Locating feminism's subject: The paradox of white femininity and the struggle to forge feminist alliances

This essay examines the discursive practices of U.S. feminism to argue that Whiteness functions not only through that which is present within a text, hut also through its "rhetorical silences." Within this particular concert, Whiteness is understood as an communication phenomenon that produces and m aintains racial privilege for White feminists in ways that they do not ackn owledge. Thus the "subject of feminism" is paradoxically located in the int ersection between racial privilege and gender subordination in ways that co mpromise the possibility of feminist alliances. By examining the ways in wh ich Whiteness functions within various communication sites and the ways in which it positions White women to "speak," this essay pushes for more refle xive White feminist theory and praxis.