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
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
hmmmmmmmmmmmm right off the bat i'd go with discussions around how patriarchy CRIPPLES male sexuality and emotional expression.
ReplyDeletei'm gonna really think about this, and how it's played out in my life in recruiting male allies.
nice entry
-addie
Just by sharing what I have been learning in this class with my partner has made me feel like I have a male allie which has been pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteAside from that just to share a fun story, I was on a weekend camping trip with one of my classes and the group I was in was all male. There was one point where one of the men called another one a 'pussy'. I hesitated in saying something but right then the TA in my class (a male) said to the one who had made the statement, "Pussys are pretty stong, man"
It definately made him think twice about what he had said and he acknowledged that it was true and it made me smile :)
-Alicia