Motivated Representation

Audre Lorde argues that “the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house” in response to her experience with white liberal feminists, who subscribe to the ideology that feminism is a universal sisterhood, where all women are viewed as monolithic in nature, and who suffer the sole oppression of gender. The consequence of this short sightedness produced the credo that all women were working towards social equality with men. As bell hooks points out this faction of the women's movement was ignorant to the dismal fact that all men are not equal in “white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure,” so women in the lower classes, lesbian, and non-white did not see their predicaments changing by gaining social equality with men. They recognized that feminism defined as social equality with men would primarily affect the social status of white middle class women1. Therefore, white liberal feminists lacked the ability to see beyond their own white middle class predicament because their perspectives were coming from upward mobility creating shortcomings in the ability to truly understand the vantage point of women, where race, class, sexuality, and age intersect with gender. Lorde's metaphor holds white privileged women to task by inquiring the validity of their analysis (master's tools) of a structural system that already produces inequalities and skewed consciousness, and their ability to adequately and effectively examine and dismantle their own prejudices (master's house). This type of motivated representation “narrows the perimeters of change that are possible and allowable” for all people2.

In contrast to liberal feminism, radical feminists see feminism as the struggle to end sexist oppression. According to Lorde, “racism, sexism, and homophobia are inseparable”3. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze, deconstruct, and reinvent a new paradigm that is inclusive, so we do not re-inscribe the hierarchy of oppression enforced by patriarchal white supremacy. One fundamental tool that radical feminists propose for resisting injustice and inequality is analyzing and understanding how knowledge is produced, who has access to it, and the structures which determines how it gets disseminated or not4. In addressing these questions, feminists are able to develop theory: an explanation of interrelated concepts that have been consistently observed over time. Chris Weedon5, explains how the relationship between personal experience, theory, and the access and content of knowledge within the framework of the patriarchal structure is of great importance to feminism because the development of theory is a starting point for the development of feminist discourse and praxis, which are powerful tools in dismantling sexist oppression.

Since radical feminists see themselves as revolutionaries rather than white liberal reformers, they don't want to preserve the sex/gender system that they identify as one cause of women's oppression6. It is through patriarchal ideology and its production of knowledge that women are forced into the binary female/ feminine role. Through extensive analysis, radical feminist theory and discourse explains how patriarchal ideology “exaggerates” the biological differences between men and women7. If a person is born female, then she will have expressed characteristics that are uniquely feminine: obedient, nurturer, passive, and emotional. Radical feminists rejected the assumption that there should be a connection between one's sex and one's gender---gender is separable from sex. Women are no more destined to be “passive” as men are “active.” This enforced binary uses rigid gender roles to keep women oppressed8. Out of this critique came androgyny, the alternative gender that “desired to transcend” tradition by allowing women and men to determine for themselves how masculine and feminine they wanted to be or not. Unlike the traditional roles of patriarchal masculinity and femininity, in this new paradigm there was flexibility because there was no fixed way to be androgynous9.
As another tool of radical feminism, Mary Daly wrote in her book, Gyn/Ecology a dictionary of new language by reclaiming words that were viewed as negative and a way to keep women subjugated. In radical feminist discourse, women were encouraged to reclaim words like hag, witch, and crone by giving them positive meaning10. Other oppressed peoples have used the same tool. By reclaiming words like queer, chicana/o, cunt, and perhaps nigger, people have been able to spin new meanings for themselves, which always serves as a tool for empowerment.

Feminism as a movement is crucial to ending sexist oppression. In order to avoid re-inscribing hierarchy, it is important for us to challenge and change the structure of patriarchal white supremacy and its by product: white privilege. In order to truly understand the perspective of other people, we need to look outside our own predicament, if we are to adequately and effectively examine and dismantle our own prejudices. Equality and justice are a constitutional right for all people, and should not be an American ideal to which we aspire.