Lorde's Duplicitous Theory

Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House, is bitey attack on the separation of feminist thought due to refusal for white feminist to recognize the inherent difference of the Black, lesbian and Third World woman.  While I applaud her gutsy and straight forward talking, her tactics were sort of cheap. She clumsily tried to clump the Third World, lesbian and black into one category. Which may be an identity for some, but for most these three things are quintessentially different.

I doubt Third World women care to much about “being” progressive feminist with the many pressing issues that cloud their existence.  Perhaps marriage or human rights is a little higher on the priority list of a lesbian Oh and lets steer clear of the whole “black struggle” for I can spend many moons and even some suns on that topic.

Lorde needs to be cognizant that her collectivizing is just as harmful as the white woman ignoring the house keeper’s feminist thoughts. By trying to sound “provocative”, Lorde accidentally perpetuates the very thought pattern she condemns. Under her paper the Third World, Black woman and lesbian become one and their individual differences are blurred. Their goals are simply to be recognized by white women.

Despite this error, Lorde’s sort of spill-the-beans method was intriguing. An image of three overweight white women, fumbling through contacts, hastily trying to find a diverse black woman at the “last hour” stayed with me. She hints at something much greater than placing poor Black lesbians at a conference. She sheds light on the “token”. White America has clung to its colored representation; a few specs here and there and now are conference is set. This is problematic and while Lorde doesn’t spend much time on it, her illumination is welcomed and notable.