What’s in a name?

Like for many of us, I think a major aspect of my feminism stems from my mother and her influences. For me, I still think I am exploring my own “name” for my feminism. Growing up, my mother didn’t use very explicit language or phrasing when she discussed her feminism. Maybe she didn’t have the language to describe her feminism, or maybe she couldn’t find the perfect word for it. She expressed her feminism in actions, in what she said to people, in how she held strength, despite so many forces trying to make her weak, and so many other little acts of feminism that I am proud to have witnessed and hope to continue. Right now, I struggle to define the feminism that I identify with in one word or phrase, but I hope and strive to be persistent, strong, and an example of  what my feminism is. Despite, being unsure of how I would define my feminism, the closest I have come is womanism, probably because Alice Walker was one of my first examples of Black feminist literature. My mother has always talked about and quoted The Color Purple, making Alice Walker and that book an important part of my household and how we think about Black women and feminism. From a literary standpoint,  Celie, Shug, and Sofia were all important parts of the development of my feminist identity but most importantly, I was and am influenced by my mother and the other Black women in my life.

In terms of how I would identify the feminists we have discussed in this course, they all have different identities and are all a part of different feminist classifications, but if I had to identify them all under one word, it would probably be transnational feminists. I think that encapsulates these radical feminists in the best way and would be the most useful term to unify their various identities and positionalities, and how those impact their feminism. I think the term transnational will be useful to my archives project, as an overall term, but I hope that I can still identify the differences among these feminists because I think that understanding how these women were different is important to truly understanding their impact.