I’ve been ranting here and on Twitter today about the piece about feminism at The Guardian. However, I don’t think I can properly convey my frustration at this and so many other failures representative of mainstream European feminism.
The thing is, I have so little to draw upon. I have so few references dripping into mainstream media about the experiences of people like me. Because I constantly struggle to answer a few basic questions: what does it mean to be an immigrant, non White woman in The Netherlands (cis and non cis alike)? What does it mean to be this immigrant woman in the context of EU wide immigration policies and State violence? What do media depictions for people like me look like? Why does feminism not challenge the widespread notion that immigrant = Muslim in Europe? How can feminism claim to represent “women” and yet not highlight this hegemonic discourse in mainstream media, mostly because it is used as an alibi to prevent accusations of racism or xenophobia by creating this category of immigrant = Muslim? How can feminism fail to address the realities of the migrant women (again, I insist, cis and non cis alike) crossing through the African continent only to end up detained in EU subsidized camps across Northern Africa, to prevent them from even arriving at EU borders? How can feminism not address the institutional inequalities of the millions of non White women across the EU? And moreover, the invisibilization of undocumented immigrants and the violence they are exposed to on a day to day basis?
Because, I have said this many times: I read news and media in several languages. And while all of these issues I mentioned above are covered by a variety of different grassroots organizations and activists, they hardly ever (if at all) get any mainstream coverage and, to add insult to injury, the feminists organizations that do get mainstream coverage do not consider these issues worthy of attention. Simply put, none of this exists in the public eye. And honestly? It depresses me big time.
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