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"Mainstream"?







The movie suffragette came out and was hailed as a big stride for the feminist community. While this may be true I can help but read this promotion I came across on Facebook as “made by white women, about white women, for white women.” This picture only shows white women and when I watched the trailer for the movie I got both excited about the movie and noticed the lack of diversity in the cast (you can see it in the picture.

This image reminds of a quote by Sandy Grande “The historical divide between white and subaltern women suggests that what has long passed as “mainstream” feminism is actually whitestream feminism, that is a feminist discourse that is not only dominated by white women but also principally structured on the basis of white, middle-class experience, serving their ethnopolitical interests and capital investsments.” This quote and movie just reminds me of how historically feminism has been exclusive to the stories of women of color and their struggles.

I have not seen the movie, and I probably will watch it and enjoy it, but that does not mean I passively watch and enjoy without also acknowledging how it is problematic and spark a dialogue about what we can do to change things. I need to ask how I as a white women can be more inclusive to women of color? 

Elizabeth Hamre
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