What’s in a Name?: Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond

Collins, Patricia Hill . 1996. “What’s in a Name?: Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond”.  The Black Scholar.  26(1): 9-17.

Noted black feminist scholar Patricia Hill Collins seeks to define and specify the terms in which black women can define their unique experiences and scholarly.  In the scholarly community there is great debate on which terms are all encompassing to the African-American female experience. Is it womanism (as defined by Alice Walker), black feminism, or simply part of the greater feminist experience? As Collins notes, most African-American women see no great different between the two terms as both terms are concerned with the intersection of racism and sexism (10).  Collins explores both terms and the theoretical implications (both negative and positive) of their use to define the viewpoint of black women. As defined by Collins (using Alice Walker’s previous definitions), “womanism” is the theory of the black woman’s experience which is concrete in the history of racial and gender oppression specific to African-American women while “black feminism” is more global ideology and encompassing social, sexual, political and economic issues that impact black women (12).  Both terms try to define the experience of black women outside of the terms of “feminism” which traditionally has been seen as a “movement for and about white and lesbian women”  (15), which remains problematic for black women. Collins argues that the debate should shift from issues of naming to how overlapping themes can be used for the greater good of drawing attention to issues concerning black women.

Collins’s definitions of both terms have been helpful in shaping my own lens within my own research. For the purposes of my research project, I choose to use the term “black feminism” in defining the ideology and theoretical approach I want to take in my assessment of blaxploitaiton. I take this stance mainly because I am dealing with the medium of film: a globally accessible item that can be viewed by black women across the Diaspora. Furthermore, I believe by examining films I can raise issues that are uniquely both important to feminist theory and important to discussions on race and gender; therefore, a unique juxtaposition between race and gender is at work in blaxploitaiton films. In addition, there appears to be more familiarity with the term “black feminist” than with the term “womanism”.