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Womanism

Theory[edit]
Womanist theory, while diverse, holds at its core that both femininity and culture are equally important to the woman's existence. In this conception one's femininity cannot be stripped from the culture within which it exists. At first glance, this seems similar to the thought process of third wave feminism, which embraced the concept of intersectionality. '''Intersectionality is a term that was created to understand how oppressive structures like racism, classism and sexism are inseparable from people's identities and experiences. The term was coined in 1989 by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the intertwined impacts of racism and sexism upon Black women. The difference between the two concepts lies in the valuation placed on intersectionality within larger''' theoretical frameworks. Womanism supports the idea that the culture of the woman, which in this case is the focal point of intersection as opposed to class or some other characteristic, is not an element of her femininity, but rather is the lens through which femininity exists. As such, a woman's Blackness is not a component of her feminism; instead, her Blackness is the lens through which she understands her femininity.

In discussing womanist theory, one must acknowledge the racism that was perceived by black women in the feminist movement. Early feminist activism around suffrage (first-wave feminism) in the United States held no place for women of color, as women of color were not seen as feminine in the same ways as white women and therefore lacked certain qualities that would ensure their inclusion. '''The rise of second-wave feminism brought an inclusion of women of color within the movement. However, white feminists equated this inclusion with being colorblind and ignored race because they believed the focus should be entirely on gender. However, because of this narrow focus, white feminists and feminists of color could not create an interracial movement. As a result of this disconnect between the groups, a third-wave feminism began and included the concepts of intersectionality and womanism. The historic exclusion of women of color from the broader feminist movement has resulted in two interpretations of womanism'''. Some womanists believe that the experience of Black women will not be validated by feminists to be equal to the experience of White women because of the problematic way in which some feminists treated blackness throughout history. As such, womanists do not see womanism as an extension of feminism, but rather as a theoretical framework which exists independent of feminist theory. This is a move from the thought of Black feminists who have carved their own space in feminism through academia and activism.

However, not all womanists hold this view of womanism in relation to feminism. The chronological first conception of womanism can be captured through Alice Walker's quotation "womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender". Under this description, the theories are seemingly intimately tied, with womanism as the broad umbrella under which feminism falls.

Literature and activism[edit]
Womanist literature and activism are two areas that are largely interpolated, with each having a considerable effect on the other. A major tenet of womanist literature and activism is the idea that Black activists and Black authors should separate themselves from the feminist ideology. This stems from assertions by Kalenda Eaton, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, and numerous other womanist theologians that the goal of a womanist should be to promote the issues affecting not just Black women, but black men and other groups that have been subjected to discrimination or impotence. In the words of Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, a white woman writer may be a feminist, but a black woman writer is likely to be a womanist. That is, she recognizes that along with battling for sexual equality, she must also incorporate race, economics, culture, and politics within her philosophy.

In Kalenda Eaton's, Womanism, Literature and the Transformation of the Black Community, black women writers are portrayed as both activists and visionaries for change in the Black Community following the Civil Rights Movement. She interweaves the historical events of African-American history with the development of Afro-Politico womanism in a bid to create a haven for Black female activism within the black community. This Afro-Politico womanism veers from the traditional feminist goal of gender equality within a group and rather seeks to fight for the men and women whose civil rights are infringed upon. While Eaton takes the stance that Black women were largely excluded from the more prominent positions within the Black Movement, she argues that black women activists had the greatest effect in small-scale grassroots protests within their communities. Using various characters from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Alice Walker's Meridian, Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters, and Paule Marshall's The Chosen Place, the Timeless People as symbols of the various political agendas and issues that were prevalent within The Black Movement, Eaton draws upon the actions of the protagonists to illustrate solutions to the problems of disgruntlement and disorganization within the movement. Often the main task of these literary activists was to empower the impoverished masses—defined by Eaton as mainly Southern African-Americans, and they used the black middle class as a model for the possibility of social mobility within the African-American community. A common theme within womanist literature is the failure of Black women writers to identify with feminist thought. Womanism becomes the concept that binds these novelists together.

'In Audre Lorde's, The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House,'' she criticizes second-wave feminism, arguing that women were taught to ignore their differences, or alternately to let their differences divide them. Lorde never used the word "womanist" or "womanism" in her writing or in descriptions of herself, but her work has helped to further the concept. As she pointed out, traditional second-wave feminism lacked inclusivity and the concerns of women of color, or queer women were often ignored.'''

Critiques[edit]
A major ongoing critique about womanist scholarship is the failure of many scholars to critically address homosexuality within the black community. Walker's protagonist in Coming Apart uses writings from two African-American lesbians, Audre Lorde and Louisah Teish, to support her argument that her husband should stop consuming pornography. She posts quotes from Audre Lorde above her kitchen sink. In Search of Our Mother's Garden states that a womanist is "a woman who loves another woman, sexually and/or non-sexually", yet despite Coming Apart and In Search of Our Mother's Garden, there is very little literature linking womanism to the lesbian and bisexual issue. Womanist theologian Renee Hill cites Christian influences as a source of the heterosexism and homophobia. Womanism was derived out of the idea that men are men, and women are white, and originally had little regard for queer women of color, because of the strong connection to the Black church. Black feminist critic Barbara Smith blames it on the Black community's reluctance to come to terms with homosexuality. On the other hand, there is an increase in the criticism of heterosexism within womanist scholarship. Christian womanist theologian Pamela R. Lightsey, in her book Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (2015), writes, "To many people, we are still perverts. To many, the Black pervert is the most dangerous threat to the American ideal. Because the Black conservative bourgeoisie has joined the attack on our personhood, Black LGBTQ persons cannot allow the discourse to be controlled such that our existence within the Black community is denied or made invisible." An additional critique lies within the ambivalence of womanism. In Africana womanism and African womanism, the term is associated with black nationalist discourse and the separatist movement. Patricia Collins argues that this exaggerates racial differences by promoting homogeneous identity. This is a sharp contrast to the universalist model of womanism that is championed by Walker. The continued controversy and dissidence within the various ideologies of womanism serves only to draw attention away from the goal of ending race and gender-based oppression.