Author Audre Lorde argues in her article,"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", that the feminist movement as whole, mainly white privileged women, disregards lesbians, black women and poor women as legitimate feminists. This means they really don't care to legitimize them by taking their opinions or allowing the to be a part of the interdependent group they have going. Lorde relates this to the patriarchal society as a whole. The feminist movement has black women, lesbians and poor women under its oppressive umbrella. Lorde pretty much states that those who are being oppressed stand alone and do not have the sense to unite due to pressures and just being scared, I would assume. But Lorde also states that to deny interdependence among women as a whole is just insanity because the overall goal of the feminist movement and the right of independence of women from men, can not be achieved without relying on one another. This is the main fear of patriarchal society, the unity of all women to fight against the oppression. But because white 'privileged' feminists deny black, poor and lesbian women as legitimate feminists, this cannot be achieved. She states "no community, no liberation" meaning just that.
The main thing i plan to bring up in class is the title of the article and what I think it means. If feminists are using the same oppressive tools that they are fighting against, the house can never be brought down. Below is a link to a wordpress article that elegantly, but simply explains the same ideas that Lorde puts forward in her article.
http://dearwhitefeminists.wordpress.com/.
Hey Bobby,
ReplyDeleteGreat start here. I think you'll find class affirming and interesting.
Chris
Bobby that article was interesting and true. You hear all those names being called at one point or another. The tools are the tools of the hierarchy in the ranks that is established by society. The lower part of the ranks will use the tools that the oppressor has used to build his house, which will only cause the oppressors to be even more oppressed. The fact that Lorde says that we need to stand together, and not against each other, in order to claim the independence from men and that they can not do it as a divided unity, is correct.
ReplyDeletei definitly never understood the title untile you explained it...so thank you.
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