“…I did not know that feminism is what you called it when black warrior women moved mountains and walked on water. Growing up in their company, I considered these things ordinary”

(Morgan, 35).

Who is a Feminist

Joan Morgan drops so many golden nuggets throughout this chapter that I have to encourage you to read ChickenHeads. In today’s ReSIStance Reading post, I will discuss this chapter’s discussion on claiming the label of feminist.

It fits for this chapter to come so early on in the book because it is about stretching the boundaries of what feminism looks like. Chickenheads is about honoring yourself in full while also fighting oppressive systems. I love it in this chapter because Morgan directly addresses how she did not think feminism could include her. Morgan ran with the ghetto princesses and the dancehall queens; fierce women society would not put into the mold.

When I thought about feminism — women who were living and breathing it daily — I thought of white women or black female intellectuals. Academics. Historians. Authors. Women who had little to do with my everyday life”

(Morgan, 37).

The thought of feminism looking as diverse and inclusive as it should fill me with so much joy. The movement has progressed leaps and bound since Morgan wrote ChickenHeads in 1999, but there is still progress to be made.  

Black Feminists, Left out of Two Movements 

Joan Morgan uses her personal experience to discuss the exclusion of Black women from feminist and Black liberation movements. I touch on this here as well. 

When Morgan was in college, the campus’ feminist movement came in two variants, both centralizing White women. Morgan takes the time to warn us about one of the groups, 

[they] were all for the liberation of women as long as it did not infringe on their sense of entitlement. They felt their men should share the power to oppress. They were the spiritual descendants of the early suffragettes and absolutely not to be trusted”

(Morgan, 35). 

That is a word! This is why Black Feminist Theory has its base in intersectionality. Some people only want to make the world bigger for themselves, safer for themselves. Even though your interests may align in an area or two, they may still prove to be the enemy. 

The larger storyThe larger story of this chapter is how Joan Morgan became a Black feminist writer, “I became a black feminist writer in the least feminist of ways” (Morgan, 31). Her first article was about the need to discuss sexism as well as racism concerning the Central Park jogger case. That did not sit well with some of the men of the Black community. So, Morgan had to defend her work. Here’s an excerpt:

…I demand that black men fight sexism with the same passion they battle racism. I want you to annihilate anything that endangers sistas’ welfare — including violence against women  — because my survival walks hand in yours. So, my brotha, if loving y’all fiercely and wanting it back makes me a feminist then I’m a feminist. So be it”  

(Morgan, 44-5).

Black empowerment must include black women. If it does not, then one is only looking to take on the role of the oppressor. 

 Damned if I do, Damned if I don’t 

I remember wrestling with labeling myself a feminist back in middle school. Probably not something you iI remember wrestling with labeling myself a feminist back in middle school. Probably not something you imagine an eleven-year-old contemplating, but it’s my truth.

Being the youngest and the only granddaughter for most of my life, I was accustomed to fighting for fair treatment within my own family. I never went through “that phase” of being inexplicably prejudiced because I genuinely never understood judging someone on any basis outside of character. Being ostracized from my family weirdly made me a good person. I never had to unlearn any disgusting mindsets because they never bothered speaking to me long enough to instill them. I raised myself, with a bit of help from the inclusive side of Tumblr, I raised a little feminist.

Feminism having a negative connotation also never made sense to me. People say the word with so much venom as if it’s a derogatory word. For example, the internet term “feminazi”

Terms like this are made to silence women activists and deter future feminists from wanting to label themselves as such. It deterred me for years. But I have realized that I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. Whether or not I identified with the term, I never stopped speaking against sexist double standards, I never stopped refuting respectability politics, I never stopped speaking against sexual and domestic violence, I never stopped advocating for body autonomy, I never stopped asking for diversity and inclusion. Doing that puts you in opposition to the oppressor regardless of the feminist label. 

“Feminism claimed me long before I claimed it”

(Morgan, 33).