“The Black Feminist tradition grows not out of other movements, but out of the condition of being both Black and a woman. It is a long tradition which resists easy definition and is characterized by its multi-dimensional approach to liberation.” - The Revolutionary Practice of Black Feminisms, National Museum of African American History & Culture

Critical Black Feminism has organically occurred at several different points in history. Black feminist movements didn't simply grow out of a lack of representation in mainstream feminist movements. These movements were crafted and molded because of the unique struggles of everyday Black women who experienced the reality of how race further perpetrated the misogyny they experienced. Rather than be considered weak, docile, and incapable (as white women were often viewed), Black women were considered tough enough to accept harsh mistreatment, even going as far to claim they were deserving of it.

Over time, men traditionally felt it was their duty to protect and provide for women. But Black women have historically been seen as a strain to society and unworthy of resources or care. When “sexual virtue” is often highly praised for women, assaulting Black women is horrifically seen as acceptable because these women are often viewed as animalistic and undeserving of human civility.

Black women can also be fetishized for their “exotic” traits, which are really physical or cultural traits that are inherent and unique and beautiful. Black women are considered to be women of “low virtue” or “jezebels” simply because of those neutral inherent traits. Beyond that, Black women are seen as aggressive, unkempt, and obnoxious. Many Black feminist leaders, especially in the United States, formed critical feminist movements because established feminisms not only excluded the Black struggle, but even argued that it distracted from women’s issues.

“While there were significant conceptual tensions between second-wave feminism and traditional lesbian and gay studies, queer feminism offers a paradigm for understanding gender, sex and sexuality that overcomes this conflict in order to foster solidarity between those campaigning for women's rights and those for LGBTQ rights.” Feminism is Queer, Mimi Marinucci

Queer Feminism acknowledges political homophobia and counters mainstream feminism by pointing out how these actions are shaped by cis-sexist, heterosexist, misogynist, and patriarchal values. Issues such as the commodification and fetishization of lesbian relationships, or the violence often endured by transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Particularly the amount of missing and murdered transgender women and two-spirit people. Heteronormalcy is a double-edged sword. Queer feminism affirms that oppression of queer people, regardless of gender, and oppression of cisgender women are intricately linked.

“...it became evident that many mainstream US frameworks of feminism were still rooted within western notions of progress and oppression that foregrounded the points of views of white, middle-class, and liberal feminism. Transnational feminism critiqued the assumption of a global sisterhood, rooted within white, middle-class, western feminist subject positions that frequently have ignored non-western cultures, geopolitics, and paradigms, and the lived experiences of women in the Global South. Furthermore, transnational feminism and feminists attempt to dismantle the hegemonic power structures implicit in this divide between western feminists as ‘saviors’ and feminists attempting to save the disadvantaged women from non-western spaces.” - Transnational Feminisms, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and Kiana Anderson

“Proponents of abolition feminism understand that the state’s criminal legal system works as it was designed: to maintain a racist, patriarchal, and capitalist order of social control through violence. These feminists seek to abolish the Police and Prison Industrial Complex (PPIC), a set of ‘overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems’ like poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness, to name a few. The PPIC, they argue, exacerbates the very problems it claims to solve.

Instead, abolition feminism contends that interpersonal and structural violence must be addressed together by combining critical analysis with praxis for social transformation, rather than punishment for social control.” - What Is Abolition Feminism and Why Do We Need It Now?

Abolitionist Feminism addresses the systemic realities that create individual cases of harm and shuts them down without the use of punitive functions which perpetuate the cycle of harm.

White-settler feminism can be traced to the Suffragist Movement, but the origins of feminism in American Indigenous communities aren't clear. In many Turtle Island cultures, females are considered powerful and sacred. Often more significant than males, due to strong parallels drawn between the female power to give life and the power of the earth. Inheritance and property rights were usually passed down through the female line, giving Indigenous females more freedom in their sexual decisions compared to European females.

Strict gender binaries and subjugation of women were factors in European colonization. Many tribes respected individuals with non-binary genders who made important contributions and held significant roles. However, colonization resulted in violence against Native women, limiting their societal roles and leading to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as targeted violence against non-binary Native people.

Many Indigenous people believe that colonization is inherently patriarchal and that decolonization is the only way to address this. They see a difference between white-settler feminism and Indigenous feminism, with the latter emphasizing a return to traditional roles and customs rather than the focus being on seeking equal rights. Consequently with this movement towards revival and revitalization, Indigenous Feminism focuses on communal liberation and is historically tied to environmentalism.

“Anarcha-feminists do not say that women should get an equal share of the power. Instead we say that there should be an abolition of all power relationships. We do not want a woman president. We want no presidents at all. To us equal wages for equal work is not the crucial issue. Hierarchies and power distribution is.” - Feminism as an Anarchist Process, Elaine Leeder

Anarchist Feminism opposes the use of coercive hierarchy perpetuated by the patriarchy in a way consistent with anarchist power analysis. It pushes against the typical feminist asks of equality for women in institutions and instead calls for the abolition of institutions in general, making these calls for equality unnecessary.

“[Marxist Feminism] argues that women’s oppression is linked to the gendered structures of capitalism and the system of private property. Marx’s division of labor into productive—that is, remunerated labor mainly done by men—and reproductive labor which is unpaid and carried out by women constitutes the basis of women’s inequality in patriarchy.”

Marxist Feminism sees the ways that women are oppressed on the basis of gender through capitalist systems and the ownership of private property. This feminism puts heavy emphasis on the existence of the patriarchy and how it owns and directs the systems of capitalism.