I Dig Crenshaw/Ensler

Feminists seem to be joining up and issuing public statements everywhere this week. Kimberle Crenshaw and Eve Ensler have teamed up in a hot post over at HuffPo, called "Feminist Ultimatums: Not in Our Name." I utterly dig what they have to say about young feminists, and I absolutely agree. They write:

Young feminists have been vocal and strong in critiquing the claim that a vote for Obama represents some form of youthful naiveté, a desire to win the approval of men, or a belief that sexism no longer factors into their lives. While paying respect to those women who carried the banner for so many years, these young women have reminded us that feminism is not static but evolutionary, changing in content, scope and tenor as new generations elevate their concerns and aspirations. And while we agree that this "either/or" brand of feminism fails to capture the imagination and hopes of countless numbers of women who refuse to entrust this capital into the hands of a candidate just because she is a woman, we think it important to add that this is not simply an intergenerational difference at work here. At issue is a profound difference in seeing feminism as intersectional and global rather than essentialist and insular. Women have grappled with these questions in every feminist wave, struggling to see feminism as something other than a "me too" bid for power whether it be in the family, the party, the race or the state.

Amen to all that.

For a, um, slightly different take on young women, see here. Younger women's responses here.

(Thank you, Cathy, for the heads up.)