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TECHN01:0GY AND INNOVATION
THE DEVELOPMENT OF WOMANISM AS A MOVEMENT THROUGH WORKS OF ALICE WALKER
Narimanova Jamola Yuldashbayevna
English teacher at Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Tashkent city, Uzbekistan
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Received: 05th January 2024 Accepted: 12th January 2024 Online: 13th January 2024
KEY WORDS Womanist, white and colored women, feminism, patriarchy, womanism.
The article is intended to give basic information about the development of womanism as a movement which has presented an alternative to feminism. It advocates inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness, whether it is related to race, class or gender. Womanism provided political framework for colored women and gave them tools in their struggle with patriarchy which imposed restrictive norms and negative stereotypes on them. It also tackled the restrictiveness of feminism which was especially evident in the field of literary scholarship. Womanism is also related to new movements within feminism such as womanist theology and eco-feminism.
Definition of womanism Alice Walker who founded womanism is one of the most renowned African American writers today due to the broad spectrum of themes in her work which reflect the diverse experiences of the African American community in the U.S. Starting with her first novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland to the latest collection of essays We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, Walker has examined the whole history of the African Americans, from the troubled period of slavery and the long struggle for civil rights to the victories scored in overcoming negative stereotypes and restrictions imposed by the white community. This struggle represents an integral part of the African
American matrilinear heritage which can clearly be traced in Walker's novels, especially in the portrayal of her female characters who find strength in their female precursors and oral heritage they had bequeathed to them. As Walker's literary scope expanded and she developed into a more mature writer and political activist, she became aware of the need for a movement which would be different from feminism and which would offer colored women a space to formulate their policy. She named it womanism. At the center of womanism is the concern for women and their role in their immediate surroundings (be it family, local community or work place) and more global environment. Walker defines a womanist as a "black feminist or feminist of color" who loves other women and/or men sexually and/or nonsexually, appreciates and prefers women's culture, women's emotional flexibility and women's strength and is committed to "survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female" (Walker 1983:xi). She firmly locates womanism within black matrilinear culture deriving the word from womanish
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used by black mothers to describe girls who want to "know more and in greater depth than is considered 'good' for anyone" and whose behavior is "outrageous, courageous or willful" (Walker 1983:xi). Thus, the emphasis is clearly on a behavior which is at the same time responsible and playful, fearless and compassionate. In Walker's more metaphorical definition of womanism: "Womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender" (Walker 1983:xii), she distinctly extols womanism and sets it apart by comparing it to the strong color of purple which is often described as the royal color. Feminism pales in comparison by being associated to weaker lavender and this appraisal reminds one of the debates whether feminism really lost its appeal to many women during the 1980s and 1990s. Lavender as paler color is also cleverly associated with the notion that feminism is related more to white women than colored. As Montelaro aptly notices: "This contrast of hues in Walker's definition is consonant with her political intention to demonstrate the crucial difference between the terms 'womanist' and 'feminist': according to the semantic analogue she constructs, an exclusively white, bourgeois feminism literally pales in comparison to the more wide-ranging, nonexclusive womanist concerns represented by the rich and undiluted color purple" (Montelaro 1996:14).
Past perspectives on womanism 306 The divide between white and colored women can be traced back to the very beginnings of feminism as a movement. Although at the start, the goal of feminism was to win equality and suffrage for women, already in the nineteenth century it became clear that there were two separate women's movements since white women refused to support the struggle of black women for their rights. For example, in the U.S., white women, especially in the South, built their ego by oppressing black women who were at the bottom of the social ladder. Refusal of white women to acknowledge the basic rights of black women can be found in many testimonies of slave women such as Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Wilson. In her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman" Sojourner Truth questioned such policies of white women and demanded equal rights for all women. Frances Harper emphasized the painful choice black women had to make during their struggle for suffrage in the 19th century since they had to seek the support either of the black men who demanded their own right to vote or of the white women. Since white women rejected black women's claim to the same civil and political rights, they decided to support black men in their struggle although that meant postponing attainment of their rights. Another good example is the story of Saartjie Baartman who was taken from Africa as a slave and then paraded in England and France as a freak because her physique did not correspond to Western standards. Instead of being treated as a human being, she was objectified and derogatorily dubbed as the Hottentot Venus. The rift between white feminists from western countries (or so called First World countries) and colored women from minority ethnic groups and economically underdeveloped countries (often referred to as the Third World countries) remained. Similarly to patriarchy which rests upon binary oppositions in which man always occupies the first part in the equation and is seen as the norm, while woman is seen as his opposite, as weak, unfulfilled, as the Other, feminism started to operate on the same principle of binary oppositions, but this time it was the colored woman, the poor woman who was seen as the Other because of her difference in terms of origin, race, ethnicity and class. Michie contends that white feminists wanted to preserve their position of speaking subject and that they marginalized colored women because they did not fit into the prescribed norms (Michie 1991:60).
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Spivak and Allen also criticized white feminism which according to them consisted of various forms of elitism and cultural imperialism 307 reflected in the imposition of white women's norm upon the rest of womanhood. In their opinion, feminism kept the axioms of imperialism alive by accepting and utilizing the ideology of individualism which was at the center of colonial forces designating the first place to white western citizens who were seen as subjects and second or third place to colored people who were then seen as objects (Allen 1995a:2; Spivak 1991:798). Hence the division into First and Third world countries. Feminists accepted patriarchal policy and built their dominance at the expense of women of color's gains, by distancing themselves from them and excluding their work. As Baym puts it, "a difference more profound for feminism than the male-female difference emerged: the difference between woman and woman." (Baym 1991:73). In catering to the needs and goals of white First World women and operating from the premise of exclusivity, it did not include the needs and goals of colored women and Third World Women.
Womanism reflected the decision of colored women to clearly state their objections to such an exclusive position of white feminists and to create a paradigm which would incorporate values important to them. Not only did womanism distance itself from feminism, it also presented itself as stronger and more original thus applying the feminist strategy of distancing in order to underscore the restrictiveness of their paradigm. Womanists wanted to decenter white feminists and challenge the 'normality' of their perspective (Bryson 2003:228). As an alternative to dominant patriarchal and 309 feminist models, womanism served as an example of different modes of behavior and thinking, and retrieved the submerged history which led to the transformation and redefinition of existing norms and to the broadening of traditional views. According to Valerie Bryson, black women's analysis of the interlocking and interdependent nature of oppression has constituted a paradigm shift in feminist understanding: "Placing African American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a both/and conceptual stance, one in which all groups possess varying amounts of power and privilege in one historically created system" (Bryson 2003:229). While womanism does not claim that black women have discovered the "truth", their insight into the multi-faceted and interlocking nature of class, race and gender can enable awareness of other systems of oppression such as age, physical ability and sexual orientation (Bryson 2003:230).
Womanism thus grew from an answer to the exclusionary practices of feminism into a larger form of political activism and became a tool for colored women with which they could not only challenge policies which marginalized them, but more importantly, provide the framework for the empowerment of colored women and women from ethnic minorities all over the world. In order to build a womanist paradigm which rests upon notions of inclusion and support among women, womanism insisted on the selfsufficiency and self-confidence of women since they had to deal with racism and denigration on a daily basis, and emphasized the need for a strong community of women who would help each other and provide the support needed to resist oppression and patriarchal dominance and transform traditional systems into new ones in which they would have more possibilities to express themselves. In order to provide women with the positive values which would sustain them, Walker found inspiration in the matrilinear culture of African American foremothers which is largely based on the
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tradition of building networks among women. Many African American scholars and writers supported such solidarity among women. Solidarity enables different groups of women to support each other without insisting that their situation is identical; it also enables women to form alliances with oppressed groups of men.
Womanism strived to challenge all power structures which inhibit human growth and development and it largely contributed to the discussions about dynamics of power not just within feminist and womanist circles 310 but also on a more global scale. In her works, Walker painstakingly demonstrates that women become supporters of patriarchy when they subscribe to power games whose aim is to win dominance through the subjugation of others which can take many forms such as racism, sexism and classism. The answer obviously lies in steering away from dominating behavior and accepting a broader platform of interaction among women. That is why womanism placed to the forefront the commonality of female experience and introduced nonexclusive womanist alternatives to enhance social equality.
The branch of womanism concerned with spirituality developed into womanist theology which gained in significance during the first decade of the 21st century. Nnaemeika observes that the concept of womanism has had a profound influence on the formulation of theories and analytical frameworks in women/gender studies, religious studies, African American studies, and literary studies. Because of the interweaving of womanism and spirituality in Walker's project, many African American female theologians have incorporated womanist perspectives in their work. African American womanist theologians question the subordination of women and assume a leadership role in reconstructing knowledge about women. Prominent black womanist theologians and scholars of religion such as Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Katie Geneva Cannon, Delores S. Williams, Emilie Maureen Townes, and Marcia Y. Riggs bring womanist perspectives to bear on their church, canon formation, social equality, race, gender, class, and social justice. The impact of womanism goes beyond the United States and many women scholars and literary critics have embraced it as an analytical tool. (Nnaemeika) Thus, womanism continues to reinvent itself and functions as an operational paradigm which carefully monitors processes of creation and definition of the roles women play in their communities so that previous mistakes can be avoided and essential balance maintained. Womanism is still dedicated to the struggle against oppression and fragmentation and against any kind of behavior whose goal is to denigrate a community or an individual based on the difference in race, culture or class. It can therefore be asserted that womanism evolved from a policy to a philosophy of life. Walker voices this philosophy in her call to all women to create a platform based on the communality of female experience which would allow them to communicate better with one other.
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