hijabi woman: "-why that care was limited. why it did not extend to palestinian women. there is nothing more selfish and self-absorbed than white woman feminism." billie eilish's song "what was i made for?", from the barbie movie, plays as the hijabi woman is speaking, but it cuts off once gaygtownbae starts to stitch her video.
gaygtownbae: "i can actually answer this question for you, and there's a word specifically for this issue; it's called femonationalism. hi! my name is evan, i'm a bioethicist, and i specialize in misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theory that's a threat to public health.
"so the term 'femonationalism' was coined by sarah r. farris who's a sociologist, and i believe she works at the university college of london-"
a red bubble with white text appears on the screen, titled "*goldsmith's university of london", then disappears.
"-but she's actually italian, and she came up with the term to describe feminism in far-right or extreme alt-right, far right movements, political movements specifically. so that is people who use feminist language used to describe themselves- particularly women- but champion things that were antithetical to the concepts of feminism, at least how they are promoted.
"now, amazingly, femonationalism is actually an ode to a palestinian scholar-"
instead of the word "palestinian", the caption bubble reads (watermelon emoji) (watermelon emoji) (watermelon emoji)
"-we're back to jasbir puar, my favorite- who came up with 'homonationalism' that kind of involved things like pink-washing, championing lgbtq rights, as reasoning to destroy whole communities- especially brown communities that don't agree or are painted as not being inclusive.
sarah farris borrows from this concept of homonationalism and says that the same is true for feminism, or feminist movements politically, especially in white feminist spaces-"
instead of the word "white", the caption bubble replaces it with a (glass of milk emoji).
"-so the reason that what's happening in gaza- particularly to the women- is not getting barbie girl energy is because that population- especially because it skews to islam and is brown- does not mirror or does not embody the type of feminism and the feminist points or doctrines that barbie girl energy does. so white, western, neo-liberal feminism requires that all people- to get support from it- have to ascribe to homogeny, right? and i think that this creator using this example of barbie is so apt because for those of us who saw barbie, one of the things that we saw is we saw all different types of people represented, but they all lived the same way. they all lived in barbieland. they all lived in pink playhouses. there was a lot of similarity, they weren't inherently different, they were wearing different outfits and they were different colors, but their world was homogeneous."
"but the world with which all of this is happening in- especially in the middle east- is an exotic and non-western place. the teachings, the underpinnings of this kind of feminism is that the people of this place are naturally to be seen and perceived as barbaric, particularly the men. any women ascribing to protecting or standing alongside the men are just seen as enablers and participants, and therefore undeserving of barbie-girl feminism."
"now, the way to acquire this particular group of feminist support is to, ostensible, completely relinquish culture and religion, and denounce the men of that community and culture as barbaric, and that your interest is to escape that space. if you were too deeply ascribed to embody western feminism, and western culture by proxy, then you would get that kind of support. think of folks like ayaan hirsi ali, who was able to, you know, she tells a very brutal story about her experience with islam, but she entirely aligns with this conceptualization to demonize that entire region and that entire community, or anybody who ascribes particularly to her whole focus, which is islam."
"so no, this particular brand of feminism is not moved by what's happening, because they still see women who are hijabed, particularly, or had their heads covered, who are standing by and still participating in this community and this culture with deep reverence and attachment- as they should, because it's their community, their culture, and their religion!- but it's not barbie girl, you know? and again, we see the same thing in LGBTQ rights movements- especially very white ones or very white centric ones- to basically be comfortable with- and promote demonization of- populations that are painted to be non-inclusive.
"so as long as you're able to say 'oh hey, this community, this populace, this region, this race, this culture, this religion does not treat or does not ascribe to- or does not think about- this other group, this marginalized group the same way we do, and give them all the same rights, and include them or believe in them or support them in the same exact ways, therefore, they cannot be human, they're barbaric and their destruction is for the betterment of the rest of us. and this form of feminism has that same conceptualization underneath it or throughout it, but for women.
"and this kind of feminism doesn't just say who gets to be human and not human; it also does a very weird thing where it also says 'who gets to be a woman? who doesn't get to be a woman?', right? who's deserving of feminism and who's not? because feminism only looks this way, and if you don't ascribe to it being this way, or if you don't look the way that we require feminism to look, then you're not a feminist, and you're helping evil, and you're collateral. this makes non-western women collateral damage simply by being attached to their culture and their community.
"it also creates weird rules for feminism. i know that sarah farris goes into more in-depth things like the misrepresentation of things like reproductive rights and access, and how this type of feminism- femonationalism- is also used in a really strange way in conservative spaces to promote tribalism and patriotism that again becomes very homogenous, right? you have to ascribe to this. if you do not perform your feminism in this exact way, you are not feminist, you are not deserving of feminist rights or women's rights, and therefore, you're actively working against it, and you should be destroyed. and i'm willing to destroy you, and i'm willing to support the destruction of you.
(two text bubbles appear in blue. the top one reads "femonationalism (like many other forms of western-centered political ideologies) inherently believes some communities deserve genocide by merely having different values and concepts of inclusion or societal status for marginalized groups." the second text bubble reads "but the central requisite point of human rights advocacy is being aware that there isn't any 'offense' that earns an entire community ethnic cleansing. genocide is never a reasonable response to ideology, action, or beliefs.")
"when we talk about supporting human rights, particularly for the most marginalized and for those that experience the most oppression globally, we have to get comfortable with supporting the rights of people that may or may not support similar groupings of rights that we support. i am a queer, non-binary trans person. i do not know what this creator that i have stitched and attached here believes about my identity, and honestly, i don't care because i do not think that the community that she comes from and the community that she's worried about and the community that is currently experiencing enormous violence at the hands of a homicidal state- i do not think any of that should be occurring, and i actively want that to stop, and i actively want that dismantled. regardless of whether or not i'm welcomed into the community. because they're humans, and humans living in their own ancestral lands, and the only thing that they want in this scenario is to live safely in their own ancestral lands without being threatened with annihilation. it doesn't involve me, it's not about me. see what i'm saying? that's barbie girl. because barbie land shouldn't just be for barbies and kens, blow it out further and think about any action figure as a doll, and should be allowed to live in a world and be seen as a doll, yeah? regardless of what the barbies think. that's it."
yousharknotpass
2087
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