I'm Back (With Some Oppression Politics)!!

It's been a LONG while, but I'm feeling the urge to write again, so here I am.

The issue I want to address here is a bit different from the usual topics of this blog. Previously, I had focused a lot on my own artistic sensibilities, creations, and reactions. This blog post is much more political, specifically politics of the oppression type.

Oppression politics is an area that I've had increasing interest in over the last year and a half or so. My interest has especially increased since arriving at college, an experience I'm sure many people can relate to. I find a lot of meaning and purpose in learning about the issues that fall underneath the umbrella of oppression politics (sexism, racism, LGBTQ issues, just to name a few).

In this article, I want to talk about a Buzzfeed quiz that's been making its way around recently, entitled "Are You A Feminist?" I find this quiz to be a little bit problematic in ways that take away a lot of the power that other people are finding in it away from me.

To pause here for a second, I just want to insert that I do consider myself a feminist, and a fairly radical one at that. I'm currently working my way through "Feminism is For Everybody" by bell hooks and it's INCREDIBLE. And, at the end of the day, I do think that this Buzzfeed article is a positive happening. Like all Buzzfeed things, it's a bit manipulative (that title is such click-bait it's ridiculous), but I'm all about the egalitarianism of anti-oppression movements.

My issues with it come in two threads. The first is sort of semantic, relating to the way the single question of the quiz is framed. To me, far too often the idea that equality means treating men and women the same too often gets translated into treating women like men, which is not the point of feminism. It also very explicitly uses the gender binary, which is always problematic. This ties into the second issue that I have with the quiz which is that it ignores the intersectionality that HAS to go along with feminism in order for feminism to truly accomplish the goals it wants to. Sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and all other types of oppression are inherently tied together and ignoring those ties leads to an incomplete solution to the problem of oppression.

The way I understand feminism, I think the question that should have been used in this quiz is "Do you believe that each individual human has the right to be treated with dignity and respect and have their full humanity recognized?" To me, this question encapsulates all oppression politics and holds a higher standard for people to reach, a standard that allows EVERYONE to retain their dignity.