Why Intersectionality Matters #2 - Barriers Facing Women of Colour that Are Invisible to White Women

This is 2nd Intersectionality Matters post and today I'm going to be discussing how White Feminism comes from a place of white privilege and supremacy and as a result is internalised racism. I'm going to be talking about the barriers that women of colour face that white women will never have to face and the fact that a lot of those barriers aren't highlighted in mainstream media.

1) The Pay Gap - It's no secret that there is still a wage gap in most industries and companies between men and women. White women earn 78 cents to the dollar that white men earn and that has been long argued about for decades. However, very few people discuss the fact that Hispanic women earn on average 54 cents, black women earn 64 cents and Native American earn 65 cents. This is due to a number of factors, including the fact that more WOC could only find part-time jobs than white women.

2) Beauty Standards - I know that every woman (and man) faces standards of beauty that are impossible to attain, but WOC face the fact that models of their skin colour are rarely seen in mainstream fashion media and messages are sent out (whether unintentionally or not) that if you're white then you can easily be beautiful. In fact, some magazines have even gone so far as to promote 'new trends' for white women to follow that have been used in various cultures for years.

3) Lack of Media Representation - Following on from my last point, there is a distinct lack of cultural diversity in pretty much all aspects of the media, whether it be film or TV etc., and I know that there is a lack of female representation overall, it's more so for WOC. While there has been a surge of more culturally diverse programmes being produced, Hispanic  actors make up 12.5% of characters, black actors make up 4.9% and Asian actors make up 5.3% yet they all account for around 50% of the movie tickets.

4) Racial Discrimination -   As you'll have seen in the news recently, more and more ethnic minorities are being killed in acts of police brutality, are being discriminated against in the workforce, and are being verbally and physically abused in the street. White people rarely face that on a daily basis, if at all.

And White Feminism chooses to erase all these things from their agenda and act like everyone started from the same point. But we didn't - some people are still a bit behind. So let's make a change. Feminism is for everyone - not just the elite.