White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

by Koa Beck

Overview

Written “with passion and insight about the knotted history of racism within women’s movements and feminist culture” (Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author), this whip-smart, timely, and impassioned call for change is perfect for fans of Good and Mad and Hood Feminism.

Addressing today’s conversation about race, empowerment, and inclusion in America, Koa Beck, writer and former editor-in-chief of Jezebel, boldly examines the history of feminism, from the true mission of the suffragists to the rise of corporate feminism with clear-eyed scrutiny and meticulous detail. She also examines overlooked communities—including Native American, Muslim, transgender, and more—and their ongoing struggles for social change.

With “intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent” (Patrisse Cullors, New York Times bestselling author and Black Lives Matter cofounder) writing, Beck meticulously documents how elitism and racial prejudice have driven the narrative of feminist discourse. Blending pop culture, primary historical research, and first-hand storytelling, she shows us how we have shut women out of the movement, and what we can do to correct our course for a new generation.

Combining a scholar’s understanding with hard data and razor-sharp cultural commentary, White Feminism “is a rousing blueprint for a more inclusive ‘new era of feminism’” (The Boston Globe).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982134426
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	263,959
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Koa Beck is the former editor-in-chief of Jezebel. Previously, she was the executive editor at Vogue and cohost of “The #MeToo Memos” on WNYC’s The Takeaway. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Observer, The Guardian, and Esquire, among others. For her reporting prowess, she has been interviewed by the BBC and has appeared on many panels about gender and identity at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and Columbia Journalism School to name a few. She lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Part I The History of White Feminism

Chapter 1 The Making of a "Feminist" 3

Chapter 2 Who Gets to Be a Feminist? 9

Chapter 3 Separate but Unequal: How "Feminism" Officially Became White 25

Chapter 4 Thinking as a Collective 39

Chapter 5 Labor Laws Aim to Help All Genders 55

Chapter 6 The Emergence of Self 59

Chapter 7 The Perennial Shifting Around of Domestic Work 65

Chapter 8 Leaning In vs. Leaning On 77

Chapter 9 How Heterosexism Kept Women in Their Place 85

Chapter 10 The Future Isn't Female; It's Gender Fluid 91

Part II White Feminism™: When the Movement Went Corporate

Chapter 11 When White Feminism Got "Branded" 103

Chapter 12 The Trouble with Capitalism 117

Chapter 13 Muslim Money and Dyke Poverty 127

Chapter 14 Performing Feminism at a Desk 135

Chapter 15 What the Privilege Disclaimer Doesn't Accomplish 161

Part III The Winds of Change

Chapter 16 A New Era of Feminism 171

Chapter 17 The First Pillar of Change: Stop Acknowledging Privilege; Fight for Visibility Instead 193

Chapter 18 The Second Pillar of Change: Fighting the Systems That Hold Marginalized Genders Back 201

Chapter 19 The Third Pillar of Change: Hold Women Accountable for Abuse 221

Chapter 20 Our Collective Future Is in the Way We View One Another 231

Chapter 21 What We Can Change Now 237

Acknowledgments 241

Notes 245

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Journalist Beck rebukes mainstream feminism for catering to cisgender, heterosexual white women “with managerial ambitions” in this impassioned debut. Broadly defining “white feminism” as “a specific way of viewing gender equality that is anchored in the accumulation of individual power rather than the redistribution of it,” Beck traces its history back to the suffrage movement, describing how elite white women fought primarily to gain the same rights and privileges enjoyed by their fathers and husbands. The women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s repeated these sins, Beck argues, by focusing too narrowly on workplace issues and failing to make common cause with more radically transformative movements. Nowadays, Beck writes, profit-oriented corporate culture has merged with white feminism, resulting in a transactional #feminism brand that merely reinforces the status quo rather than challenging power structures. She argues for a more collective approach, urging readers to use their privilege to ensure that marginalized people are considered, to think systemically about oppression, and to hold powerful women accountable for perpetuating abusive systems. Beck makes many scholarly ideas about neoliberal and intersectional feminism accessible to lay readers, but her hyperfocus on the media sphere contradicts her call for a more inclusive movement. Still, this is a bracing rethink of what feminism can achieve. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

With insight and originality White Feminism documents how the contradictions of race and class have undermined U.S. feminism since the very beginning. Beck challenges and inspires us to go beyond narrow, individualized notions of liberation to build genuine movements for justice.

Barbara Smith

Intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent, Beck brilliantly articulates how feminism has failed women of color and non-binary people. She illuminates the broad landscapes of systemic oppression and demands that white feminism evolve lest it continue to be as oppressive as the patriarchy.

Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Koa Beck writes with passion and insight about the knotted history of racism within women's movements and feminist culture, past and present. Curious, rigorous, and ultimately generous, White Feminism is a pleasure and an education.

Rebecca Traister

[A] masterful outlining of the progress and flaws of the feminist movement . . . Beck’s clearly laid-out examination and interrogation of white feminism will change the way readers think on a daily level. This new history is a timely call to action, and earns its place as required reading for anyone who claims to care about the future of feminism.

Booklist (starred)

Don’t judge this book by its cover. Koa Beck knows that feminism includes all women and girls by definition, and is writing to overcome anti-feminist divisions that divide and defeat us.

Gloria Steinem

Koa Beck has a crystal clear understanding that there is no singular winner in the battle for gender equity. White Feminism is a must-read for anyone ready to challenge just about everything they thought they knew about contemporary feminist discourse.

Kimberly Drew

Intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent, Beck brilliantly articulates how feminism has failed women of color and non-binary people. She illuminates the broad landscapes of systemic oppression and demands that white feminism evolve lest it continue to be as oppressive as the patriarchy.

Patrisse Khan Cullors

★ 12/01/2020

Writer and author Beck, former editor in chief of Jezebel, critiques the dominance of white narratives in mainstream feminist discourse, especially its emphasis on corporate values and the pursuit of financial success for some privileged women at the expense of other women. The author draws on examples from U.S. history and popular culture to show how white women have embraced feminism as a branding strategy, from Lean In to women's magazines to Etsy merchandise at the 2017 Women's March. Meanwhile, she shows how the needs and basic rights of women of color, especially securing their physical and economic safety, have been sidelined and ignored. Beck's use of examples to illustrate her points is highly effective, and every page of this well-rounded book offers fresh insight. This essential account offers a skilled analysis of the ways feminism in the United States has been co-opted by white women in pursuit of wealth, and has failed to be inclusive and self-aware of women of color, economically disadvantaged women, and women in the LGBTQ community. VERDICT Readers who have not yet taken the time to deeply consider how privilege impacts feminist movements will finish the book with new perspectives on the topic of gender equality.—Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell

Library Journal

★ 2020-11-26
A clear analysis of the commodification of feminism from protest to brand.

As the former editor-in-chief of Jezebel and executive editor of Vogue, Beck is no stranger to the White feminism that permeates the modern cultural landscape. As influencers blithely attach Audre Lorde quotes to Instagram ads and White women are once again donning literal and metaphorical pink hats in “protest,” the author deftly retraces how we ended up here and highlights the many women this brand of feminism elides or ostracizes. Beck offers a lively history of the suffragettes and their ideological descendants, including the #GirlBoss and #MeToo movements. The author effectively brings out of the background many of the Black working women who enabled the success of the predominantly White and upper-class women at the center of these stories. “Instead of a protest vehicle,” she writes, “feminism became a brand….To ‘revolutionize’ your life through business once again merges the radicalism of feminism with the corporate, women-oppressing language of capitalism. If you threw a millennial-pink lens over this saying, you could put it on Pinterest.” Beck posits that the stark inequalities of so-called “women’s empowerment” are exacerbated even more unevenly in the Covid-19 era. The pandemic has engendered further demarcations along class and racial lines, between protected forms of labor and the economically vulnerable—e.g., nannies, housekeepers, and other caretakers. The author situates herself as a woman with considerable influence who chooses to amplify underappreciated workers in concrete ways rather than resting on the laurels of corporate “diversity.” With both vigor and rigor, Beck outlines a variety of fundamental problems with contemporary liberal feminism, which relies too much on brand endorsements and shallow empowerment. As she writes, “we can avoid becoming the next generation of white feminism by incorporating the points of view that this ideology does not account for.”

A timely, compelling dissection of feminism's reliance on consumerism and useful suggestions for paths forward.

Kirkus Reviews