Let’s Not “Fight” For Equality
Acknowledging privilege — that’s where we need to do the work.
Over a month ago, I wrote an article about whether we still need feminism in Western society. Although it was a rather rhetorical question — I still did put a question mark at the end of the title.
Today, I have no more doubts. My only concern is about articulating feminist claims in such a way that they bring an actual benefit to the world.
I was born a white woman, in a middle-class family in Europe. This, by default, makes me rank in the top 5% of the most privileged people on Earth. Hell, I don’t know — maybe even 3%. It may also be the reason it took me a while to get interested and compassionate about the problems of inequality in this world. As Jessica Wildfire recently wrote:
“Most people with privilege don’t acknowledge that privilege. That’s what makes it a privilege.”
I am starting to finally get how this works. And I am trying to see through the logic of the men who argue that feminism in today’s Western world is redundant. It seems that they make such claims exactly because they don’t acknowledge their own privilege.
