Multicultural Feminism

Last week, I read Tong's chapter on multicultural feminism. I found myself agreeing with the viewpoints presented in this chapter more than I have in other chapters. "Traditional" feminism seems to try so hard to create an idea of sisterhood that it ends up pushing many "sisters" away. In defining what it means to be a woman, feminists have inadvertently defined what it means to not be a woman. What happens to women that don't fit the definition? Do they get pushed into a nonwoman category? I think this is a perfectly valid concern, especially because the feminist movement should be about liberation, not further oppression, of all women. Multicultural feminism says that femininity and the struggles of women should not be defined by a specific group. Feminism needs to embrace all types of women, and this may mean creating a broader and more vague definition of what feminism is.

One problem with multicultural feminism is that it can become too vague and allow for too much cultural and personal interpretation and therefore allow for oppression. Maybe it is necessary to search for basic absolute values that can be applied to women throughout the world. Without a basic value set, the "this is my/our culture" argument can become the final and most powerful argument and the opposition has no option but to respect it. I think that multicultural awareness is vital to the feminist movement, but universal rights and values need to be created or acknowledged so that feminism and women's rights are not pushed into the background. This is especially important since we tend to view most cultures as patriarchal and one of the goals of feminism is to challenge the basis of the patriarchy. Without challenging cultural norms (patriarchy), can feminists still achieve their goals? I don't think they could.