In a recent Cosmopolitan interview, Sarah Jessica Parker explained why she is?a humanist and not a feminist.
The former “Sex & The City” star explained by saying:
?As [playwright] Wendy Wasserstein would say, I’m a humanist. I’m enormously appreciative of the work that my mother’s generation did. We are the beneficiaries of a lot of disappointment, heartache, discouragement, and misunderstanding. But I see a lot of people trying to sort out their roles. People of color, gays, lesbians, and transgenders who are carving out this space. I’m not spitting in the face or being lazy about what still needs to be done ? but I don’t think it’s just women anymore. We would be so enormously powerful if it were a humanist movement.?
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the whole humanism vs. feminism argument. In fact, it’s pretty common and has been addressed by many writers before me, such as this wonderful article by?Jarune Uwujaren from Everyday Feminism.
Let me be clear from the start: it doesn’t?matter much to me what Sarah Jessica Parker believes. She has the right to believe anything she chooses. I do, however, find it important to correct a statement made about feminism that gets it so wrong when the voice behind it is as powerful and ubiquitous as hers.
There was a time, it is true, when feminism only addressed the needs and concerns of white, middle class, female-identified cis women. For instance, what is commonly referred to as first-wave feminism rallied around the rights of women to vote, but ignored larger issues for women of color. Early feminists have been roundly criticized by those of us who came into the movement later because:
“The reactions of some prominent first-wave feminists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to legislation allowing black men to vote reveals dark undercurrents of racism in early feminist movements.”
A feminist can’t call herself?an advocate for women’s rights if they don’t advocate for ALL women’s rights. A racist cannot also be a feminist under modern feminism, because advocating for the rights of some women but not all women has no place in the modern movement.
Third-wave feminism introduced the theory of intersectionality. As a result, modern feminism is not only about female-identified cis women. It is an entire philosophy that addresses systems of oppression. Those systems?also affect men in many ways, particularly men of color, gay men, impoverished men, elderly men, disabled men, and transgender men.
Feminism addresses all of those people who exist outside of the white, middle-class, cis-gendered, heterosexual, young, ?able-bodied, Christian male standard.
Another quote from Sarah Jessica Parker’s interview stands out to me. Parker noted the issues within social justice that are most important to her by saying:
?Equality in pay. Paid sick leave. The thing that would change people’s lives maybe more than anything, assuming that we maintain access to health care, is child care. If I could guarantee every mother who is working two, three jobs that she had good child care that didn’t make her anxious all day ? people would probably work in more efficient ways.”
This is exactly why feminism is NOT about humanism: because feminism addresses the oppression of those who are most likely to be marginalized. All of the issues Parker notes here are issues that effect women more than any other social group. Social justice movements are intended to address the rights of those most likely to experience oppression. We aren’t leaving anyone out by calling the movement feminism, we are addressing those most in need of a movement.
Before you denounce feminism or claim humanism, please try to understand what both of those terms mean. Humanism is not a social justice movement, it’s a secular philosophy. Feminism is a social justice movement that addresses all systems of oppression with a particular focus on those most affected by them.
