I am an intersectional feminist.

Actually, I am a perplexed intersectional feminist. The reason I am confused is because women keep posting articles about how they’re “so over feminists.” For a while it really got to me. I kept asking myself how they could be doing this. Did they understand how potentially harmful this was to women everywhere? Did they even understand what intersectional feminism was?

That last question was the one that began to enlighten me. I then thought, these women had probably never heard about this concept. I looked back at my Facebook and Twitter feeds and realized that most of the women I knew who were posting about this were able, cisgender, straight, white women. I want to say right now that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being any combination of these things. It just means that if you are, you have an incredible privilege.

I realize the difference between white feminism and intersectional feminism can be confusing for a person. Here is basically what I mean by the two terms:

White feminism is feminism that is only relevant to white women. It is a very harmful form of feminism, and while white women are still marginalized by the patriarchy in many ways, they are privileged because of the color of their skin. This is the feminism that I believe these women are posting about.

On the other hand, intersectional feminism is defined, according to Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in her text book On Intersectionality, as “the view that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity.” This basically means that intersectional feminists acknowledge that different women experience different forms of oppression and it is the job of feminism to advocate for every kind of woman.

A huge part of being an intersectional feminist, especially a white one like myself, is understanding and acknowledging the privileges you have. I know that I am privileged. I also know that it is my job as someone with a platform to uncover the injustices that marginalized groups face and help give them a voice to speak out about it.

I think that the women posting negative articles about feminism don’t understand that the race isn’t over. For them it might feel like equality has been obtained because they aren’t experiencing all of the oppression that other groups of women face. They might be happy. They might feel comfortable. But I feel that as a woman I cannot rest until all women have the rights and respect that they deserve.

This is a call to all the women out there who think that feminists are “annoying” or “irrelevant.” Look around. See the world we are living in. Are we all equal? There is only one answer to that question at this point in history. It is no. From any angle there are people, especially women, who are knocked down and treated as less human throughout this country and throughout the world.

Please, believe in me. Believe in your fellow humans who are working toward equality. Don’t mock us on social media or put us down for trying to do what is right.