Lynne Segal speaks for many socialist feminists who express concern at the
fragmentation that has taken place within the women’s movement, and she notes
in particular the problem of the growth of ‘Black feminist perspectives’ (Whelehan,
1995: 121). What about the real class differences that exist within black communities- will they not be ignored if a feminism is created which highlights blackness as
the defining criterion?
Radical feminists are concerned that the opposition to male domination is diffused
by a concern with difference. Although MacKinnon does not address herself to black
feminism as such, she is suspicious of the argument about difference. Inequality
comes first, she insists; difference comes after: difference, she says, is the velvet glove
on the iron fist of domination (1989: 219). In other words, difference can distract
us from the force and repression inherent in patriarchy, and distinguishing between
black and white women, can – radical feminists argue – play into the hands of men
who are anxious to downgrade the plight of all women.
The critique of philosophical feminisms
Feminist empiricists believe that anything that ideologises feminism is a mistake.
The statistic that 80 per cent of the mortality rate of illegal abortions came from
women of colour (slightly broader than ‘black’ women) in the years preceding its
decriminalisation in the USA (Whelehan, 1995: 117) is a revealing fact, and the
danger is that it will not be as widely known as it deserves to be, if it is presented
by a feminism perceived to be separatist and extremist. Standpoint feminists would
acknowledge that different experiences are important and need to be taken into
account, but this should not be juxtaposed to the common experiences which all
women have, and which mould their particular outlook.
Although postmodern feminists are sympathetic to the point about difference,
they argue that ‘blackness’ represents another form of ‘essentialism’, i.e. the belief
in an abstract ‘essence’. Some black women might not only reveal class differences,
as the socialists warn: what about hierarchies in the communities that lead black
Americans to be suspicious of Asian-Americans? Differences like these are simply
swept under the proverbial carpet if blackness becomes the criterion for a particular
kind of feminism. Whatever black feminists may say in theory, in practice the notion
of a black feminism inevitably privileges blackness over other differences, while the
idea that race must be explored in relation to gender and class ignores the other
differences – of sexual orientation, region, religion, etc. – which problematise the
very existence of the notion of woman.Philosophical feminisms
Feminist empiricism
Feminist empiricists take the view that sexist and ‘andocentric’ (or male chauvinist)
biases can be eliminated from scholarship and statements if there is a strict adherence328 Part 3 Contemporary ideologies