#liberaton

When it comes to portrayals of feminism and history, I always have one very large concern: intersectionality. This film ties in very nicely the issue of civil rights in regard to women’s liberation and how the feminism of African American women differs a lot from the feminism of their white counterparts. Clearly pointing out the fact that feminism includes all women but many women face more oppressive factors than sexism; such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and classism—to name some major contenders. Further into the film they also braid in the issues of incorporating the troubles lesbian women and women of the working class face into their brand of feminism. Seeing these issues pulled under the umbrella of feminism made me breathe a sigh of relief.

One super important piece of the feminist movement of this time period is the way women came together and realized they knew nothing about their anatomy or history; driving them to pool their resources and teach each other. Unfortunately, it is also here that the movement falls short in it’s intersectionality by completely disregarding trans* women of the time; regarding their lessons on anatomy as all women having the “same” genitalia.

But the movement was young and education on these issues was slim; light excuses but proof that no movement is flawless. As the women in the film state (not addressing this particular shortcoming in the movement but others) that not all things proposed by women in the movement really reflected what was best for feminism. Their movement grew quickly and not all of the women involved were fully prepared and educated in the ideas they proposed.