Today’s mainstream feminism is for the 90% about themes as bodyshaming, hair, self-acceptance, girl power, freedom to manage one’s own body. All better if seasoned with a few commercials, as many well-known FB pages do (as the italian Freeda, for example – link). In the capitalist system, anything that can make a profit must be squeezed as much as possible: just think about Beyoncè, a champion of feminist fights, who pays a few cents the women working in Sri Lanka to produce the items of her clothing line.
The reality that most women live every day, however, is very different from the on which this type of feminism puts the emphasis on: precariousness, layoffs, inability to have a family, exploitation. And in the rest of the world the situation is even worse. Yet, all this does not seem to interest us. Why is that?
Because it is much more convenient to artificially create a sort of “female solidarity”, rather than making women aware of the economic power relations existing in this society: a Sri Lankan female worker has NOTHING in common with her boss Beyoncè. But she has EVERYTHING in common with her fellow man, as much exploited and badly paid as she is.
The big paradox of commercial feminism is precisely this: fighting for gender equality without fighting for social equality. To fight, therefore, for an emancipation that can never be found in an economic system precisely based on exploitation and oppression. With the aggravating feature of transforming struggles into profit.
– Benedetta Sabene
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