Black Feminist Symbols
A quick internet search will bring up all kinds of feminist pins, t-shirts, bags, you name it with this symbol printed on them.
Which is rad... if you're a black feminist. Many feminists make the (often innocent, admittedly) mistake that this is a generic feminist power symbol, when in fact it's a combination of the feminist venus symbol and the black power symbol, and was created by and for black feminists/womanists specifically and exclusively.
Frida Kahlo ANYTHING
I love Frida Kahlo, you love Frida Kahlo, we all love Frida Kahlo! She was an amazing, trail-blazing woman and a talented artist, and her adoration is well-deserved. However, people forget that she was an outspoken communist and therefore extremely anti-capitalist, so a white girl printing her face on a t-shirt or a button and selling it on Etsy really is super disrespectful to her memory.
So white feminists (or anybody really, but mainly white girls), please do not buy or sell t-shirts, pins, iphone cases, etc. with Frida's face on it.
If she were alive today to witness this phenomenon, she'd call you a gringoand laugh in your face.
*Casual Cissexism*
Uteruses and vaginas are demonized in our culture, so by all means we should celebrate our bits, and there's nothing wrong with showing pride towards your ovaries - just don't equate having them with being a woman.
Plenty of women don't have vaginas, or ovaries, or uteruses, etc, and some men do have these organs. We cis girls can love our vaginas, so long as we recognize that a vagina does not equal womanhood or even femininity. Don't be thattrans-exclusionary feminist who ignores or demonizes trans women.
Iconography of racist and trans-exclusionary feminists
Susan B. Anthony, celebrated feminist icon, was a racist. But, you may argue, she helped improve women's standing in society! Yes, that's true. She helped improve the social standing of white women.
There are a million and one better feminist icons than white supremacist or trans-exclusionary women of her ilk. Why get a Susan B. Anthony poster when you could get a poster of Angela Davis, bell hooks, Julia Serano, Sylvia Rivera, or Marsha P. Johnson?
And if you want to honour feminists of old, why not celebrate Sojourner Truth and other black and women of colour feminists?
Get your heroes straight, girl!
Obnoxious Sex-Positivity
Okay, you like sex. Maybe you like sex a lot. Cool, there's nothing wrong with that! But sorry to tell you, there's nothing radical about that, either.
The fact of the matter is,women of colour (especially native women), women in poverty, queer women, and disabled women are more likely to experience sexual violence and harassment than heterosexual, middle-class white women , so reclaiming the word "slut" or proclaiming how much they love sex is not necessarily going to be liberating for them. The appeal of sex-positivity/reclaiming the word slut, etc. has a lot to do with white privilege, class privilege, and able-bodied privilege.
Of course, women of any background or experience can be sex-positive or reclaim the word slut if she wants to; just be respectful about it and don't expect all other women to do or feel the same.
P.S. there are also rape victims/survivors, asexuals, ace-spectrum women, etc. who have little to no interest regarding sex, so sex positivity isn't *necessary* for feminism.
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