Shailaja Paik on redefining feminism and Dalit identity | What’s Your Ism?

[@newslaundry]

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[@cenationofjnu]

Feminism is India is different than feminism of western world. In India, feminists largely belong to women from upper castes and enjoyed a very liberal environment, very comfortable life and privileges like getting the best education in India. They rarely have any men in their lives who said no to them or tried to stop them from doing things which they are not supposed to do. And when you add this with the feminism ideology, they start to believe that everything in society is patriarchal and all the problems they have in their lives (even it's not caused by men) are because of men and men only. It's a fact that vast majority of feminists in the world see men as some kind of enemy and misandry is quite evident in their life writings. In India feminism is still in its initial stages where women just want equal rights or opportunities. However things which make feminism in India very interesting is the ignorance of the caste factor in the exploitation of women especially women who belong to the sc St obc communities by majority of feminists in India. Upper caste feminists want all the rights and privileges which western women have (or they think that men have) but when when it comes to the women who belong to sc St obc or let's say bahujans, these upper caste women firmly stand with the upper caste men and their manu ideology. Reservation is a prefect example of that.. A feminists or let's say an female intellectual with very progressive liberal mind from upper caste 99% times oppose the policy of reservation (even if it's benefiting the women from bahujans who are actually oppressed in India). They will write books, start dharnas etc just to show their concern but when it comes to actual ground, these upper caste feminists will join their upper caste men and happily help them by not doing anything.. That's the hypocrisy.

[@SpaceCadet51-de1od]

Savarna Feminism

[@michaelregis1015]

Intersectional feminism, at least in the West and Western Hemisphere, addresses that problem. In takes into consideration that liberal feminism, which is often called "white" feminism, mainly focused on problems that affect white women and paid no attention to the differences in treatment for different grouos of women who may need special, or at least different, approaches to addressing their unique circumstances.

[@mukteswardhangadamajhi8443]

i would have loved to hear her say " Dalit women also stand with Dalit men".

[@jitkr1489]

identity politics or oppurtunism!