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Against white feminism : notes on disruption / Rafia Zakaria.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2021]Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First editionDescription: x, 244 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781324006619
  • 1324006617
  • 9781324035992
  • 1324035994
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: At a wine bar, a group of feminists -- In the beginning, there were white women -- Is solidarity a lie? -- The White Savior Industrial Complex and the Ungrateful Brown Feminist -- White feminists and feminist wars -- Sexual liberation is women's empowerment -- Honor killings, FGC, and white feminist supremacy -- "I built a white feminist temple" -- From deconstruction to reconstruction -- Conclusion: On fear and futures.
Summary: "A radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women's rights. Elite white women have branded feminism, promising an apolitical individual empowerment along with sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity. As Rafia Zakaria expertly argues, those promises have been proven empty and white feminists have leant on their racial privilege and sense of cultural superiority. Drawing on her own experiences as an American Muslim woman, as well as an attorney working on behalf of immigrant women, Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism that forges true solidarity by bringing Black and brown voices and goals to the fore. Ranging from the savior complex of British feminist imperialists to the condescension of the white feminist-led "development industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria presents an eye-opening indictment of how whiteness has contributed to a feminist movement that solely serves the interests of upper middle-class white women"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction New 305.42 Z21 Checked out 05/06/2024 33111011334949
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as "experts" on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism's global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals.

Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and "the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West" to the condescension of the white feminist-led "aid industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-231) and index.

Introduction: At a wine bar, a group of feminists -- In the beginning, there were white women -- Is solidarity a lie? -- The White Savior Industrial Complex and the Ungrateful Brown Feminist -- White feminists and feminist wars -- Sexual liberation is women's empowerment -- Honor killings, FGC, and white feminist supremacy -- "I built a white feminist temple" -- From deconstruction to reconstruction -- Conclusion: On fear and futures.

"A radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women's rights. Elite white women have branded feminism, promising an apolitical individual empowerment along with sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity. As Rafia Zakaria expertly argues, those promises have been proven empty and white feminists have leant on their racial privilege and sense of cultural superiority. Drawing on her own experiences as an American Muslim woman, as well as an attorney working on behalf of immigrant women, Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism that forges true solidarity by bringing Black and brown voices and goals to the fore. Ranging from the savior complex of British feminist imperialists to the condescension of the white feminist-led "development industrial complex" and the conflation of sexual liberation as the "sum total of empowerment," Zakaria presents an eye-opening indictment of how whiteness has contributed to a feminist movement that solely serves the interests of upper middle-class white women"-- Provided by publisher.

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