What We Mean by Feminism
There are many definitions of feminism, as well as decades-long discussion and debate about various feminisms. In the simplest sense, when we describe ourselves as feminist, we mean that we center the needs, voices, and perspectives of women and gender-expansive people in our content. This is in line with the 50 plus year history of "Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book By and For Women.”
Feminism is both a worldview and a politics; both the belief in the equality of all sexes and genders and the social movements to achieve that equality. Feminism seeks to identify and dismantle the power differences that perpetuate gender oppression across the globe.
What are the particular feminist politics that drive us? We are powered by diverse women who don’t necessarily agree on everything. But there are some fundamental shared views that we believe advance the health and self-sovereignty of us all:
Our feminism is green. We work with the knowledge of the interdependence of environmental, personal, and planetary health. People’s health is impacted profoundly by the health of the human and natural systems we live within. Exploitive and extractive economies are harmful to our bodies and the planet. The specific ways we are impacted, and paths to systemic healing, are included in our content.
Our feminism is global. Our participation in the global women’s movement has deep roots. We understand that many elements of feminism are transnational, such as our right to be free from violence and our rights to sexual and reproductive autonomy. At the same time, local feminists are the experts on their own lives, and we are careful to avoid a white/western “savior” approach. While Our Bodies Ourselves new website has launched with a focus on the USA, our next phase will “go global,” building on the Our Bodies Ourselves legacy of working in the global women’s health movement.
Our feminism is intersectional. We recognize the connections among all forms of oppression and all struggles for justice. We know that our multiple identities and histories are not just additive. Rather, they combine to create particular experiences of unearned privilege and discrimination. We never assume that “a woman” is white, middle class, able-bodied, heterosexual, or otherwise normative. Centering diverse women and gender expansive people’s health and sexuality, and ensuring their visibility, is central to our feminism.
Our feminism is red. We are profoundly critical of capitalism and how it obstructs quality health care. We acknowledge the many ways that profit-driven health care robs us of our health and well-being, while impersonal, commercialistic, and objectifying economies impoverish our lives. We address the ways that a commodified health care system affects specific areas of our health and sexuality. We also suggest ways to make our systems more just, woman-centered, and people-centered.
Our feminism is black and brown. We acknowledge “race” based inequalities across all dimensions of health and health care, and center the needs, perspectives, and expertise of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in our work. Black feminism, in addition to fighting for racial justice and health equity, means making common cause with Black and brown women and gender-expansive people around the world, and especially in the global south.
Our feminism is rainbow. We support the health, lives, and sexual autonomy of women and gender-expansive people across all axes of sexual and gender difference. We reject the idea that there is only one proper way to be a woman or girl, and support freedom to achieve our full, self-defined, potential. We don’t consider being “equal” to cis men to be nearly ambitious enough for our feminism.
Our feminism is rainbow, again, the colors of peace. We reject militarism, mass incarceration, excessive police power, and other forms of violent toxic masculinity. These patriarchal forms are extremely destructive to the health and well-being of women and gender-expansive people. At the same time, militarisms divert vast precious resources from human needs, while actively traumatizing both people enlisted in the military and their victims. Shifting the flow of resources from organized violence to earth- and people-centered enterprises is critical for everyone’s health.
We organize and curate materials through a multicolored feminist lens. We value the bodily and life integrity of all women and gender-expansive people in all arenas.