In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: April 2007

Self-Determination

(Thanks both to Blue and to MrSoul)

Eli Clare posted the text of his speech from the FORGE Forward Conference on his journal:

All my life as a genderqueer crip, I have puzzled my way through bodily difference, struggling with my own shame and love, other people’s pity and hatred. Yesterday I helped facilitate the Disability Gathering here at the conference. We spent the day, disabled people and our allies telling stories, laughing, crying, and sitting quiet. It reminded me of the incredible importance of community, how bodily difference means one thing in isolation and quite another when we come together, finding ourselves reflected in each other’s stories.

My first experience of queerness—of bodily difference—centered, not upon sexuality or gender, but upon disability. Early on I understood that my body was irrevocably different from my neighbors, classmates, playmates, siblings: shaky, off balance, speech hard to understand, a body that moved slow, wrists cocked at odd angles, muscles knotted with tremors. But really, I am telling a kind of lie, a half truth. Irrevocably different would have meant one thing. Bad, wrong, broken, in need of repair meant quite another. I heard these every day as my classmates called retard, monkey, defect, as nearly everyone I met gawked at me, as my parents grew impatient with my clumsiness. Irrevocably different would have been easy compared to this. I stored the taunting, gawking, isolation in my bones; they became the marrow, my first experience of bodily difference.

Because of that, I have always come to community hungry, seeking reflection, wanting dialogue, hoping for a bridge. I know I’m not the only one. Tonight I want to continue my puzzling through bodily difference, spanning the distance between disability politics and trans experience.

I don’t have much to add besides “Go and read it,” so, go and read it.

We’re getting tired of prying your guns from your cold, dead hands

Gun control isn’t exactly my #1 issue. I’ve never touched a gun in my entire life, but I hear they can be a lot of fun on the shooting range. I don’t really get why leaving the gun industry totally unregulated is such an important issue for folks, but I do get why folks want the right to own guns. And I do think our completely unregulated gun culture is totally out of control. I also think it’s a losing political issue for Democrats (they seem to think so, too).

Since this VA-Tech shooting, there have been quite a few op/eds written about gun control. It’s obviously not as simple as “if there was gun control this would never have happened,” but our gun culture is pretty scary. The fact that our culture also embraces an ideal of masculinity that relies on “toughness” and aggression doesn’t help.

Without fail, whenever gun control comes up (or even whenever sexual assault or other forms of violence against women come up), someone chimes in with the argument that a woman can protect herself by toting a gun in her handbag, and that women owning guns is feminist. The “gun ownership is feminist” argument is often trotted out by anti-feminists in feminist clothing. And the gun-toting little girl at the top of this page provides seemingly unending fodder for unsympathetic readers looking for a “gotcha!” point (for the love of God — and for the last time — it’s irony, people, not a call to arm four-year-olds).

So the feminist/gun thing comes up fairly often, and it’s through that lens that I read Elayne Boosler’s op/ed in the Huffington Post today. I don’t agree with every word, but it’s a very good read, so do check it out. But here’s what stood out to me:

The number of children under the age of 17 shot by guns in America every year is greater than the gun-related deaths of children in all the industrialized nations of the world COMBINED.

Here is the population of Japan: 127,463,611.

Here is the number of children killed by guns in Japan every year: 0.

A 2001 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study found that in homicides among intimate partners, women are murdered more with guns than with all other means COMBINED.

In 2004, guns were most commonly used by males to murder their female partners.

A 2003 study found women living with a gun in the home were almost three times more likely to be murdered than women with no gun in the home.

(The children thing isn’t the feminist part, I just thought it was interesting).

So guns kill women. A lot of women. And women who live in a home where there’s a gun are much more likely to be murdered. In other words, guns violence has not been particularly good for women, and owning a gun is potentially deadly, not empowering.

That said, I won’t take away your feminist membership card if you’re a big Second Amendment person (although I would ask you to read the first half of the sentence). Thinking guns are fun isn’t anti-feminist. Owning a gun isn’t anti-feminist. But I’m pretty tired of the “vulnerable women need guns for self defense and that is totally feminist” schtick.

Things to do, stuff to buy, and videos to watch

Stuff you should go to:

Sunday April 22:
Swap-o-Rama-Rama: Unleashing Creativity and Attacking Consumerism
NYU’s Kimmel Kimmel Center, E&L 4th Floor
1pm-6pm

Earth Matters joins Swap-o-Rama-Rama in unleashing a massive clothing swap, a series of DIY (do-it-yourself) stations and a fresh, alternative message which touts a resistance to consumerism, discovery of creativity and development of community. Swap-O-Rama-Rama events recycle tens of thousands of pounds of clothing each year by teaching creative reuse through clothing alteration: sewing, embroidery, silk screening, etc. At Swap-o-rama-rama, do-it-yourself workshops combined with artist-run how-to areas, and recycled fashion shows let people gather together for the purpose of transforming would be textile landfill into a celebration of community creativity.

Swap-o-Rama-Rama begins with each attendee and their contribution of one bag of unwanted clothing. Collectively this produces a 5,000 to 10,000 pound pile of free clothing that is saved from landfill and made new as it is redistributed and then transformed by each participant. Artist taught how-to workshops, and thematic workstations such as silk screening, stenciling, or hand & machine sewing, offer inspiration. As well, skilled local re-use designers, artists and do-it-yourselfers are there to share their knowledge.

Kate Goldwater of AuH2O and Caroline Flach will be designing and producing the fashion show which will feature recycled clothing and cutting edge designs while exploring re-use, as well as a fashion show for attendees of the event in which they are invited to show off the modified wearables that they made earlier in the day.

Swap-o-Rama-Rama will feature DJs from WNYU, Brad and Kareem.

I’ve promoted AuH2O before, but I’ll reiterate that Kate makes amazing clothes, which are feminist, environmentally-friendly and sweatshop-free. And if that’s not enough to inspire to show up, I’ll be walking in Kate’s show this Sunday.

Read More…Read More…

Call for Younger* Feminists

A professor at Mary Washington is conducting a research project, and is looking for women to take a survey about their beliefs and experiences. Women of all ages and belief systems are invited to participate, but they are particularly in need of younger feminist perspectives. If you’d like to help her out and take the survey, click here. It should take about 30 minutes — and I hope you’ll take it, since feminist voices are always important!

*”Younger” is being defined by the survey conductors as 18-25.

Arcoiris

Arcoiris is an incredible human rights group working out of Honduras that, among other things, helps out LGBT youth. Recently, though, one of the leaders of the group was arrested, raped and brutally beaten. He managed to escape from jail, and is now in hiding. The OutLaw group at the University of Michigan is taking up his cause, and trying to raise money to help him out. An email from one of their members:

Dear friends:

Many of you who know me know that I spent a few years before law school doing human rights stuff in Central America. One of my jobs was to help foster the growth of the LGBT youth group of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, which is called Arcoiris (Spanish for “rainbow” ). Tegus isn’t an easy city for queer kids, but over the past three years Arcoiris has grown into a vibrant, safe, supportive, and energetic space for the queer youth of Tegus, although all the while struggling to make ends meet and combat the violence, prejudice, and HIV that assaults the community from all sides.

A few days ago the director of Arcoiris, my friend Donny Reyes, was arrested in front of the Arcoiris house. The police took him to jail and on the way beat him and told he should be “disappeared.” Once he got there, he was put in a crowded holding cell. The police told the other prisoners, “look, I brought you a little princess, you know what you should do.” The other prisoners then took turns beating and raping my friend Donny for six hours. In the morning, he managed to slip out while in negotiations with the officers for a bribe. He is now in hiding, and Arcoiris is trying to support him with medical care, psychiatric care, and food (like most Hondurans, Donny has never earned enough to have savings).

Arcoiris has asked for help, and Outlaws has been good enough to put together a response. There are two things that you could do to help us help Donny and Arcoiris.It would make a lot of difference to their security situation if the Honduran authorities are alerted that people all around the world are keeping an eye on this. Donny has a page on Amnesty, you can go there, and follow the instructions for getting a letter to the people it needs to get to. The page is here.

You can help by signing the Amnesty letter, and/or by contributing to their cause. If you have some extra cash, you can send money to:

Outlaws
University of Michigan Law School
625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Checks should be made out to David Brown.

I hope they’re able to help this very brave man. You can email Chioma@gmail.com with questions.

Thanks Anyway, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago!

Gosh, I hate to sound like a stereotypical humorless feminist, but this isn’t funny:

Several Illinois lawmakers mocked sex changes and the idea of debating the subject Tuesday before rejecting a measure that would have made it easier to get a new birth certificate after switching genders.

One representative compared sex changes to voodoo and joked that he had thought about getting one so he wouldn’t have to shave. Another suggested the House could be debating more important matters. [This I agree with–why is there a debate over this at all?]

The man presiding over the debate spoke in a falsetto as he called for a vote, although he ended up supporting the measure.

Read More…Read More…