Bad Feminism, a look into global feminist futures
Bad Feminism is a book written by an American, for Americans, about Americans. I found it in the apartment of my American, college student friend. So before reading, you might judge it as being another novel about what Western Feminism looks like and how it ‘should be applied to the rest of the world’. However, such an assumption is dangerous. Bad Feminism is full of essays on feminism, racism, and intersectionality. One particular essay impressed me, titled “Holding out for a Hero”.
Writing this essay, it seems that author Roxane Gay only looks into the Hero complex that fuels racism in the US. However, she also tapped into another subject perhaps without even realizing: The hero complex that stems from colonialism.
For most western women, feminism means one thing: equality for women and men. Fuelled by this belief, we tend to criticize other cultures and countries for not holding women to the same standard as men. We have an overwhelming urge to save this “third world woman” from her own culture. As if, being from such a culture automatically means that she is oppressed. This can be explained by our hero complex.
Gay discusses how heroism has become “overly idealized” (281). She outlines how individuals are looking to better themselves, to fight for something, to be seen as heroic. She talks about how this explains the motivation behind the multitude of murders of black people by white people in “self defence”. Specifically, how George Zimmerman was trying to be heroic, defending his community, when he shot and killed 17 year old, unarmed, Trayvon Martin. This, to me, looks like a concentrated version of the ‘heroism’ so often portrayed by the white man.
Europeans viewed colonialism as benevolent help for other less developed countries. Nowadays, we can bash such a belief, as many people do. Many people view this as wrong and believe that colonist shouldn’t have acted in the ways that they did. We treat it as if it was a shameful historical moment, but did this view of the white culture as “saviour” ever really disapear?
No, this saviour/hero complex is still very much present. When examined, it’s easy to see how colonialism has left inequality in its path all over the world. By instituting specific laws and norms, it paved the way for such injustices. It glorified the man, and taught people to fear other cultures.
Gay discusses how this is present in the justice system still. How prejudices still exists against other cultures that aren’t white, and how statistically black people are incarcerated more often then white people. When did we decide such action was okay? The answer is in the founding and colonization of so many countries globally, including Canada.
Why do we think its okay? Because its heroic. We are ‘saving’ our communities from the danger that resides in the actions of people of colour. However, we were the ones who labelled them as dangerous in the first place.
Furthermore, white people are also praised for raising African children. As if, without white help, they never would have survived in such countries. This idealizes white people, colonization, and western culture, which in turn adds to the black image of danger and savagery.
In conclusion, I support and hope for more books about the expansion of western feminism to be integrated into everyday households. I want to see more books about intersectionality, racism, and how it ties to the fight for gender equality on the bookshelves of my friends apartments. This movement is the feminist movement we should not only want, but need in western society.