24 5 / 2013
This is the last thing I’m going to write about “Monosexual Privilege” and “Monosexism”.
I don’t object to the “Monosexual Privilege” checklist because I don’t believe bisexual people are oppressed; I object to it because the sexualities of lesbians, gay men (and, I would say, straight women) are not privileged.
The “Monosexual Privilege” checklist purports to be about the systemic oppression of bisexual people, but by the nature of its format centres the oppressor class (which I’m not denying is often a useful thing to do), whilst including lesbians, gay men (and straight women) in this class by nature of its title and wording. We do not systemically oppress bisexual people, even if some of us collaborate in that oppression. Besides which, that collaboration can go the other way as well.
I object to the idea of hierarchising relative oppressions because as soon as you draw a line, you draw it through someone. Sometimes lines have to be drawn of course (like in battle. With patriarchy!) but I see a line being drawn between lesbians and bisexual women and I see a lot of us being cut. As a feminist, I cry blood over this.
Seeing this happen was in fact how I started looking into the issue properly. The two posts below give you some of my less jaded thoughts, before Tumblr darkened my soul, when I had faith like David before the Goliath of established online presences and their book deals.
http://startmeoff.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/reppin-for-the-not-exactly-straight-sisterhood/
http://startmeoff.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/what-women-want-from-each-other-in-the-lgbt-queer-community/
I can’t figure out a why of stopping people from reblogging this, but please be mindful of the fact that if I could, I would. I do not want to get dragged into another debate.
19 5 / 2013
On Having Opinions
I find the idea of ‘right to an opinion’ deeply weird. Having an opinion is never something I’ve been able to help and it would be impossible to prevent me from having one (or many). That being the case, my ‘opinion rights’ only become relevant when it comes to what I actually do with them. Do I have the right to express my opinion? Hopefully. Do I have the right to an audience for my opinion? Only if the audience wants to listen. Do I have the right to try and impose my opinion on them anyway? Not about Israel-Palestine, particularly not if they’re Palestinian – that could be quite a painful topic for them.
Why do so many men who want to talk about ‘women’s issues’, women’s rights, women’s liberation, women’s oppression, women’s struggle, not get that?
10 5 / 2013
When feminists tell you you need to be more “level headed” because you disagree with them, you think to yourself “Do you not know feminist history? Do you not know about gaslighting and tone policing? Do you not know what we’re not meant to act like?”
10 5 / 2013
Depression Is Not a ‘Men’s Issue’ - It’s a Class Issue
Surely no article on suicide and depression should be able to just mention, in passing, as though there were no greater interest to these facts, that there has been a spike in suicide rates since the beginning of the recession and that working class men and incarcerated men are the most likely groups to commit suicide. Articles that do mention these facts in passing should at least not fail to mention how disproportionately likely men from ethnic minorities are to comprise these last two groups.
Or, the fact that the ’wealth’ of literature and coverage dedicated to men’s suicide rates ignores class and race and focuses instead on gender should be telling us something.
30 4 / 2013
"Most of the feminists whose blogs I read state that it is meaningless to discuss gender equality without taking class inequalities into account. I think this is true; if your own advancement depends on the oppression of others, what right do you have to claim it as a victory for justice? But there’s a bastardised media version of this position, one which seems to exist only to ridicule the idea that feminism can be principled. It’s an almost gloating “ha! Look at the powerful women, feminists! Is that what you wanted, huh? See what you’ve done!” But is it fair to hold up this image of powerful women as more representative of feminism than it is of power and what it currently means in a grossly unfair society?"
27 4 / 2013
Naked Women’s Bodies
Content Note: refers to the fetishisation of trans* women and women who are not white and also to the view of cis and white as defaults.
Between the ongoing comeback of burlesque, the No More Page 3 campaign and the furore around Femen’s antics, feminists seem to have been doing a lot of thinking about naked women’s bodies recently.
All of which rests on the assumption that women being naked matters.
It certainly does matter in the examples I’ve cited – burlesque shows, Page 3 and Femen protests all have in common that they would be conceptually, essentially, existentially different if they didn’t involve women baring their flesh.
The whole point of these spectacles is that women are at least partially naked in them.
Which means that whatever else women are doing, the amount of clothes they are wearing makes a categorical difference.
27 4 / 2013
"
When I post statuses on Facebook or Twitter advocating for what I believe in, some people say to me that they don’t want feminism rammed down their throat — well I don’t want the Patriarchy rammed down mine so I guess one of us is going to have to give.
And it’s not going to be me.
"
23 4 / 2013
Self-selecting Universes
By which I mean Twitterverses and Tumblrverses. They are wonderful things in many ways and I don’t judge anyone who’s weeded out all but the most precisely in-line with their politics from their online spaces. I know that my token gesture towards ‘balance’ is following the Economist and the BBC and never reading any of the links they throw into my feed.
However, I feel like there would be a lot less in-fighting in my T-verses if theyweren’t so self-selecting.
By which I don’t mean ‘If only trans* people/ POC/ working class feminists/ whoever wouldn’t shut themselves off from the world, they’d realise (we) white middle class cis feminists are the good guys’.
20 4 / 2013
"3 percent of the decision-making in media comes from women. That means 97 percent of how women are portrayed is decided on by men."
Independent Lens, PBS
“Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines” (via ihopeyoucontinue4ever)
It also means that 97 percent of how men are portrayed in media are decided on by men. Something to remind MRAs and their ilk of when they complain about the stereotype of men as inept slobs, bad fathers, etc in media and advertising.
Men have the power. So when we men are shat on by the powers that be you don’t get to try and blame women for that.
(via karethdreams)
(via fluffyfemme)
