Former first lady Barbara Bush died on Tuesday of this week. Living presidents remembered her for her grace and wisdom. They described her as candid and strong. It’s customary to recognize a former political leader for their contributions to the country.
She was also gracious, and while her husband was president, they would host an annual summer picnic at their seaside home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for the reporters on duty covering them.
Mainstream feminism often looks like this, like “Yas Queen!” tote bags and pussy hats and glossing over of the experiences of women who aren’t wealthy, privileged and white. But true feminist movements must be well-researched, intersectional and leave room for difficult critique of other women to truly move us toward empowerment and equality.
Posting this tweet for Barbara Bush is the latest of recent events that leads me to believe that the Women’s March is not only oblivious to the former first lady’s history, but they’re also unaware of how to properly stand in the gap for all women.
Barbara Pierce Bush, whose memorial service will be Saturday, lived a life that spanned and reflected a social revolution in opportunities and expectations for women. She was born just five years after women won the right to vote in the USA. She dropped out of Smith College to wed George Bush when getting married and having children was the expected course for women. Her husband ended up running for re-election for vice president against the first woman nominated by a major party for national office. Two years before her death Tuesday, one of her sons sought the nomination that would have had him running against the first woman nominated by a major party for president.
Feminism cannot be about supporting women just because they’re women. There needs to be nuance and difficult conversations. For all Barbara Bush did in encouraging former President George H.W. Bush to acknowledge the suffering of AIDS patients in the 1980s and to increase literacy in the U.S., she cruelly attacked victims of sexual harassment, Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. If the Women’s March or any feminist movement can’t be a forum for these kinds of complicated critiques, it serves no real purpose. They’re simply another platform for white women to receive unquestioned accolades. We need something like the response former first lady Nancy Reagan received upon her death: a hard look at the ways she influenced terrible policy, like the racist War on Drugs and the AIDS epidemic, and how she allowed thousands to die because of her biases.
