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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

fascinating article about Rachel Dolezal & the white woman who identifies as black

33 replies

TimeForDebate · 25/09/2018 00:40

So many parallels here with trans tales - feeling like the outsider, identifying with a group she wasn't part of and could never really be, yet claiming a right to that membership and becoming enraged when challenged - there must be some deep trauma at the heart of all these dissociative conditions that make people hate themselves so much. www.thestranger.com/features/2017/04/19/25082450/the-heart-of-whiteness-ijeoma-oluo-interviews-rachel-dolezal-the-white-woman-who-identifies-as-black

OP posts:
Alicethroughtheblackmirror · 25/09/2018 15:15

Really interesting article. Also fascinating to see the comments BTL from people tying themselves in knots explaining how transgender is completely, utterly, totally different because they never, ever had male privilege (in fact everyone is much nicer to girls) and theirs is "biological" etc.

There was one honest one who said that was no real difference between their situation and RD's, although they seemed to argue that was grounds for accepting RD's self id as black because otherwise it might hurt their cause!

dinosaurkisses · 25/09/2018 14:33

The documentary on Netflix is absolutely fascinating- so many parallels to the current trans debate, and the programme makers do give a nod to it.

The Dolezal case was the first time I started to think critically about why the whole transgender thing is a bit...off.

Deathgrip · 25/09/2018 14:28

Oops, missed one. You get the point.

Deathgrip · 25/09/2018 14:26

Stil find this fascinating - the feminist groups where you must support TWAW are the same ones where Dolezal is utterly despised. They don’t see the connection because they don’t truly believe that women are oppressed.

Switch it out, and it’s the same arguments against, but one is tolerated and one isn’t. For example, change it up:
“For a men who had grown up with only a few magazines of stylized images of women to imagine themselves into a real-life female identity without any lived female experience, to turn themselves into a women’s history professor without a history degree, to place themselves at the forefront of local feminism that they had adopted less than a decade earlier, all while seeming to claim to do it better and more authentically than any woman who would dare challenge them—well, it's the ultimate "you can be anything" success story of male America. Another branch of manifest destiny...

Perhaps it really was that simple. I couldn't escape trans issues because I can't escape male supremacy. And it is male supremacy that told an unhappy and outcast white man that female identity was theirs for the taking. It is male supremacy that told them that any women who questioned them were obviously uneducated and unmotivated to rise to her level of wokeness. It is white supremacy that then elevated this display of privilege into the dominating conversation on black female identity in America. It is male supremacy that decided that it was worth a book deal, national news coverage, and yes—even this interview.“

Or this most of all:
“Throughout our conversation, I get the increasing impression that, for someone who claims to love womanhood, they bave little more than contempt for many women and their own female identities.

The dismissive and condescending attitude toward any women who see womanhood differently than they do is woven throughout their comments in our conversation.”

Freespeecher · 25/09/2018 11:06

Funny thing was the Dolezal thing broke before the whole Trans thing did, so you had the Graun staff united in saying that the likes of Dolezal couldn't just announce they were black before, shortly afterwards, having to pull a very contorted reverse ferret to say that, while it was still true for Dolezal, when it came to the Trans thing it was... look, it's just different ok?

Trampire · 25/09/2018 08:25

So sorry it's called The Rachel Divide (I totally remembered that wrong!).

Check out “The Rachel Divide” on Netflix
www.netflix.com/title/80149821?s=i&trkid=13752289

Trampire · 25/09/2018 08:21

There's a Netflix documentary about this called Being Racheal.

It's fascinating.

Fearandsurprise · 25/09/2018 07:38

This stood out to me in the article: And it is white supremacy that told an unhappy and outcast white woman that black identity was hers for the taking. It is white supremacy that told her that any black people who questioned her were obviously uneducated and unmotivated to rise to her level of wokeness.