she had made an effort to join some women's groups with high expectations but came away disillusioned because these groups were not receptive to the issues that were important to her as an Asian woman"(366).

The groups of women represented in the readings are all fighting for different things in their search for women's liberation. We can also see that the different groups of women are at different levels within their struggle. In the dictionary there might be 1 to 5 definitions of feminism; these articles show that, that 5 barely even scratches the surface of how huge feminism really is.