Womanist Analysis
So the purpose of this part of my blog is for me to work out in my mind what I’m learning along the way and trying to tie it back to the roots that I find most important: womanism!
Womanism is a term and an understanding coined by Alice Walker. You’ll find the full definition of “womanist” in her book, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. The 4 part definition is below:
1.“From womanish. (Opp. of “girlish,” i.e. frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “you acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered “good” for one. Interested in grown up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown up. Interchangeable with another black folk expression: “You trying to be grown.” Responsible. In charge. Serious.
2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health. Traditionally a universalist, as in: “Mama, why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige and black?” Ans. “Well, you know the colored race is just like a flower garden, with every color flower represented.” Traditionally capable, as in: “Mama, I’m walking to Canada and I’m taking you and a bunch of other slaves with me.” Reply: “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.
4. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender” (p. xi).
How I explain womanism is like this: We want everyone liberated but instead of Black women being left to “get in where they fit in” in that line of the oppressed, we put them upfront, knowing and acknowledging that when we start with some of the most marginalized groups, there’s a better chance that others get free too. This ain’t trickle down. This is lift as we climb. This is take everyone else with us as we go.
It’s a hermeneutic. A lens. Way of knowing. A way of life that pulls from our lived experiences as Black women, validates those experiences and works to reinterpret and selectively and deliberately participate in structures, systems, etc. in ways that acknowledge and value our lived experience. We’ve spent so much time trying to understand everyone else and their lived experience (read: the master’s language) and now we’ve decided to understand our own without input from anyone who doesn’t have this lived experience.
To be clear, our experiences VARY. I grew up in a suburban, semi-rural area in Southwest Virginia. I am the only child of social workers, granddaughter of a factory worker, coal miner, and nurses. My experience is gonna be different than a sistah who grew up with 6 siblings in the Bronx. Hers and mine are different but no less valid and all the more stories makes for a richer understanding of our heritage, culture, way of knowing and moving through the world. Amongst all our differences, there is still one commonality: Liberation. Freedom. The right to define ourselves, for ourselves and to live on our own terms.
You will likely find others who define it differently and that’s healthy, that’s okay and that is, for lack of a better term, normal.
You may be wondering, “ well, how is Womanism different from Feminism or Black Feminism?
Great question. Here’s my take on that too: “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender” (Walker, p. xi) and Black Feminism is the sister, in my opinion, to Womanism; they share some lineage and they have similar goals but their roots are different. Some folks believe Black Feminism is a variation of Feminism, which makes it unfitting for Black women and women of color. Some feel like it isn’t at all the same thing as Feminism and that they have successfully co-opted it for good, or better than what Feminism has been able to offer. Some believe that Womanism is the better option because the roots of Feminism are tainted by white supremacy so we can’t possibly slap Black in the front of it and make it work. Others believe the two are the same and use the language interchangeably. This is not an exhaustive list of positions so do your own research and decide on a position, if you so choose, for yourself.
Let me back up before I talk about my position: this quote about Purple and Lavender. What is the difference between Purple and Lavender…? You guessed it, the color white. I think Walker is softly but directly saying Feminism is diluted or has a higher concentration of white whereas Womanism is radical in that it’s trying to get at the roots of oppression (Davis, p. X). Black women are the root. Nuff said. Purple is the original color or the root and thus, has the capacity to spread and share its “color” (read: wisdom and way of knowing) with the world more effectively and with less oppressive baggage along the way. Enrique Dussel, author of Philosophy of Liberation, makes clear that the Periphery (marginalized groups) has a greater capacity to change the world than those in the Center (dominant groups) because we don’t have to spend time undoing the baggage that our harm has created. The Center has to first acknowledge all the harm they created and by the time they're done with that, the Periphery is out here actually making change and dismantling systems. So I think Walker is saying is that Womanists have a unique opportunity to make change that Feminists can’t. I think that’s what Walker meant in her book, The Color Purple, when she wrote that God is pissed “when you walk by the color purple and don’t notice it” (p. 197). There’s too much richness in it to ignore it. You should stop and listen to what Purple has to tell you.
Okay. My position! I have respect for Feminism/Black Feminism and I appreciate how far it got us and I’m also happy that we have another option to call our own, that was created for us, by us. BUT I don’t knock those who identify as Black Feminists or Feminists. Everybody has their lane. All I ask is that we work together and we work the hell out of our lane. Ya feel me? You ain’t working your lane, we’ll have issues. But if you’re doing your thing, I will never knock it. There’s too much work to do to bicker over titles, though these titles mean alot to us. Just do the work.
One of the systems or structures that I love to use Womanist interpretations on is the Bible, religious traditions, and customs. I like looking Legalism right in the face and slapping some Womanist theology on it.
In my next post, I’ll go through the texts for one of our “classic” texts in the field of sociology and pull out Womanist interpretations but I think setting out my interpretation and love of Womanism is enough for this first post.
YAY WOMANISM! One of my true loves.
If you’re interested in learning more about what Womanism looks like in action, read:
