Feminism: different views in the struggle for equal rights

O feminism is a movement fighting for equal rights and duties between men and women that emerged centuries ago and gained strength in the mid-twentieth century.

Because it is an old movement, feminist militancy has gained several strands over the years to be able to embrace the demands and struggles of All women it’s from all minorities🇧🇷

“Today we live in ‘feminisms’. We always have to speak in the plural, as this is a movement marked by horizontal dynamics,” said researcher Carolina Branco de Castro Ferreira, from the Pagu gender studies center at Unicamp, in an interview with HuffingtonPost Brasil.

Currently, there are several strands and mini-stretches within feminism. Thus, we highlight the main currents of the movement and what each defends.

black feminism

Black feminism is a trend that gained strength especially in the 1980s, when the black movement was strengthened in Brazil and worldwide. He emerges and defends the idea that The black woman suffers double oppressionfor being a woman and of African descent, as Natalia Monteiro explains in her article published in Coletivo Minissaia.

That is: in addition to fighting for equal opportunities for men and women, black feminism struggles to insert black women into society.

Among the agendas present in this arm of feminist militancy are the fight against religious intolerance and the appreciation of religions of African origin, the inclusion of black women in fashionthe creation of beauty products made for black skin, the struggle to combat the standardization of beauty and present black women also as beautiful🇧🇷

Furthermore, there is much talk about the loneliness of the black woman, who is not “seen as a subject to be loved”, as Stéphanie Ribeiro told CLAUDIA, but her body is constantly fetishized. In terms of salary, black women are also behind, earning salaries 37.5% lower, and this situation also needs to change.

Read more: “To be black in Brazil is to be born knowing that you will have to resist”

intersectional feminism

Intersectional feminism, or postmodern feminism, seeks to reconciling agendas linked to women with themes that are relevant to other minorities – such as social class, race, sexual orientation, physical disability.

In this way, intersectional feminism is defined as a big patchwork quilt in which claims of black, LGBT, Asian and transfeminism feminism appear.

The current was presented in 1989, when the term was first used by the American professor Kimberle Crenshaw🇧🇷 He recognizes that not all women suffer the same oppressions as others.

Furthermore, feminism intersectional admits that not always the woman as an individual it’s at disadvantage in power relations🇧🇷 White women, for example, earn higher wages than black men.

Intersectional feminism is one of the most receptive to men’s participation in the feminist movement🇧🇷

Read more: “It is not always evident why they are discriminating against me”

liberal feminism

Liberal feminism is a current that aims to ensure the gender equality ensure that the woman has her freedom of choice through political and legal reforms🇧🇷 🇧🇷[É um movimento que luta por mudanças que respeitem] the woman’s choices in front of her life, whatever it may be, because she will be exercising her decision-making power”, defends Monteiro.

For its militants, state violence helps to promote coercion over woman’s freedom and to reinforce gender inequalities in society.

It is the oldest feminist current that exists and emerged in the 18th century. However, it developed strongly in the 19th century, when women at the time sought better living conditions and guaranteed citizenship. It was through struggles that these women achieved their first gender equality reforms, such as the right to vote🇧🇷

Currently, the current fights for the rise of women to positions in institutions such as Congress, the media and business leaders – in addition, of course, to equal pay.

One of the exponents of liberal feminism today is the #HeForShe campaign, created by actress Emma Watson, which seeks to bring men to the struggle of women to increase political pressure – as is the case in intersectional feminism.

Read more: Meet Capitolina: a teen magazine that talks about acceptance and feminism

radical feminism

Radical feminism emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a current of feminist militancy inspired by the works of Shulamith Firestone (1945-2012) – author of the book The Dialectic of Sex – and judith brownwhich discuss the concept of genre and present it as a structural form of oppression against women.

At radfem (as women who support radical feminism are known) argue that gender is a social tool to happen to oppression of women by menthrough hierarchy between male and female🇧🇷

Within radical feminism itself there is a mini strand called TERF (“Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists”), which defends the idea that transsexuals cannot self-identify as feminists – since they were biologically born with male reproductive organs.

Many consider it, however, transphobic for disrespecting the idea that trans women are just as women as cisgender women – those who are biologically born in the gender assigned to them at birth.