ABSTRACT
In “Have We Got a Theory for You!” (1983), Maria C. Lugones and Elizabeth V. Spelman called for feminism to incorporate authentic multicultural voices in order to be truly progressive and ethical. According to the authors, one problem with mainstream feminism was that it sought to be representative of “women’s voice,” yet the voice presented was one of the U.S. mainstream—white, heterosexual, and middle class. Thus mainstream feminism offered “an invitation to silence rather than speech” for women of color, poor women, women of different sexualities, and any women not of the mainstream. The very system of domination that subordinates women is replicated in much of the mainstream feminist movement—instead of hearing and respecting the multiplicity of voices, “some women’s voices are more likely to be heard than others” (Lugones and Spelman 1983, 476).
