My first thought after reading Gina Messina-Dysert’s post, “Feminism vs. Humanism: Continuing to claim a feminist identity” was, “Guess she missed that whole #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen trend on Twitter last week.” Until I saw Gina’s bio signaling the end of the post, I thought she was building the foundation for a witty piece of satire. The feminism she wrote about was so ideal compared to humanism that I thought she was using irony to address feminism’s imperfections. She wrote that “humanism does not value diversity and difference,” which implied that feminism does, always or at least consistently. Humanism “reinforces western, privileged … values,” but feminism doesn’t? As in doesn’t ever? Is that what she meant to say?
It isn’t that Gina, or the Feminism and Religion blog as a whole, doesn’t acknowledge diversity among feminists. It’s that in the post, she didn’t recognize that feminism can be just as exclusive as humanism according to the definition of humanism she provided. Continue reading “Feminism vs. Humanism: A response to an idealized feminist identity by Mariam Williams”
Feminism and Religion 