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no easy-mode radicalism
Sep. 20th, 2007 11:55 amTo me, feminism is much more than a set of concepts and ideas about society. Actually, i'd even say that concepts and ideas are not even the biggest part of what it is about. The biggest part, in my opinion, is praxis - outward and inward action.
The inward part is probably the hardest. I mean, things like working at a DV shelter or a rape crisis hotline or doing outreach activism isn't easy, but it connects you with other people and you can sometimes tangibly see your results. That outward stuff is not as hard as the parts that you have to do alone. The parts that have no reward. The parts that involve facing things inside you that you don't want to face. Things done to you, things you've done, things you want to do or don't want to do, and how they fit into the overall pattern of oppression. Putting your thoughts out there and having them be challenged. Listening to someone's anger without storming off, and finding the voice of your own anger.
To me, feminism is at its core an intensely personal thing. And each of us only has a finite capacity for it. There's more work to do than we have the resources or energy for.
So feminists need each other. We rely on each other to hold us when we're quaking from the trauma. We rely on each other to back us up when everyone's against us. We rely on each other to call us on our shit and nudge us forward towards greater understanding. We rely on each other to listen and to be respectful, because at least then we know that someone will.
Feminist space is coalition space, not a safe space. So you will sometimes get angry there, sometimes sad, sometimes triggered. But there's no way around it, there's no other way to face the demons of internalized misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia.
At the Network La Red we've been nurturing a variation on this theme called "accountable space," so named to call attention to the need for being accountable to yourself and others while working to root out the tendrils of oppression in your own mind. It's a space where you are allowed to make mistakes, but to know that your mistakes will be pointed out. This is why coalition space can be such a scary, threatening place sometimes; because you don't always know when you're going to offend someone or be offended.
Nowadays you don't hear so much about consciousness-raising groups, and this is a big omission from modern feminism. Therein you talk about the 'mundanities' of your life, and others can help you to see the way your life choices, even down to the smallest things, are shaped or distorted by oppression. There's no other way to really grok how it works. You can't read in a book, you can't be told what to think, the light bulbs have to go on in your own head.
It *should* go without saying that in a feminist accountable space there has to be some sense of trust. You don't have to like the people you do this work with, but you have to know that they wouldn't sell you out at the end of the day. But unfortunately it *has* to be said because the closest most of us have to CR groups today are online feminist forums. And online, people do things they wouldn't do even in person.
None of us are perfect, so there should be latitude given for mistakes. But there are some actions that just cross the line. In a feminist accountable space, misogynistic behaviors like shaming should not be tolerated. This is one of the ways women are broken -- by being shamed, slut-shamed, shunned, ostrasized, etc. -- or by doing this yourself while knowing that as a participant you are safe from being the target.
Oppression is the business of traumatizing other people for your own gain. The goal and purpose of shaming is to traumatize. Therefore if you participate in the shaming of a woman, any woman, for any reason, you are being misogynist and anti-feminist.
Period.
I'm not saying it's okay to do this to a man, but especially it should not ever be done to a woman in the name of feminism. I don't care if she comes in wearing the emblem of the KKK and chanting poems about white supremacy - if you respond by shaming her you are no better than she is.
Now, i went on about "accountable space" because i want to be clear that i'm not saying that errors should go unchallenged. But one has to find ways to call someone on their privilege while still maintaining the goals of healing the wounds of oppression.
It's hard. It takes courage to respond with compassion to something that makes you boiling mad. It's easier to lash out and cause harm. But that's what got us into this mess in the first place, and every instance of it counts. There is no easy-mode radicalism.
The inward part is probably the hardest. I mean, things like working at a DV shelter or a rape crisis hotline or doing outreach activism isn't easy, but it connects you with other people and you can sometimes tangibly see your results. That outward stuff is not as hard as the parts that you have to do alone. The parts that have no reward. The parts that involve facing things inside you that you don't want to face. Things done to you, things you've done, things you want to do or don't want to do, and how they fit into the overall pattern of oppression. Putting your thoughts out there and having them be challenged. Listening to someone's anger without storming off, and finding the voice of your own anger.
To me, feminism is at its core an intensely personal thing. And each of us only has a finite capacity for it. There's more work to do than we have the resources or energy for.
So feminists need each other. We rely on each other to hold us when we're quaking from the trauma. We rely on each other to back us up when everyone's against us. We rely on each other to call us on our shit and nudge us forward towards greater understanding. We rely on each other to listen and to be respectful, because at least then we know that someone will.
Feminist space is coalition space, not a safe space. So you will sometimes get angry there, sometimes sad, sometimes triggered. But there's no way around it, there's no other way to face the demons of internalized misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia.
At the Network La Red we've been nurturing a variation on this theme called "accountable space," so named to call attention to the need for being accountable to yourself and others while working to root out the tendrils of oppression in your own mind. It's a space where you are allowed to make mistakes, but to know that your mistakes will be pointed out. This is why coalition space can be such a scary, threatening place sometimes; because you don't always know when you're going to offend someone or be offended.
Nowadays you don't hear so much about consciousness-raising groups, and this is a big omission from modern feminism. Therein you talk about the 'mundanities' of your life, and others can help you to see the way your life choices, even down to the smallest things, are shaped or distorted by oppression. There's no other way to really grok how it works. You can't read in a book, you can't be told what to think, the light bulbs have to go on in your own head.
It *should* go without saying that in a feminist accountable space there has to be some sense of trust. You don't have to like the people you do this work with, but you have to know that they wouldn't sell you out at the end of the day. But unfortunately it *has* to be said because the closest most of us have to CR groups today are online feminist forums. And online, people do things they wouldn't do even in person.
None of us are perfect, so there should be latitude given for mistakes. But there are some actions that just cross the line. In a feminist accountable space, misogynistic behaviors like shaming should not be tolerated. This is one of the ways women are broken -- by being shamed, slut-shamed, shunned, ostrasized, etc. -- or by doing this yourself while knowing that as a participant you are safe from being the target.
Oppression is the business of traumatizing other people for your own gain. The goal and purpose of shaming is to traumatize. Therefore if you participate in the shaming of a woman, any woman, for any reason, you are being misogynist and anti-feminist.
Period.
I'm not saying it's okay to do this to a man, but especially it should not ever be done to a woman in the name of feminism. I don't care if she comes in wearing the emblem of the KKK and chanting poems about white supremacy - if you respond by shaming her you are no better than she is.
Now, i went on about "accountable space" because i want to be clear that i'm not saying that errors should go unchallenged. But one has to find ways to call someone on their privilege while still maintaining the goals of healing the wounds of oppression.
It's hard. It takes courage to respond with compassion to something that makes you boiling mad. It's easier to lash out and cause harm. But that's what got us into this mess in the first place, and every instance of it counts. There is no easy-mode radicalism.
