This recurring feature, curated by Pilgrim Soul, directs Harpy readers to important feminist thoughts and concepts as spoken by some of her favourite feminists on and off the web. The appraisal of the value of these snippets is, of course, entirely Pilgrim Soul’s, and does not necessarily reflect the views of other Harpies. Feel free to discuss in the comments here.
Today’s Feminist Food for Thought comes to us from the writer Alice Walker, who is undoubtedly most familiar to many of you as the author of the novel The Colour Purple. (I’m Canadian; the “u” belongs there. Screw authorial intent.) In feminist circles, Walker is known as the coiner* of the term “womanist,” which she uses in place of “feminist” in recognition of the sense that feminism as a movement was fundamentally a white women’s movement. Here are her four alternative definitions of “Womanist” in her collection of essays In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens - I have edited them somewhat because they are long, and I wanted to encourage you to buy the book yourselves:
Womanist. 1. From womanish. (Opp. of “girlish,” i.e. frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “You acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. …
2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as the natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or non-sexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except, periodically, for health…
3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the folk. Loves herself. Regardless.
4. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.
I get the sense that most of our readership does explicitly use the term “feminist” to describe themselves, but if you do not, please feel free to say so. Do you see yourself as falling under these definitions? Were the term “feminism” to be abandoned for “womanism,” would that obscure the ways in which womanism has grown out of black culture? Are you in favour of changing the name of the movement if it would make others feel included in its aims?
* I’ve seen this challenged once or twice, but have no sources to send you to on the internet, and it seems generally accepted to attribute authorship to her.
“Were the term “feminism” to be abandoned for “womanism,” would that obscure the ways in which womanism has grown out of black culture?”
I think it would. I don’t know that women of color want white women appropriating the word.
I’m surprised that none of the above definitions say anything explicitly about feminism, or a black feminism.
No 1. does, I guess.
Oh my god I’m such an ass.
My black ex-girlfriend never used anything but feminist and she had certainly read Alice Walker. And she was also a black woman who loved other women. As a bisexual white woman, I’m also comfortable feeling that my feminist identity covers my sexual orientation. And I agree with Sarah that white feminists suddenly using womanists might seem to be co-opting it, especially if these woman choose to self-identify as womanist over feminist. Would white womanists be choosing that as their primary identification, or would it not matter?
The reason I asked that question above, to clarify, was because I’ve been in more than one internet discussion where someone suggested that we substitute the term in to dissociate from the “bad stuff” in feminism.
I also wonder about this term “of color,” because there are many non-white women out there, one supposes, who would not identify with the culture Walker describes, i.e. an African American culture. I say this not to be glib about any solidarity not-white women might feel with each other vis-a-vis white women, but it has always been interesting to me that the rootedness of the term somehow mediates against its stated aims.
I would certainly be open to using the term “womanist” but as far as I know, white women have not been invited to do so. I don’t know whether self-described womanists want white women to identify as womanists, in other words. Good question.
What’s funny is that for some reason, despite all of the things that Alice Walker is known for, when I hear her name I think of two things immediately.
1. The term “womanist”
2. This: “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”
As for using the term, I don’t know that I would. As sarah.of.a.lesser.god said, I feel that (radical) feminist covers most of my identity and my beliefs. And I do associate the term “womanist” with black women, which I am not and never will be.
Relevant to discussions ongoing in other parts of the blogosphere, I guess then I am just confused. I mean, I absolutely have zero objections to black women having a space of their own, and to speaking to the intersectionality of experience. But how does one appropriately express solidarity with this? I mean, on the one hand, you don’t have to say anything at all, you have to listen. On the other, I do feel like the term womanist implies something more universal than what it is.
PS, just out of curiosity, why do you think it implies something universal? because of the root woman?
Yes, JD, that’s why I assume I see the confused suggestion that it be adopted by white feminists who want to distance themselves from the “movement.”
yeah that strikes me as a little strange.
Well, it’s strange, and yet… I am being simplistic, I’m sure, but I am still struggling to come to terms with the idea that other people’s critiques of prior and current iterations of the women’s movement necessarily mean that female solidarity is impossible. And therefore, I worry about, say, allowing white women to own the definition of “feminism” or black women to own the definition “womanism.” I mean, where does that take us? It’s right back to everyone representing their own interests, I guess, but I don’t want to stay here in my privilege cave, you know?
I guess I see why the term womanist might be preferred for use by some cultures, but I think it can count as a subset of feminism. I agree that it sounds more universal than it is though.
Whether or not feminism needs a new word in order to rebrand itself (away from feminist=hairy-legged lesbians) is another issue that this has made me wonder about. (Should we need to? No. Might it help? Unclear.) Then my brain went to the whole Catholic church Buddy Jesus part of “Dogma”… and then to the idea of “Individuals who would like to disassemble the patriarchy”, but that’s a little long.
I haven’t read any Walker and never really encountered the descriptor “womanist” before, but there’s something that definitely resonates when I read her definitions, particularly the first. There’s something about it that feels alive, embodies how/what I do everyday. That said I am a feminist (and after more reading might identify as both).
I don’t think feminist should be abandoned in an effort to make others feel included, at some point labels are just that, but I want to see real action and alternatives on how women of color and poor women are incorporated into larger feminist aims and progress. I just feel like everyone recognizes/can speak the “language” (class! race!queer! able bodied!)but no one is doing much to have a damn conversation.
In my funky metaphor, womanist is there, a dialect–familiar but different enough that some translating needs to occur on both sides. What happens during and after that conversation I don’t know. I’ve seen plenty of lively discussion where feminists/womanists “get it” but what needs to happen to get the rest of the world to catch up?
/rambling. I’ve just sort of been off put lately by the way that WOC and poor women (and to some extent men) seem to be marched out when a point needs to be proven or to demonstrate awareness and then promptly ignored when we make too much noise.
@myself: That post script isn’t directed at PS or anyone on this site.
No worries, AFLV, and it’s not like I haven’t occasionally though unintentionally been part of the “shutting down WOC” tide. It’s a crap thing about white privilege, that you can’t always see it.
And what needs to happen to get the rest of the world to catch up is the eternal activist’s conundrum.
[...] Feminist Food For Thought: Alice Walker – “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” [...]
womanist is for women of color. white women CANNOT be identified as womanist, it’s not an expression that your mothers would have used to describe you. the first prong states: a BLACK feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “You acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. …
I’m always leary of white women who want to co-opt everything for themselves. Can’t black/women of color have something that JUST belongs to us? Why would you want to be identified as womanists? You don’t understand the culture and interior of black women’s lives enough to take ownership of the term “womanist.” Be okay with feminist and let womanist be for BLACK feminists or women of color.