Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

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Jessica Williams in response to being told by feminists that she needs a self help group after saying she was under qualified for taking over Jon Stewarts position. (considering she’s 25 and at TDS for just a few years) Read more here.

Can I just explain how much I’ve loved Jessica and how significant her response to all this paternal “but let us save you, you poor soul!” response from Lean In™ feminists.

1) They love her because… why? I can’t be because of her intelligence and ability to be brilliant because automatically they infantilized her and stopped at nothing to reduce her to their imagined insecurity.

2) Can we just stop to think about how someone pointed out that “a man would  never say they weren’t qualified.” There’s a reason for that. There’s a specific arrogance and entitlement with white patriarchy that says you must prove that you’re the best at everything. There is no strength, with hegemonic masculinity, in being thoughtful about your strengths and rooms for growth. Instead of adopting toxic points of view - Jessica is mature and intelligent enough to say that based on her FIRST HAND experience with working on the show, she know her abilities and knows that at this time this is not a venue she’ll pursue - DESPITE WHAT OTHER WANT her to represent for THEM. Like, you have to sit back and examine how the arrogance and entitlement really shows through in the feminist backlash she received. “How dare you not give us the feminist we deserve in this space. Make it happen!”

3) It is very eye opening. And saddening. Because, like I said, what do these feminists want Jessica to represent? Why do they like her? It has to be that they can say “we have a black female role model that we pushed to the top and can take credit for” because it CAN’T POSSIBLY be that they actually believe that she’s intelligent and brilliant at her work - because if they believed in her brilliance they wouldn’t have dared to be so condescending and patronizing. It proved to me that they don’t actually believe in her intelligence as a black woman. They only believed in her being a prop for them. Which is the worst. SHE IS NOT YOURS. Black women are not your props nor your objects.

And of course, Jessica Williams showed her strength and blatantly obvious wit in defending herself, her choice and intelligence in this situation. It only made me feel strong in myself. In the face of having such systemic factors trying to tear her down, Jessica spared no expense in letting everyone know how much her brilliance burns. But also, which is what this all is about, how much thought she obviously placed in her initial decision in the first fucking place.

(via newwavefeminism)

(via lupinatic)