[lilyblue]

I wanted to resurrect the Busties of Color thread. Allies welcome.

Reading in another thread about what is feminist/not feminist got me thinking about how people perceive women of color. For me, being black, I have constantly spent most of my life being told that I am not black enough. Even my grandmother has said that to me.

I remember sitting in my hairdresser's chair and asking if we could turn the news off. I simply found it depressing. She then said that "my grandmother was right, you do think you are a white girl". I was crushed. It still hurts to think about because I just want to be myself. I am just me, yet it's not good enough.

Sometimes I wonder if I should call myself feminist or womanist. Am I betraying other WOCs if I call myself feminist? Do I really think I'm white?

It's been the bane of my existence for years. I've been depressed over it and I would love to discuss stuff like this.

Also, in what ways does the feminist movement still exclude women of color?

[anarch]

lilyblue, could you send me the Shimizu article (or just the citation for it - I could probably get it from one of the libraries), please?

how do y'all cope with the racial stereotypes placed on women of color with regards to sexuality?

I usually get inarticulately pissed off. Then I rant about it to friends. I've had lots of older guys, complete strangers, coming up to me and calling me "Suzy Wong" (a la the 1950s film whose main character is a Hong Kong prostitute) - not so much these days (hopefully they're dying off now). Other times I've said something the teeniest bit innuendo-ish, not trying to flirt but just having fun playing with words, and the guy looks me up and down and I can see visions of Asian female stereotypes dancing around inside his head. Ick. I've never figured out what I could say to these guys to puncture their attempts to plaster their stereotypes onto me. (Something more articulate than "Fuck off," I mean.)

I've found it fascinating to read about the history (centuries old, some of them) of these stereotypes, about Asian, African-American, Latina, First Nations/ Aboriginal/ Native women, etc etc, all variations on the "whore" part of the virgin/whore binary. We've come a long way but oh so much work to do still.