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Valuing Narratives of Hybridity and Multiplicity

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Valuing Narratives of Hybridity and Multiplicity Valuing Narratives of Hybridity and Multiplicity Tania Trepanier ABSTRACT By providing parallel critiques of US Third World feminism and radical lesbian feminism from the perspective of bisexual feminists and feminists of mixed race, ethnicity, and culture, this author argues that theories concerned with power, privilege, and social change would benefit from a valuation of narratives of hybridity and multiplicity. RESUME Ayant a I'appui des critiques paralleles de la perception feministe americaine sur le Tiers Monde et du feminsme lesbien radical en partant du point de vue des feministes bisexuelles et des feministes de race mixte, de 1'ethnicite et de la culture, cette auteure affirme que les theories reliees au pouvoir, au privilege et au changement social tirerait profit d'estimer a leur juste valeur les recits sur le hybridite et sur la multiplicite. Some days the line I walk turns out to be US THIRD WORLD FEMINISM AND THE straight INVISIBILITY OF MULTICULTURALITY Other days the line tends to deviate (Problematically in a bicultural bilingual white I've got no criteria for sex or race woman's voice) I just want to hear your voice I just want to see your face. Third World feminism emerged in North -Ani DiFranco America as a reaction to hegemonic white western feminism and has provided important critiques of INTRODUCTION: THEORIES, QUERIES, the exclusion of Third World women and women of QUESTIONS color in many feminist analyses of women's (In a woman's voice) 1 oppression. Chela Sandoval suggests that US Third World feminism proposes an "oppositional My theorizing is concerned with the consciousness" that leads to the questioning of "in-betweens." My critique, therefore, is directed at white western feminisms (1991, 1). Yet, has Third theories which are potentially exclusionary by World feminism, like the feminisms it critiques, neglecting the experiences of people who have fallen short of recognizing diversity of experience hybrid identities such as bisexuals, people of mixed within the category "Third World woman?" Does race, and people who have grown up in multiple Third World feminism reify monolithic cultural contexts.2 Two theories which may oppositional categories "white woman" and "Third participate in this exclusion are US Third World World woman," thereby rendering invisible hybrid feminism and radical lesbian feminism. I argue that women? theorizing about multiculturality and multiracial Third World feminism has made important existence can enrich US Third World feminist contributions to feminist discourse. Third World insights, and likewise that an inclusion of bisexual feminists such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Chela or "multisexual" experiences can improve radical Sandoval, and Maria Lugones have presented lesbian feminist contributions to feminist theory. excellent analyses and accounts of women's experiences of colonialism, patriarchy, globalization, and poverty. More specifically, US Third World Feminism has emphasized the need for I am half, my children half again, people of color (and members of any oppressed our blood thinning as our skin whitens, group) to have a separate "safe space." Women of the half-life of my culture one generation color who are angry as a result of the double blow long. of racism and sexism can take time away from My sisters don't recognize in me white women to heal. Gloria Anzaldua discusses the long cry back to the high hills this reaction to racism in Bridges of Power: "I think where I watched my sheep, that some women-of-color are, in these reactionary a warm cape for the chill night. times, in these very racist times, choosing to be (Julia Park Rodrigues qtd. in islands for a little while. These race separatists, Glancy 1994, 30) small in numbers, are disgusted not only with patriarchal culture, but also with white feminism The numbers of people are increasing and the white lesbian community" (1990, 223). whose experiences of oppression are in part due to However, Anzaldua also points out that being an their mixed heritage, whether it be their mixed race, island cannot be a way of life. Thus, some US Third culture, ethnicity, or religion. These people have World feminists see separatism as a protective experienced the ambivalence and confusion of reaction against racism and sexism, but also see it living with a mixed identity, of being as a temporary measure, particularly when it comes misunderstood, of feeling part of an oppressed to forming alliances to end white supremacy and group and a privileged group at the same time. patriarchy. Their "living heritage," or the cultural heritage that Third World feminism also provides an comes from lived experiences in different cultures analytical framework for discussing racism or needs to be valued along with their genetic heritage. antagonism between so-called "Third World" My own living heritage is multi-cultural and people. Internalized racism, or "introjecting," as inter-racial. I am the daughter of an American Anzaldua calls it, takes place when racial minority mother and French-Canadian father. From the age groups internalize the racism of the white majority, of six to fifteen, I lived in the Comoro Islands, resulting in racism between different racial Malawi, and Trinidad. Since returning to Canada, minorities (1990, 226). It is difficult to separate most of my relationships have been inter-racial and white racism from other forms of racism when inter-cultural. It is not surprising then that my European colonization has had such profound theorizing about race and culture should include an effects on much of the world. In Yearning, in her analysis of hybridity and multiculturality. Through chapter entitled "Third World Diva Girls," bell my experiences of racism and of the invisibility of hooks entreats women of color to be "ever vigilant, my own "living heritage," I feel that much of the living as we do in a society where internalized theorizing that goes on around race and ethnicity racism and sexism make it a norm for us to treat are dichotomous and over-simplified. A journal one another harshly and with disrespect" (1990, entry indicates my sentiments about this 94). So while there are problems with assuming complexity: automatic support and solidarity between different Third World feminists, Third World feminism has April 1st 1993. I wish I was completely provided an important analysis of power and mixed. I wish my grandmother was East oppression that contributes to our understanding of Indian, my grandfather Chinese, my other the history of colonialism and racism experienced grandmother black and my other by Third World people. grandfather another whole mix altogether. The whole issue of appropriation of WHAT MULTICULTURALITY HAS TO culture is so complex. Who has the rights OFFER THIRD WORLD FEMINISM to access what culture? Race is so (Unproblematically in Tania's voice) important, and at the same time it is meaningless. (Trepanier 1993) It is obvious that issues around race, racism, desire to be brown and "fit in" co-existed with a cultural appropriation, and representation are not sense that my whiteness was a sign of privilege. about to get any simpler. Increasingly, people in Among my friends, white was associated with North America are claiming hybrid identities, and Americans, who were envied for their access to the very often it is these people who provide important "American dream," but who were also ridiculed and insights into coalition building and cross-racial and stereotyped. After I proved that I could be just as cross-cultural understanding.3 In Toronto nearly "Trinidadian" as my friends by dancing to calypso one million people identified themselves as having music and by talking like a "Trini gyal," one friend multiple ancestry in the 1991 census (Tiller 1997, told me that when she first met me she thought, 7). There is a clear demographic trend in the United "Who is dis gyal wit' de corn colored hair?" As a States and Canada indicating that North Americans child in Africa, I remember my friends spending of white European descent will no longer constitute hours braiding their beautiful black kinky hair, and the large majority of the population. Researchers when it was my turn to have my hair braided, it was predict that given current immigration and fertility slippery and limp. When I lived in rural Rajasthan rates, by the year 2055 groups now classified as in India, women were astonished by the color of my minorities will outnumber whites of European hair; they asked me if I had a disease or if I had descent (Stix 1996, 22). This will be even more prematurely aged. It was not until the age of fifteen dramatically true in urban centers such as when my family moved to Canada that I was Vancouver, Toronto, New York, and the San exposed to a standard of beauty (fair skin, slim Francisco Bay area which are already so ethnically figure, and blonde hair) different from the many and racially diverse. versions I had grown up with. Many people are wary of inter-ethnic Growing up with mixed messages of relationships and marriages because of the privilege and identity meant that while I recognized misconception that hybridity will necessarily lead that my whiteness gave me privileges, it also gave to a dilution of ethnicity. This perceived danger of me a status as "other." On the streets in Trinidad, I "watering down" or "fading out" is given as a was frequently called "WHITEY!" or people would reason for people of the same ethnicity to protect shout, "Go back to South Africa, Afrikaner!" While their ethnic
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