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We Should All Be Womanists Series
Finding “A Way out of No Way”
How Womanism’s Pledge speaks to a White Woman
The lens from which womanism reveals the world begins with the Self inside a family. Without family-the one we are born into or the one we birth-there is a deep crevice in womanism that cannot be crossed.
As a white woman, I have struggled with my identification with womanism for years. There was something in me that wanted to identify with feminism. I mean, I do identify with it, kinda. But I always felt it was missing something. That something was gritty and earthy, fierce and bodily. But I’m not a black woman, or a woman of color at all. Am I allowed to be a womanist?
Feminism was powerful medicine for the imbalanced world it met. The anger of women was necessary to start us down the path toward being seen and heard. Many women’s voices had just begun to be heard.
The silent suffering of women is nothing new. But the silent suffering of women’s families may be. The holistic lens of womanism, I find, is the cure for what is truly ailing us: disconnection and integration.
We can be feminists alone, and with our girlfriends. Our men can even join in if they want to. And they should. Our daughters and sons can be feminists, but there is…
