The modern workplace can be fraught with disappointments. But, for Koa Beck, few setbacks reveal as much as the act of raising good ideas – only to have them shut down.
When the feminist writer, who identifies as queer and biracial, worked as an editor at a glossy women’s magazine, she would pitch stories about women who couldn’t afford to buy diapers, or the reproductive choices offered to the trans community. She’d receive a one-word reply, in all-caps: “NICHE.”
Over the last decade, Beck has held some of the most high-profile roles in women’s media. She’s served as an executive editor at Vogue. She’s been the editor-in-chief of Jezebel. There, she’d sit on panels about gender politics.
“Every time, young women would ask me about white feminism,” says Beck, speaking to SBS Voices, from her book-lined Los Angeles study ahead of her appearance at the Sydney Opera House as part of All About Women this month.
White feminism. Source: Supplied
“They were coming up against a white feminist ideology with their friends or while trying to discuss #MeToo with their family. I always took my own navigation of white feminism for granted. It always seemed like a professional skillset.”
White feminism, says Beck, has always been about ascending within the status quo. Enter the endless articles about narrowing the wage gap and climbing the corporate ladder.
In 2018, Beck left Jezebel to work on White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. The book explores the evolution of contemporary feminism and highlights the way it can unwittingly replicate patriarchal and racist structures.
Over the last few years, fourth-wave feminism has felt depressingly capitalist. In White Feminism, Beck makes powerful connections between a cultural moment shaped by ‘Future is Female’ T-shirts and women’s empowerment conferences and the suffragettes, who often broadcasted their message by partnering with brands.
In 1912, Beck writes, US department store Macy’s sold an official parade marching outfit, complete with “lanterns, a sash and a war bonnet.”
“The white feminists of 1912 embraced power and consumerism the same way fourth-wave white feminists do,” she says. “What is politically powerful is partnering with Macy’s, partnering with brands – not challenging the labour conditions of the women who make this feminist apparel.”
White feminism shares [colonial] ambitions,” she says. “This vision of dominance, white supremacy, using impoverished people as resources.
One of the most compelling passages of White Feminism points out that fourth-wave feminism often borrows the language of imperialism. Gender equality is so often framed as an effort to “win” or “master” or “conquer.” In Australia, Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson, a Goenpul and Quandamooka woman, first explored the connection between feminism and colonialism in her seminal 2000 book Talkin’ Up to the White Woman.
For Beck, the ideology of white feminism is extractive by nature.
“White feminism shares [colonial] ambitions,” she says. “This vision of dominance, white supremacy, using impoverished people as resources.”
In White Feminism, Beck tells the stories of Ida B. Wells, a Black American journalist who was asked to go to the back of a 1913 women’s march by white suffragettes.
But she also highlights the histories of resistance that have been erased by mainstream narratives – such as the Native women who fought against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock and Sylvia Rivera, a working-class Latina activist who was part of the 1969 Stonewall riots and campaigned tirelessly for criminal justice and trans rights.
Fourth-wave feminism often borrows the language of imperialism. It can unwittingly replicate patriarchal and racist structures.
White feminism, says Beck, has always been about ascending within the status quo. Enter the endless articles about narrowing the wage gap and climbing the corporate ladder.
“The feminism of now and a hundred years ago fixates on education and small business enterprise,” she says. “Whereas for most women and non-binary people in the world, their needs start much below that. It’s about being food secure, having affordable housing, healthcare, access to clean water.”
Beck believes challenging white feminism means rethinking what a feminist trajectory looks like. This means focusing less on individual success stories – the woman at the helm of a corporation, the glamourous influencer – and more on material realities and structural change.
“A domestic worker shouldn’t have to be a CEO to achieve a basic standard of living,” she says. “Marginalised people have always had to aspire to be seen by the movement – [which] goes to show how aspirational it has always been.”
Koa Beck will appear live via video link at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday March 7 at the festival.
