I'm not sure what definition of feminism they're working with, but I suppose they wouldn't consider the bloghers in the Caribbean as being overtly and politically feminist? Do we even consider ourselves as feminists?
I think Caribbean women are still wary of the term feminist because we hang in between this precarious balance of matrifocality and 'macho-manism.' It's an identity that I myself have grappled with, not just because I have a problem with labels, but also because I always thought there was nowhere within all the feminist ideological paradigms in which I could fit comfortably. More and more however we are coming to terms with notions of Black feminism and organizations like Cafra are making an effort to research and document the region's feminists, whether academic or community activist.
The problem, as I was saying last month when the celebration of International Women's Day came up, we still have no real women's movement in Trinidad. There are organisations that stand out in my mind: The Sistren Collective in Jamaica and Red Thread in Guyana. Red Thread, in particular, has stayed at the forefront of organising grassroots women, across ethnic barriers. But we are lagging behind and desperately need to have a consistent and clear voice of women's action and lobbying. Or perhaps it is because feminism as a movment in the West is so consumed with the academic, the esoteric discourse, or the focus on political action rather than building from the ground up.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't underestimate the value of our voices. It's easy to overlook the observations of women who are living and interacting on so many different levels in their own realities and still taking time to analyse and more importantly, document these interactions. These are not, I suppose, a true idea of feminist discourse. I anticipate, however, this will change: in the same way that in Caribbean history, the diaries and journals of plantation owner's wives are now considered to be legitimate and reliable historical texts, that give a more intimate (and I daresay, colourful) idea of life back then.
That said, I do think it’s time that we Caribbean women bloggers get more vocal about things going on in our society, particularly as it applies to women. Women are the backbone of our society and surprise surprise we don’t get the attention, support we deserve. So I guess we just have to start claiming it.
Those of us who have access to the technology need to share it with our sisters who don’t. Tell their stories because in a lot of ways they are our own.
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