Heads up # 2

On my morning tour of the blogosphere I came across this excellent rant/ response to anti-feminist propeganda on brutal women.

go read...

Not a Feminist

There's a really interesting post on Hugo Schwyzer's blog about anti- feminist young women. Considering the question of why so many bright young women reject feminism, Hugo observes:

I think most of the anti-feminist rhetoric we hear from certain young women today is tied up with a profound sense that to be a feminist is to embrace victim language. Somehow, someway, some young women have been given the false impression that feminism over-emphasizes women's powerlessness and suffering. The last thing many young women want is to think of themselves as victims, particularly when our popular culture promotes the ideal of the "hip, together woman" who can handle herself and "doesn't let adversity slow her down."

The "I'm not a victim and therefore not a feminist" mentality is something I've sensed in my own dealings with young female students. This is also one reason why Naiadies and I try and avoid the language of female victimization in the material we produce for Mind the Gap.

I have to admit that I'm not much different in this respect, because I generally resist regarding myself as a "victim." Yes, I say to myself, I've had some very bad experiences in my life, but these experiences do not define me as a person. I have to believe that I have autonomy and agency as a woman, that I can change my life, or, let's face it, I might curl up and never leave the house again. But, whereas I see feminism as offering me possibilities for resistance, the young women to whom Hugo refers define feminism as victim politics; indeed, as a language which wants to make them see themselves as victims of patriarchy. Obviously, I think this interpretation is based upon a misperception of feminism (as I understand the word). I agree with Hugo that feminism should be about giving women (and men) the tools for changing their lives and the world around them for the better. Surely feminism is concerned with trying to create a society that does not brutalize, oppress, discriminate against, or exploit anyone on the basis of their gender, but these young women want to deny that any such oppression exists in the first place.

Over the last few years, I've even met some extremely smart female students who will often hold forth with basically feminist views, while refusing to identify themselves with the movement. Last year, I had a lovely student who wanted to write an essay on women's poetry, but repeatedly told me that it was not going to be feminist essay and she didn't want to use feminism. I gently suggested that, if she wanted to write about women's poetry, she might find reading some feminist literary theory very helpful and inspiring, and perhaps she shouldn't do herself down on a potentially good essay just because she didn't like the word "feminist."

It's clear that backlash rhetoric in the media has done a rather fine job of making the word "feminist" into a perjorative term. Some young women now appear to regard feminism as itself a dictatorial and oppressive discourse, believing that if they become feminists they will not be "allowed" to wear make-up, or be feminine, or enjoy sex with men. Many others are also quite convinced that feminism is "over" and we've achieved everything we need to achieve. In the backlash imagination, women who continue to identify themselves as feminists are therefore either frightening extremists or pathetic, whingeing creatures who blame patriarchy for their own personal failures. As Hugo continues:

Young women like this flatter themselves into believing that sexism is just an excuse used by unhappy and unsuccessful women to explain their failures; the Rand devotees insist, with an almost heartbreaking naivete, that in the modern world any young woman can succeed at anything she wants if she tries hard enough, and she can do so by herself. Women's failure to achieve happiness, they defiantly declare, is due to individual shortcomings only, and not to broader social problems.

Of course these young women are ignoring, not only gender inequality, but also classism, racism and homophobia in their analysis of how the world works. The phrase "the personal is political" is supposed to counter precisely this kind of thinking. Patriarchal, capitalist, racist and homophobic society wants us to believe that if we are unhappy, it is because we have failed on a personal level, rather than because we live in a society that depends upon many institutionalized inequalities and oppressions.

The question for us, self-identified feminists, is how do we effectively counter this kind of insidious anti-feminist rhetoric? I can't answer that one yet, but I'm thinking.

p.s. Before we all get too depressed, I ought to say that I always have some students who do identify themselves as feminists and others who change their minds and become interested in feminist thought as they progress.

Twisty update.

People may or may not know by know that the fabulous twisty of "I blame patriarchy fame" has breast cancer. Today she has posted a picture of her post masectomy self and all I can say is fuck, that looks sore. Hopefully her bravery in posting these pictures will serve as a wakeup call to lazy fuckers like me who don't check their breasts regularly.

Sending our love and positive thoughts her way...

Heads up

Go read this excellent article by Natasha Walter in the Guardian on the wests recent love affair with biological determinism. That biology is increasingly being used to "put women back in their place" and that Medling with nature will "end in tears" is something that I believe should really be of concern to feminists. I'm going to try and think of ways that we could try and counter this trend, any ideas?

Go read this, she puts everything so much more articulately than I could. Thanks to Kameron Hurley at Brutal Women for the tip.

Mind the gap news update

Just a very quick news update. We had our first discussion night on Thursday last week and I'm pleased to say it was a sucess. There was a bounty of tea and cake which is always helpful, and the discussion lasted for a full two hours and explored many areas pertinant to global feminism, with no uncomforatble silences. We also had a good turn out and made a few new contacts. A special mention must go to Winter Woods who put in a lot of effort setting up the venue, publicising the meeting etc. Without her input I doubt it would have happened.

Mind the Gap News

All in all, we’ve had a pretty productive couple of weeks. Our membership is becoming increasingly European: we now have a German, an Icelandic and, from today, a Finnish member. Last week Naiades and I finally got round to emailing local women’s groups. So far, we’ve received very positive replies from Swansea Women’s Centre and Amnesty Wales – let the networking commence. I hope some of the others will respond. Almost all of the promised zine material has now been collected and I’d like to start uploading some of the articles to the blog in the next week or two.

Last week’s meeting went quite well. We discussed possible actions centred on the November campaign to stop violence against women. We decided that a reclaim the night march would be too much for us to organise here in Cardiff and, anyway, 8 people carrying banners would look rather silly. So, we settled on a consciousness raising poster campaign. With help from our new graphic designer member (hurrah!) we’re going to try and put together some striking posters which put responsibility back into the hands of the community. The posters will really be aimed at men, who are not in themselves violent, but are disinclined to think about these issues if they can possibly avoid it. Then we want to get them up all over Cardiff and distribute fact sheets about violence against women. We’re also going to hold an event on the 25th which will hopefully include a speaker, a video and, if I get my way, a T-shirt project.

We have the first feminist discussion night this Thursday. Originally, we intended to have it in the students’ union, but after some thought we’ve moved it to the Friends Quaker meeting house in Cardiff town centre. On the one hand, we want to make people from the wider community feel more comfortable about attending meetings and, on the other hand, I feel anxious about holding public meetings in the union. We don’t know whose coming, and if a non-student did any damage we could be in big trouble because they’re not really supposed to be there in the first place. I don’t know how it’s going to work out there, but we’ll give it a try for the autumn and find out.

One question, which bothers me, is how do we get members to take more collective responsibility for the group? At the moment, Naiades and I do most of the work, but in the act of doing that work we take the responsibility away from the others and perhaps institute an implicit, though unintentional, hierarchy. However, if we didn’t do the work, I have a feeling that there wouldn’t be a feminist group in Cardiff! Is this way it always happens? You end up with a few people running around like crazy trying to keep up with everything while the others say “What’s happening, when is it happening or why isn’t it happening?” They don’t entirely appreciate that they could be making it happen themselves. When we first began, we had this rather naïve fantasy that people would naturally take up roles in the group and even take over from us after a while. The important thing was to get a group up and running, after which it could look after itself. This is not what has happened…yet.

At the last meeting, I tried to do away with the word “committee” from our constitution because it sounds terribly formal and hierarchical. It’s actually just a hangover from our time as a student union society and we’ve never got round to getting rid of it. I feel that the idea of a committee may be part of the problem. But other members disagreed with me, saying we need some kind of central organising force...and a democracy is a democracy. I’ve compromised by calling these central organiser people “coordinators”. It sounds slightly less power crazed…I think. Nobody even think about suggesting "facilitator.” Liz goes nuts - she hates that word because it’s meaningless management jargon (“So is coordinator!” “Oh shut up!”). Perhaps there is a little bit of anarchist left in me, because I wish we could just be a happy collective with everyone taking equal responsibility for the groups activities, but I don’t’ think its going to happen for some time.

Suggestions and advice on this matter very welcome!

Scholarly stuff

If academic feminism does it for you, this is a lovely site: Thirdspace.

Another good feminist read

I've been a bit quiet recently because a virus, a touch of depression, and way too much work, have rendered me rather inarticulate. This is frustrating because I have some things I want to say about the nuclear family and abortion in particular. But I hope to have my argumentatve head back on by the end of the week. Last night I finished reading Alice Walker's collection of short stories You can't Keep a Good Woman Down. Obviously, The Colour Purple is required reading for all young feminists, but this should also be on the list. The stories range across the lives of black women in America, dealing with rape, pornography, abortion, sex, education and relations with white people, including white feminists. The characters are complex, difficult, and not always likeable, and there are no easy answers to the big questions.

???

Is anyone going to Ladyfest Brighton.