I've noticed very often that "capitalist" is gendered masculine, including in texts written by people who otherwise attempt to de-gender their writing (using they/them, etc). So I play with this often, switching the pronouns (for instance, I tried to use "she" and "he" both for capitalists and particularly business owners in my book All …
I've noticed very often that "capitalist" is gendered masculine, including in texts written by people who otherwise attempt to de-gender their writing (using they/them, etc). So I play with this often, switching the pronouns (for instance, I tried to use "she" and "he" both for capitalists and particularly business owners in my book All That Is Sacred Is Profaned). This helps undermine the sense that capitalists=white cis-heterosexual able-bodied male.
I get that. Thank you. I understand that the "white cis-heterosexual able-bodied male" is not favored in the current cultural zeitgeist. Who will be next I am not sure, though I'd place my bets on white cis-heterosexual able-bodied female.
I think it already is. The use of “white feminism” as a stalking horse to dump misogyny on women while pretending to center “women of color” (mostly by speaking for them and setting them up as a fictitious mouthpiece for the actual author’s beliefs). I’m honestly terrified by the misogyny coming out of the woodwork under the guise of identity politics. White women are implied to be southern belles- slave-owning women entirely complicit in the crimes committed against slaves. The position of identity politics regarding white women seems to be the same old claim that women actually hold some/ most/ all of the real power and were/ are complicit in creating and maintaining racism. There is likely some truth to that idea- I’m sure some southern belles delighted in cruelty towards slaves- perhaps particularly towards slave women who they saw as rivals for the affections of the males they were made dependent upon. But to hold white women accountable for racism even more than white men seems contrary to their documented lack of power, independence, or education. The southern belle/ lady of the plantation is the extreme of how white women might be viewed, but that idea that women are responsible for the crimes of their male kin seems to permeate beyond slavery onto all white women. There was significant overlap between abolitionists and the women’s suffrage movement. Yet to hear the modern retelling, suffragettes told black woman to march at the end of their march and that was it- end of story. That perhaps some really ugly tactical decisions had to made in that day she is completely ignored.
Hi Anne - Thanks for that thoughtful reply. I've thought about a lot it this afternoon. My eyes were opened after reading Angela Davis's work on women, race and class, and the historical complexities of those relationships that in many ways stay with us still. We live in a cataclysmic time, I think, and how this reckoning will end I have no idea. But the segue from racial reckoning to identity politics to who can be labeled oppressed and who the transgressor blinds us all in many ways. And it does little to change hearts and minds and build much needed alliances. Rhyd is spot on in this article when he maintains that it is a distraction from what is really going on.
I've noticed very often that "capitalist" is gendered masculine, including in texts written by people who otherwise attempt to de-gender their writing (using they/them, etc). So I play with this often, switching the pronouns (for instance, I tried to use "she" and "he" both for capitalists and particularly business owners in my book All That Is Sacred Is Profaned). This helps undermine the sense that capitalists=white cis-heterosexual able-bodied male.
I get that. Thank you. I understand that the "white cis-heterosexual able-bodied male" is not favored in the current cultural zeitgeist. Who will be next I am not sure, though I'd place my bets on white cis-heterosexual able-bodied female.
I think it already is. The use of “white feminism” as a stalking horse to dump misogyny on women while pretending to center “women of color” (mostly by speaking for them and setting them up as a fictitious mouthpiece for the actual author’s beliefs). I’m honestly terrified by the misogyny coming out of the woodwork under the guise of identity politics. White women are implied to be southern belles- slave-owning women entirely complicit in the crimes committed against slaves. The position of identity politics regarding white women seems to be the same old claim that women actually hold some/ most/ all of the real power and were/ are complicit in creating and maintaining racism. There is likely some truth to that idea- I’m sure some southern belles delighted in cruelty towards slaves- perhaps particularly towards slave women who they saw as rivals for the affections of the males they were made dependent upon. But to hold white women accountable for racism even more than white men seems contrary to their documented lack of power, independence, or education. The southern belle/ lady of the plantation is the extreme of how white women might be viewed, but that idea that women are responsible for the crimes of their male kin seems to permeate beyond slavery onto all white women. There was significant overlap between abolitionists and the women’s suffrage movement. Yet to hear the modern retelling, suffragettes told black woman to march at the end of their march and that was it- end of story. That perhaps some really ugly tactical decisions had to made in that day she is completely ignored.
Hi Anne - Thanks for that thoughtful reply. I've thought about a lot it this afternoon. My eyes were opened after reading Angela Davis's work on women, race and class, and the historical complexities of those relationships that in many ways stay with us still. We live in a cataclysmic time, I think, and how this reckoning will end I have no idea. But the segue from racial reckoning to identity politics to who can be labeled oppressed and who the transgressor blinds us all in many ways. And it does little to change hearts and minds and build much needed alliances. Rhyd is spot on in this article when he maintains that it is a distraction from what is really going on.
Other than that, yes, you nailed it.