People-Who-Don't-Identify-As-Female Allies

I really like the idea that we discussed yesterday in class that non-female allies can be one of the most powerful and constructive forces for education and solidarity in relation to women's issues. The question is "how do we recruit more of these allies to our cause?" The feminist backlash in this country has been so successful that women don't even want to align themselves with the feminist movement, let alone men and other people who don't identify as female. Anybody have any suggestions or situations that have worked in your lives to get people other than women to care enough about deconstructing patriarchy to socially align themselves with feminist women? It seems like many of the men that I know that will actively call themselves a feminist are men that have been raised with sisters or a single mother or both (like my brother), but how do we reach out to other people that maybe don't have as much of a connection to women by their upbringing? Ideas/comments?

Shawna

Stupidity=Humor?????

Someone in class today made the comment that stupidity in relation to women's suffrage is humorous. I'd like to point out that the so-called stupidity is not stupidity at all, but ignorance due to the patriarchal society we live in and the education in which most are drowned by. In relation to human rights issues, I cannot think of a single issue or subject that is truly humorous for any reason. When humor is accepted as a means of interacting with human rights issues in correlation to education, problems are minimized to laughable nothings in everyday life that are not important enough to move beyond a quick giggle. When the very serious issues are minimized in this way, I cannot help thinking of 12 year old girls enslaved in the sex industry. Tell me, is the ignorance of little girls and their parents who become entwined in the sex industry humorous? Please, explain your views on this! I do not in the least bit understand.

_Trina

Love to Addie

Addie I heard you had a rough day today, just wanted to send you love and I think I speak for the whole class in saying we missed your presence and appreciate you so much, and are here to support you in any capacity. Hope you're taking care of yourself. You're amazing, even on off days.
heart, Kelsey/F word peeps

Small Actions can Maybe have Big Effects

A lot of us in class and on this blog have expressed feelings of helplessness and depression concerning our perceived inaction around issues of women's struggles in the world, and I have definitely felt those same emotions, especially after watching De Nadie. One thing I feel that we can all do is stand up to small comments and actions that appear in our everyday lives that perpetuate the cycles of inequality and oppression around gender, race, and class. What I mean is that when you are in a situation where something is spoken or acted out (a crude sexist or racist joke, an idea that is completely unfounded and wrong, essentially people lying and/or saying horrible hurtful things) please speak up and call them on it. In these situations we of course have to utilize all our powerful rhetorical speech and inter-personal and non-violent communication skills while still calling them on their bullshit. Even if you are speaking to someone that it seems will never take what you are saying to heart, you might be planting a little seed in their brain that will grow and manifest itself later in their life in other situations.

For example, I was in a situation where a man made a joke that essentially said that the best women to f$%# where the ones who have their mouths sewn shut (really), presumably because then they couldn't talk back. Of course I called him out on that horribly subjective and oppressive language and idea, and subsequently was painted as the up-tight feminist chick who "can't take a joke". This is the exact reason why many women won't speak up in these situations, because they don't want to be the lame buzzkill or fem-nazi of patriarchy's nightmares. So, that is the point in a woman's life where you decide to confront your own internalized oppression or you decide to shut up. My brother says I'm confrontational and I guess I am, but I just can't let those little comments go unanswered.

-Shawna

MoveOn.org and Political Awareness

Real political action!

If anyone else is experiencing feelings of helplessness about the situations we are discussing in class (or even if you're not) then I really think you should about this fantabulous organization called Move On www.moveon.org

How it works! First, you sign up! You tell them your name, email address, and zip code. Then, they email you ways that you (yes, you) can take direct action on their campaigns. They might email you a link to click and when you click it - BAM! your name is now on a petition that will be distributed to House Reps and Senators (and the press!). Or maybe when you click the link - BAM! you just send a form letter (or you can write it/add comments if you want) to a specific Rep or Senator, or more likely, to (using your zip code) your district/state's Rep/Senator telling them just how you feel about a certain issue!

Ongoing campaigns! I have 4 emails from MoveOn that are still in my inbox:

-Vote of whether MoveOn should not support the re-election of any Democratic Senator who would help the Republican filibuster of the public option version (non-watered down version) of the health care bill. Only one Democratic Senator is needed for a filibuster!

-Got an email with the number to call of my House Rep. to tell them that I support the public health insurance option – (she was one the Dems who hadn’t committed yet!)

-Petition asking Democrats to join President Obama in his (sort-of) boycott of FOX News (Obama has said he will not appear on FOX for the rest of the year) (http://foxnewsboycott.com/)

-Got the number to call AT&T to tell them I think they should quit funding the Chamber of Commerce and its efforts to “kill progress on clean energy, health care, workers' rights, and even financial reform”

That is from the last 4 days! Its a great, easy way to get through to the people who, believe it or not by how distant and disconnected from you they may seem, actually represent you in our government!

MoveOn has done some great things in the past - check out the "Successful Campaigns" tab at the top of the page.

ColorOfChange.org - affiliated organization - same format - focuses on racial issues in politics. Ongoing super-awesome action - due to one of their petitions over 81 companies have pulled their ad's from Glenn Beck's programs on FOX News. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Glenn Beck is an uneducated, racist DJ who likes to play pretend to be a political commentator. Irony - Beck got Anthony Van Jones (a co-founder of colorofchange.org) to step down from his position at Green Jobs - a part of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for (see if this sounds at all familiar) the incredible stir he caused after discovering that Van Jones at previously been associated with... dun dun dun! Marxist groups! It also became public that he signed a petition (he denies this) of an organization that questions the mainstream account of the events of 9-11, and he apparently called Congressional Republicans "assholes" in private. What the hell any of that has to do with creating environmentally friendly jobs - I don't know!

Political Awareness - I don't know much about gender issues but I do try to stay educated on political topics. Here are some great links!

CNN.com - duh!

Economist.com - must-watch site!

Politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ - accountability yay! (very fair and balanced, does a great job of tracking Obama's kept and broken campaign promises)

NYtimes.com

FOXNews.com - keep your enemies closer - make no mistake, FOX News is the enemy. “We’re going to treat [FoxNews] the way we would treat an opponent,” said Anita Dunn, the White House communications director. “As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.” - "Fox’s senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, says of the criticism from the White House, “Every time they do it, our ratings go up.” Mr. Obama’s first year is on track to be the Fox News Channel’s highest rated."

WashingtonPost.com

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/ - must read financial blog/column by Economics Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman - you may not understand all of what you read but you will learn! I find that a lot of young people are really in the dark about economics - you need to educate yourself! We all know we're in a financial pickle right now - how many of you knew a lot of people are blaming Alan Greenspan and the mountain of banking deregulation that accrued during his almost 20 years as Chairman of the Federal Reserve? How many of you knew that Obama has proposed a financial regulation reform bill? (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/422/create-new-financial-regulations/)

Hope this helps!

-Devin

shit's fucked up... what can we DO about it?

I don't know about you all, but I'm tired of sitting on my ass feeling guilty about all the stuff coming up in class. I want this post to be a sounding board for people to share ideas about activism and steps we can take to really make a difference, however small.

Here's some things I've thought of, or that we've discussed in class:

-Organize a clothes drive. This would be really easy. We could send the clothes to a womyn's shelter, or maybe to Dignity House, which is a great organization that does really important work. 

-Talk about the issues that come up in class with peers, friends, family members: spread awareness!

-Support one another in not shutting down and being proactive, support one other emotionally... we need each other!

-Freeskool is an awesome resource... maybe we could organize some freeskools around womyn's issues, immigration issues, human trafficking, homophobia/heterosexism, etc.

-Volunteer with Women's Empowerment Breakthrough

-Continue to educate ourselves... the books Cunt and Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil by Inga Muscio are AMAZING and also have some cool ideas about unique forms of activism, including...

-"Cuntlovin' Public Retaliation" which is a brilliant way of retaliating against rapists in our community... if womyn and men are willing to speak out and identify their attackers, we can come together and fight back, namely by publicly humiliating rapists. Do we have a rape crisis hotline for our college/community?

-Poetic Guerrilla Activism -- use your imagination... come up with creative ways to spread awareness, exert social disapproval of ... things you disapprove of

-Awesome resource guides collected by Inga Muscio: http://www.ingalagringa.com/links/

-Challenge peers and professors who use dominant-paradigm-enforcing language & white normatism

-Donate money or free time to organizations that fight hate-crimes, poverty, racism, AIDS, homophobia, etc.

-Volunteer at local food banks/drives, donate food

What else???

-Kelsey

bisexual gay and straight

Womyn/Wimmin

Alright, I never really understood this until recently. Wikipedia calls it "a form of the word without the connotations of a patriarchal society." Is that why those of you who use it use it? Do you apply it all women (womyn?) or just some? Is it ok if I, as a heterosexual male, use it? Should I use it? -you know, if I'm down with the cause.

What are your thoughts/feelings on the word. I'm really just totally curious.

-Devin

on facebook i wrote that i wanted to know what defined or embodies femininity to people. now i'm onto masculinity, thought these responses were cool, especially OUR VERY OWN KELSEEYYYYYY.

ariana
my apple dictionary just gave me the example of a "frilled blouse" under definition number one. haah....i think i'm gonna have to go with that. sounds accurate.
October 14 at 7:06pm

kelsey
such a hard question! to me actualizing ideal femininity would look like having the capacity to integrate polarities, (i.e. strength and vulnerability, nurturance and aggressiveness, reason and intuition/emotion, etc.) having deep compassion, a drive to act from a place of compassion, and the wisdom to know what actions are needed.So: internal strength, unconditional love, and wisdom....but part of me also thinks the entire femininity/masculinity idea is bullshit.
October 14 at 7:24pm

erika
my greatest embodiment of femininity is not having to define it to anyone ♥
Thu at 1:46am

rion
i like the last post♥
Thu at 9:16pm

k g
♥ i like <3s and a "frilled blouse" ♥ Fri at 10:01am

olivia
That is a really difficult question. I don't really think there's an answer but I mean there is always that physical aspect of 1 ) we can bleed for a week without dying 2) we can grow another complete human being inside us lwith very little assistance 3) we can push said human out of our vaginas and have it magically and elastically go back to ... Read Morenormal afterwards4) we have the capacity to create breastmilk which can magically create food for another human being from nothing ( literally, if you don't eat anything your body will take fat from itself as well as the fatty acids that sit along the brain stem to support the child)But of course then there's the issue of transgender individuals who have a much more ligitimatley feminine air about them than I do and I'm actually a FBF. There are so many different answers but all in all I guess that physically all women are pretty much radically powerful super heroes so those mens better recognize.
Yesterday at 10:50am


Later I really want to type up some notes I've jotted down relating to the F-word from other classes/experiences.

-addie

feminine wiles?

I had an interesting interaction last night at a party... these three guys were walking past me on their way to the side of the yard to smoke, having a loud conversation in which the word "faggot" was thrown out quite maliciously, though I missed the context it was used in. This being a huge trigger for me, I spoke up instantly, half shouting in a not-so-nice tone of voice into the darkness at them, and he replied in an extremely rude & aggressive tone... our exchange followed thusly:

"Blah blah blah faggot blah..."

"Excuse me, would you please not use that language?! Thank you!"

"Could you stop being such a bitch? Thank you!"

at which point I disengaged, not really feeling like being arrested for physical assault that night.

This all has a point I swear... I was wondering later on whether I could have handled the situation differently in order to really get the point across to him. Specifically, had I summoned my "feminine wiles" and donned a sweet smile and softly spoken the same words to him while touching his arm, would he have been more inclined to take my request to heart? Would I have still earned the B word?

The larger question beyond this specific scenario: Is using your "feminine wiles" sometimes a valid way to confront people and get results/subtly persuade men in order to get ahead or get what we need? Or are we merely perpetuating the gender role of sweet, subservient, helpless female, and sacrificing an opportunity to show that women can be direct and assertive?

I've heard women say that they've used their lady-charm to calm down big tough guys who were getting too rowdy, or to get maintenance men to specially help them out with technical difficulties, that simply directly asking in a neutral way wouldn't have accomplished. Wondering if y'all have any thoughts.

La Guera

Okay, I don't necessarily want to get ahead of the class here, but i figure just hearing Kelsey and Addie's input won't be too bad.

I'd like to start off by saying that parts of this article made me feel really uncomfortable and... bad. Bad isn't a good feeling word, how about sad, guilty, cowardly, and malicious. When the author is talking about "the oppressor" you know who she is talking about - white males. She then goes on about how I shit on people, how I make people hate themselves, and how I cowardly refuse to own up to my own personal feelings. Did anyone else feel this way? She uses a male pronoun for the oppressor so it may not have hit anyone other than Tim and me that hard. Accusing me of shitting on people is a graphic, powerful image that almost made me put this article down.

Secondly, white people are the largest racial group in the country I believe. Probably more so in the 1930's. White people founded the United States, we conduct our business in English. This is my point: Should we feel guilty for having a dominant culture and language? I agree that its messed up that the author feels she has to deny her roots and language internally to herself, but of course its going to help to speak the language and be a part of mainstream culture when trying to engage in mainstream society. In a conversation I had with my mother about sexism at her work (she is the VP of research and development at a chemical company) she said that most of the sexism she has experienced in not blatant but rather subtle, the CEO of her company is male and it is easier to schmooze with him and get close to him being a male. Likewise, its going to be easier to get ahead with people of one culture if you participate in that culture. I'd love to see an example of a country where this is not the case.

Thirdly, a few of the things she had to say about the middle class were a little ridiculous I thought. What exactly does the sentence "They had enough privilege to be athiests, for chrissake" even mean? Maybe my puny, pampered middle class brain can't see the obvious - that working class people are discriminated against in the atheist (non)community. Then she portrays the parents of every middle class kid as "Hollywood filmmakers." Of course she does. The image of some artiste sitting on their ass yelling out directions while being fanned and fed from trays by assistants is, I'm sure, much more typical of the middle class than someone who is hard-working, highly educated, and in a high stress job. I guess its not ok to say that working class people are lazy but its pretty much the norm to say that middle class people are. And why not? If someone from the middle class has anything its not because the earned it - its because they were given it, just handed it because they were White and middle class. And if someone from the working class doesn't complete school its not because they are lazy - its because they were so grieved by all the material possessions that other people have and they don't that they were literally bedridden.
Let me tell you a little something about White privilege in the 1930's. My great-grandfather, the son of immigrants and experiencing his own prejudice due to his Irish heritage, had spent his life building up a farm from the ground up with his own blood sweat and tears. Like so many others at that time he relied on annual loans to keep his farm afloat and when the great depression struck he defaulted on those loans and lost everything. He moved his whole family including my young grandmother to Memphis, TN where he taught himself how to fix watches to keep his family afloat. My grandmother, whose dream it was to be an aviatrix (a female pilot) was experiencing her own prejudice as her high school teachers told her girls could not learn physics. She ended up in nursing school, having to abandon her dreams due to prejudice and the finances involved in flight school, where she thrived and eventually became famous in the field of prenatal care, coauthoring several books and eventually touring the world lecturing and doing workshops, literally helping to change the way prenatal care is handled in hospitals. I could go on with my mother's story but I think you get the point I'm trying to make about how easy it was just because you were White back then and how you basically just got to coast on your ass without doing a goddamn thing. Hollywood filmmakers indeed.

-Devin