Admittedly I didn’t have much prior knowledge about the history of women’s suffrage. In history classes they spend a whole of five seconds on women’s suffrage and only listed the contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. E Susan Barber’s “100 Years Towards Suffrage: An Overview” helped me piece together fragments of history that I’ve been taught about separately. KD Hall foundation’s YouTube video “Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement” taught me a different side of Ida B Wells’ contributions to Black liberation that is often ignored. I was also enlightened by the article “5 essential Black Figures in the Women’s Suffrage Movement” by Meghan Smith shared in Lyn Thomas’ Snapshot 6.

            The 100 year timeline put a lot of historical events in perspective for me. In school they teach history in sections in vaguely chronological order. What would’ve been better is if they taught us that many historical atrocities and movements occurred simultaneously. The timeline starts in the late 18^th century and ends in the early 20^th century; during this time the fight for the abolition of slavery and the fight for women’s rights overlapped. During this timeline Sojourner Truth was enslaved, escaped slavery, advocated for the abolition of slavery, advocated for Black civil rights, and advocated for women’s rights. Some white suffragists were also abolitionists. K-12 education only gave me timelines of one specific topic in history what I need was to see different topics of historical events on one timeline.

            Speaking of K-12 education, in school Ida B Wells was only presented to me as a journalist who exposed the horrific lynchings of Black people NEVER as a feminist. That part of her activism was completely erased. “Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement” taught me about the Alpha Suffrage Club that was founded by Ida B Well, it taught me about her marching in the front of the women’s march despite white suffragists deciding that Black women should march in the back. It taught me about the National Association of Colored Women. They don’t teach this during Black History Month, the majority of Black History that is taught centers Black males. It was refreshing to learn about the contributions of Black women for the liberation of Black women.

            I particularly liked the article linked in Lyn’s Snapshot 6 because it talks about prominent Black figures in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and adds a layer of information that is very important to highlight, the divide between Black men and women. The article states that “[Sojourner Truth] split with abolitionist Frederick Douglass when he advocated for Black men’s suffrage before women; she thought the rights could be embraced at the same time”. It’s very disappointing to know that Black men were behaving in a patriarchal manner and excluded Black women from the fight for voting rights. Truth was right, both issues could be advocated for simultaneously, in fact it’s more beneficial for the Black race to have more voting members. It simply didn’t make any sense to fight for the Black man’s right to vote instead of the collective right for all Black people to vote.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement had such a complicated history. I’m glad we were able to achieve suffrage for all eventually but its disappointing to see that the cause was so divided. The lessons here are that history should be taught as a collective of events rather than sections of events; history should be more inclusive of women, especially Black women; it is not only possible but necessary for liberation movements to be intersectional. In the grand scheme of things, there is only one fight: the fight for equality, across the board.

How to Think Like an Activist by Wendy Syfret sparked a sense of gratitude and pride within me because it reminded me of how much I owe to those who came before me and how much I am doing to affect change. As a black woman in America, I am very aware that I am afforded so many liberties that weren’t available to black women who came before me. I owe so much gratitude to enslaved people who revolted, activists who fought for gender equity, activists who fought for black history to be taught in school curriculums, the list goes on. I am grateful for Activists and revolutionaries who braved so many hardships in their determination for change. It is because they did so much that I’m determined to continue the work. Syfret states that “change starts at home” and “the most powerful conversations happen in private” and I agree wholeheartedly. In my mind, seeking out information and challenging my own ideas wasn’t a form of activism; neither was informing or challenging family and friends about social matters. To me these are bare minimum, but these are actually very hard things to do, and many people aren’t doing it. Activism starts within, at home and in your immediate surrounding and I’m proud of myself for being the change I want to see and for guiding others on the same path, all that’s left is to continue and eventually expand into greater acts of activism.

 “Girl Connected” left me felling very positive and hopeful for future generations. The documentary follows five teenage girls who are doing their own forms of activism for female liberation and empowerment in their respected countries. They tackle issues such as teenage pregnancy, child marriages, and gendered studies and interests.  It is truly wonderful how these five girls involve their communities in their activism. Josi from Peru organizes assemblies in her neighborhood and at school to educate youth about sex safe practices; Michelle from Kenya leads a group for female empowerment; Ayesha from India teaches a karate class so girls can defend themselves from male attackers; Ghazal from Jordan leads activities that encourage girls to explore their creativity in areas that are considered only for boys; and Latifa from Bangladesh goes to different villages advocating against the practice of child marriages. They are each doing such amazing work, this new generation of girls are so determined and empowered and it’s a beautiful sight. 

Naftara’s snapshot 5 which shows Meg thee Stallion’s performance highlighting the need to protect black women really caught my attention. For context, in 2020 Meg was shot in the foot by Tory Lanez after they got into an argument. Initially she tried to protect Tory by not naming him as her shooter, even going as far as lying to police that she cut her foot on glass. When social media got wind of the story, there came an influx of disgusting jokes justifying the shooting with transphobia, saying Tory saw a penis between her legs and shot her. Tory himself even liked a tweet that justifying the shooting. People on social media and media publications were running with their own story and offering her no sympathy to Meg and this prompted her to speak her truth. She named Tory as her shooter and said that she lied to the cops because she didn’t trust them to not escalate the situation and put her and everyone else involved in more trouble. Keep in mind that Meg is not someone that has beef with anyone, she amicable and friendly. However, she’s a female rapper, she’s in a musical space where men don’t want her to be; they hated her “hot girl summer” movement because it empowered women; they trash on her when she wins awards for her music; they attack her body saying she’s too tall, and muscular therefore she must be trans; they even call her ugly because her nose is broad. This amalgam of mistreatment she’s endured simply because she is a black woman is why she used her performance as means of activism. She wanted to empower black girls to stand up for themselves and for others to stand in solidarity with black women. 

Activism isn’t just protests and marches, though that’s what people usually think of when they think about activism. As Girl Connected illustrated, activism can be leading an empowerment group in your community. As Wendy Syfret states it can be done online, at home, and in various ways. We all have some power in affecting change no matter how small you think it is, it can have a domino effect, so be the change you want to see and encourage others to do the same.

Patriarchy is something I’ve always understood because I live in its consequences. When I learned the word patriarchy, I understood it as a social system and was aware of its components, but it’s was not something I could concisely define for other people, especially males. Largely, social systems are difficult to concisely define because they are so complex, even Allan Johnson’s definition in “Patriarchy, The System” spans across 3 pages. However, he does list some key elements stating, “patriarchy’s defining elements are its male-dominated, male-identified, male-centered, and control-obsessed character …patriarchy is based on a set of symbols and ideas that make up a culture…”. When we define the system by these key words, we can start to identify its manifestation in society. It’s important that people understand that patriarchy as a social system because it is larger than the individual or even a group; it’s so entrenched in the fabrics of our society that people don’t recognize our loyalty to this system. For many patriarchal views like the gender binary or gender roles are facts, science, ordinance by God, or simply the nature of the universe. Providing people with the vocabulary, illustrating patriarchal consistencies in social life and institutions, and detailing the power hierarchy and oppression is how we truly educate people on what the patriarchy is. 

            On the topic of patriarchal values and thinking, I’d like to talk about Cara Delevingne’s Met Gala “Peg the Patriarchy” outfit that my classmate Caitlyn. H posted as a Snapshot. I know a lot of people found it empowering and revolutionary, and no shade at all, but personally I feel it’s the opposite. I think the phrase “peg the patriarchy” is patriarchal in nature. For those who don’t know, pegging refers to a woman anally penetrating a man with a strap on. It is obviously sexual in nature and is typically done as an act of dominance. While pegging doesn’t have to be domineering, it is commonly known and practiced as an act of domination and in the context of destroying the patriarchy it denotes power over men. The face of women empowerment and dismantling the patriarchy shouldn’t be the image of women dominating men by bending them over an penetrating them. Feminism isn’t about domination over men, it’s about ending patriarchy, and you don’t end patriarchy by thinking in the scopes of the system. The fact that a strap on, which is a phallic or penis shaped object is being presented as a tool of dominance and destruction is also VERY patriarchal in nature. In the system of patriarchy, the penis is a symbol of dominance, that is mirrored here; in the system of patriarchy dominance and power are the ultimate goal, that is mirrored here. It’s essentially “using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house” as Audre Lorde would put it. I understand what Cara was going for, but she missed the mark. Women need to assess whether the things we view as empowerment is true empowerment or just patriarchal views of empowerment. 

            Since I’ve mentioned Audre Lorde, I’d like to talk about her piece “There is no Hierarchy of Oppression” because it gives us a revolutionary model of activism. Lorde states, “Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression”. Too often activism utilizes the individualism or binary/unnuanced thinking that upholds oppressive systems. All systems of oppression are intertwined because all social systems intersect. there are people who belong to various oppressed groups, you cannot separate oppression. You cannot be feminist and not also fight for racial justice because women of color are victims of racial oppression. If you erase race, class, sexuality, or disability from your fight against misogyny, you make rich white cis-het able-bodied women the default of women. One fight does not come before the other, all must be fought for at once, we need intersectionality in all movements and solidarity from all parties. 

As a Black woman, I exist at this intersection of race and gender. I am oppressed by my racial and gender identity simultaneously, yet my struggles are constantly dismissed and invalidated. I am invisible to white feminists, and I am invisible to Black men, yet both groups feel entitled to my labor. White feminists want Black feminists to be “woman first” and Black men want Black women to be race first, but we’re not privileged in either identity so we cannot toss one aside in our fight for equality. These groups only recognize me when they need someone to exert power over, they only recognize me when they need me to mule for their benefit and I am fed up. 

It is very apparent in conversations with white women who claim to be feminists that they only want to talk about the gender oppression that affects them, there’s this “omg why’d you have to bring race into it” sentiment when I bring up gender oppression that is specific to Black women. It’s almost like they’re annoyed that my experience reminds them that they have white privilege. They don’t want to see themselves as oppressors and they especially don’t like to be reminded that they, as women, can oppress men of color. This brings me to the Tik Tok my classmate Nicole Guidetti shared which talks about white women’s specific brand of white privilege. White supremacist patriarchy paints white woman as damsels in need of saving and white women have historically weaponized this against Black and other people of color. This costed Emmett Till and many others their lives, and it’s still being used to harm people of color today. We’ve seen so many “karens” in the last couple of years, its disturbing. Please note that they are not just weaponizing whiteness, they are weaponizing white womanhood. Black women are not afforded femininity, we are seen as aggressive and manlike, which makes it easy for white women to weaponize their tears and false victimhood against us. Too often the black woman in the karen situation is the one being victimized, and the white woman uses their privilege to escape accountability. There’s no woman solidarity between white women and women of color. Too often white women side with their whiteness, we saw this with the white female vote for trump. White women constantly fall back on their privilege, which begs the question, do they want equality, or do they just want white male privilege?

            Male privilege is a hard topic to bring up but it’s especially hard to bring up within the Black community. Black men similarly to white women don’t want to see themselves as oppressors. It’s hard for them to recognize themselves as privileged because they are oppressed by their race and greatly at that. Every time I bring up misogyny with Black men, they deflect by bringing up racism. At the height of the BLM protests in 2020, I pointed out the centering of Black males despite the movement being created by Black women. I was told that Black women don’t go through as much as Black men do. But Breonna Taylor was murdered by police in her sleep, yet they weren’t marching for her, they were marching for George Floyd. Black men have the privilege of being the face of Blackness, their issues are well known and fought for, but Black women don’t receive that same privilege. In “Oppression” Marilyn Frye states, “If a man has little to no material or political power, or achieves little of what he wants to achieve, his being male has no part of the explanation. Being male is something he has going for him.” Black men fail to realize this. In white corporate America Black men are more likely to be promoted over Black women, in the Black community and predominantly Black countries their male privilege benefits more extensively. Black men are more likely to be promoted in their careers over a Black woman; Black music genres are Black male dominated; Black activism centers Black men. Black men barely recognize the racial violence that Black women experience, of course they also refuse to acknowledge the misogyny they inflict on us. Black male rapists are protected in the Black community, is that not male privilege allowing them to escape accountability? This begs the question; do they want equality, or do they just want white privilege?  

            It’s a painful existence when communities you are supposed to be a part of invalidate your experiences. I get no comfort or solidarity from white or even other women of color. I get no comfort or solidarity from Black men. White female privilege is seeing your featured be represented as beautiful, I want that. Black male privilege is having your plight be recognized, it’s not having to worry about catcalled or being sexually assaulted if you’re out too late, I wish I had that. Like Peggy Macintosh says in “White Privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack” “not all of the privileges [are] inevitably damaging. Some like the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race doesn’t count against you in court, should be the norm in society”. The parts of male privilege and white privilege that I want are the parts that every human should have by default, the right to be human, the right to be seen, the right to be an individual, etc. I don’t care for the rest because the rest are damaging, no one should have the power to harm others and get away with it.

When the topic of gender comes up, cis people (people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) often weaponize science to justify the validity of the gender binary. They claim sex is biological and you can’t dispute that because science = fact. Alok touches on this in Beyond the Gender Binary and highlights a great point that “Societal beliefs about sex affect what questions scientists ask and the knowledge they gain. Scientific knowledge is not fixed-it shifts as cultural prejudice is revealed and challenged”. Scientific discoveries are made by humans, humans have biases, humans make mistakes, therefore science is flawed. Science has said white people are intellectually superior, and that Black women don’t feel pain, are these facts or white supremacist rhetoric inserted into the scientific field to push a prejudiced narrative? What makes this science argument even more invalid is the fact that science erases intersex people. Intersex anatomy is not shown in science textbooks, but intersex people are IN FACT real. Science is not the end all be all; stop invalidating nonconforming identities with invalid arguments.

             Another thing that upset me is the idea that feminine expression belongs to women and masculine expression belongs to men, along with the gendering of clothes. I am a cisgender woman, and even I find gender norms to be exhausting and uncomfortable, so I can only imagine how much worse it is for non-cisgender people. I don’t like being feminine in appearance, I don’t like getting my nails done, I don’t like tight fitting clothes, I don’t like high heels, I don’t like anything glam. Femininity feels like a performance to me, I know other women find it empowering, but to me, it feels oppressive. My gender expression leans more on the side of masculinity, but I still identify as a woman. I don’t need to look hyperfeminine to identify as such, that shouldn’t be an expectation of any woman cis or trans. I’m still woman even in “tomboy” attire. Jasmin H’s Snapshot 2 stood out to me because it said, “clothes have no gender” and I want the masses to realize that. All clothing is gender neutral.

            The last thing I want to touch on, and I’m borrowing from the term “white fragility” here, is cis-fragility. Society programmed into us the idea that there’s only two genders and they should each act a certain way and that conditioning has cis people by the necks. We’ve been fed the idea of the gender binary for so long that we’ve convinced ourselves that we came to this conclusion on our own. Cis people defend the gender binary as if we are being erases from existence, when we are the ones doing the erasing. Too often cis gendered people flip the script and play victim, Alok talks about this in their book. Cis people need to decenter themselves and listen to other people for a change. Gender is a social construct; so, if there’s a societal need for this concept to be more fluid then that need should be accommodated.