What Types Of Feminisms Are There?
Although the term feminism groups together a set of movements whose ultimate goal is the liberation of women, the fact remains that it is not necessary to go too far in their analysis to see the differences between the various types of feminisms.
The different movements that make up feminism around the world take various forms, both in their principles and in their modes of expression. Depending on the movement we are talking about, different types of feminisms will emerge. At the same time, these movements can be interpreted from different points of view such as political, cultural, economic or social.
Given the diversity of movements, certain types of feminism sometimes enter into dialectical conflict. Some of these movements are liberal, materialist, radical, separatist, ecofeminist, etc. However, for the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on other types of feminisms. Those that can be culturally differentiated. These are “Western feminism”, “black feminism”, “Islamic feminism” and “indigenous feminism”.
Feminists by birth
To be a woman, in many societies today, means living in a constant state of vulnerability and risk. Being born a girl defines her exposure to different types of violence The violence that women will experience throughout their lives can be physical or emotional, symbolic or material, international or structural.
Faced with this violence, women have spoken out by proclaiming the revolution of subjectivity. Some women rose up proclaiming that they were people and gradually fought for the liberation of other realms, such as the spiritual. The fight against patriarchy is a fight that must be extended to all areas of life where there is a supposed superiority on the part of men.
On the other hand, the areas in which women are oppressed are not the same all over the world. This is why different feminist movements have emerged which seek to liberate themselves from different perspectives.
Western feminism
Western, or white, feminism has not been the most developed, but it is the one about which it has been written the most. Its history is so broad that there are different very disparate movements. However, we can group together some of the most memorable moments from these types of feminisms.
One of them is the “343 sluts manifesto” in which 343 women who had abortions pleaded guilty. This gesture gave them visibility, to such an extent that the magazine Charlie Hebdo devoted a cover to them under the satirical title “Who engrossé the 343 sluts of the manifesto on abortion?”.
Although feminism was initially viewed as Western, various voices later emerged to proclaim other types of feminism. Although other types of feminism already existed, they had not been recognized. The women realized that the experiences of upper-middle-class white women were not sufficiently representative. As a result, other feminist movements gained prominence, as we will see later.
“Indigenous” feminism
In South America, feminism is inspired by other liberation movements, such as liberation theology, liberation philosophy or the pedagogy of the oppressed. The legacy of personalities such as Che Guevara or Frida Kahlo is also present. These movements incorporate into feminism the knowledge that indigenous women have developed over the years. It is one of the types of feminisms which oppose totalizing movements and which is part of post-colonial thought.
As we have seen, there are different types of feminisms. This difference, rather than separating women in their struggle for liberation, brings them together in their differences. The different movements converge in their main purpose, incorporating inequalities that other movements have not incorporated. As the Zapatista “commanders” say:
Our thoughts The life of Frida Kahlo was not easy, but today it appears as the testimony that it is possible to live our existence differently ….
