A review by morvoren
Can We All Be Feminists?: Seventeen writers on intersectionality, identity and finding the right way forward for feminism by June Eric-Udorie

challenging informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

 

Can We All Be Feminists, edited by June Eric-Udorie is a series of essays on what it means to be a feminist, if anything, an exploration of identity and intersectionality, and a look at what we have got right, and wrong, over the years. 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It reminded me of what feminism means to me, personally, as well as the different forms of it that exist, some of which are unfortunately exclusionary, hierarchical or even ignorant. I think Gabrielle Bellot summed it up well in her essay Borderlands, which to me emphasised the importance of plurality in our movement “We should not assume we are authorities on all aspects of feminism simply because we are authorities on some of them.” 

From a political perspective, I found Emer O’Toole’s essay particularly interesting. Ahead of the Irish referendum on abortion, she talks about how the best chance of getting this feminist agenda across is by pretending not to be feminists at all. I thought this raised an interesting point about how we convince the general public of certain demands, and made me question whether in some cases, the means do not have to define the end. 

There were certain parts of the book that I didn’t completely agree with, or I would have liked an expansion on. For example, a certain dismissiveness of some achievements of women that are less vital to the movement – I think even small changes can be massive in terms of societal significance. Secondly, a closer look into how gendered stereotypes affect misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis of neurodivergence in girls and women. And, I think addressing the issue of Sojourner Truth being given a southern slave dialect by Francis Gage should be included outside of the notes. 

This book demonstrates the importance of intersectionality to our movement. I often see intectionality used as a buzzword, at an individual level. To read this book is to understand the word as it was coined, and to get a wider picture of how struggles connect to one another. Whether it is the patriarchy, colonialism, racism, ableism, xenophobia, or homophobia, these are all oppressive forces that need to be deconstructed together. 

I found this book to be a call to not be the feminists who went before us, like certain suffragettes who refused to fight for people of colour to vote, or those that excluded lesbians from the movement in the 60s and 70s. Instead, we should move forward with a feminism that works for all.