I *heart* Rebecca Walker

[MysticSang'ha]

I think probably in the same way I watched my mother totally crush on Gloria Steinem, lately I've been finding myself more and more in love with this woman.

Probably what got me started with my interest in her writings was this statement she made back in the '90s that declared a Third Wave:

“So I write this as a plea to all women, especially women of my generation: Let Thomas’ confirmation serve to remind you, as it did me, that the fight is far from over. Let this dismissal of a woman’s experience move you to anger. Turn that outrage into political power. Do not vote for them unless they work for us. Do not have sex with them, do not break bread with them, do not nurture them if they don’t prioritize our freedom to control our bodies and our lives. I am not a post-feminist feminist. I am the Third Wave.” – Rebecca Walker

Oh, man....do I remember on television the Clarence Thomas hearings with Anita Hill like it was yesterday. I remember the sheer rage I felt with his confirmation, with the 1992 Rodney King decision, with the OJ Simpson trial, and remembering how with all the consciousness-raising of African-American rights while I was at the time beginning to finally read some feminist literature through my Women's Studies class.

And then, I saw that quote, and I felt that finally young women like me could be heard, that I didn't feel like I was only there to help my mother's activism with NOW. That I could make a difference with other young women. She didn't stop there, though, IMO. I have repeatedly returned to Ms. Walker's wisdom....

Whether the young women who refuse the feminist label realize it or not, on some level they recognize that an ideal woman born of prevalent notions of how empowered women look, act, or think is simply another impossible contrivance of perfect womanhood, another scripted role to perform in the name of biology and virtue.

I think she has skillfully blended post-modernism with the radical approach of dismantling the gender binary, and also defined feminism as much more individualist than her mothers and my mother Second Wave efforts.

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

The first quote is actually very radical, 100% something a
radical would say.
I haven't read anything R.Walker has written but as a mixed person I'm interested in reading "black white and Jewish"

 

[MysticSang'ha]

The first quote is actually very radical, 100% something a
radical would say.
I haven't read anything R.Walker has written but as a mixed person I'm interested in reading "black white and Jewish"

Word.

Plus, she's been very candid about growing up with a Second Wave radical feminist as her mom, Alice Walker. I think she balances the respect she gives to our (mine and hers) mothers generation and all they did for us while making our own distinctions for what we are concerned with as feminists.

Sometimes I feel she says things for me better than I ever have. LOL