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Letter to Male Activists from Sisters of Resistance
I offer this open letter from Sisters of Resistence, originally posted on Indymedia, not as a full and uncritical endorsement, but as an opportunity for discussion here - one that I do think is very relevant to some things I've seen take place on revleft.:
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Letter to Male Activists
Sisters of Resistance | 21.03.2011 13:36 | Analysis | Education | Gender
This letter arose from a specific set of experiences in the activist community and we are aware of the fact that many men will find it difficult to read. However, we publish it here in the hope it will provoke some critical self-reflection among those who need it.
To so-called Male “Feminists”,
We are writing this as we can no longer refrain from commenting on the problematic views and behaviours you exhibit. We hope you will read, listen and respect these comments.
You claim to be “leftist,” “revolutionary”, “conscious” and “feminist.” You may even claim to study the subject of female oppression both academically and interpersonally. But the acts of oppression you have perpetrated on the women around you do not support these claims. Being the compassionate sistas we are, we made the effort (and it takes A LOT of emotional and psychological effort) to talk with you about your sexist behaviour. And time and time again, you’ve shocked us with the level of violence and force, verbal and physical, that you employ against us in a desperate attempt to silence our challenge to your male activist egos.
Whether drunk, stoned or sober, in responding to us with aggression, you were acting out your social conditioning. While masculinity is synonymous with aggression and strength, femininity is equated with submission, subservience and vulnerability. We are socialised into these roles of male and female, and they profoundly affect our sense of ourselves and how we interact with each other on a personal level. Therefore if men and women do not actively challenge their own sexist and oppressive or self-oppressive tendencies, over the course of our interactions a relationship of dominance will inevitably arise. But you fail to see that your masculine identity is formed on this social construct. This conditioning started the day you are born when the doctor declared “It’s a boy!” and continued, encouraged by parents, teachers, and the world around you, which told you that boys can run faster, jump higher and will eventually grow up to be smarter, bigger and better than girls. While baby boys are cherished the world over, mothers in some of the most densely populated places on the planet abort female foetuses and drown girl babies in milk. We point to the West’s hypocrisy in the face of its own insidious misogyny and reject imperialism’s attempt to hijack “female liberation” to justify illegal wars and military occupations. Femicide also survives in the “liberated” West where the majority of women who are murdered are killed by a current or former male partner, where one in three women will be beaten or raped by a man in her lifetime, where the Eurocentric white male perspective and the hierarchy of power that values men over women and light skin over dark are normalised with a system of reward and punishment. This is the all-important context to which we are continually referring, and which you continually choose to ignore.
We have watched you attempt to intimidate us with volume and tone, physicality and body language. Instead of listening respectfully to our experience of oppression, you consistently attempt to redefine yourself as the victim, when it is you who is in fact the perpetrator. You have tried to make us insecure and unconfident by patronising us and undermining our intelligence. But it is not that we have misunderstood you; it is that we do not agree. You should know your attempts to silence us will not be successful; rather, they will simply invite further critique, and further criticism will in turn infuriate you. Perhaps you are furious because you are unaccustomed to intelligent women who are not afraid to point out when you are wrong. Perhaps there are not many of us women who go out of our way, even sometimes risking personal safety, to be recognised as equals by men. Perhaps this is why you desperately draw upon unlikely examples and unbelievable hypothetical situations to support your badly structured arguments, why you insist what you believe about sexism is based on a book you read, or a class you took, why you claim to have reason, logic and science on your side. Yet although your employment of imaginary scenarios and patriarchal dichotomies peeves us, these arguments are easily destroyed. The most offensive and astounding line of argument appears when you routinely inform us that you are not sexist, that you “respect women”. Well, as the women you are claiming to respect, let us tell you this: it is not up to you to determine whether or not you or other men are sexist. If we are offended by a sexist comment, act, film, song or cultural product, you have absolutely no grounds to tell us why we should not be. As the victims of sexism, we define, describe and delineate it. In preventing us from doing so, you make a psychologically and politically difficult task almost impossible.
Simply asserting that you are a “feminist” does not make it true. In fact, by calling yourself a feminist in the face of criticism of your attitudes and those of other men, you not only fail to actively reject and challenge the sexism within yourself and society, you also deflect our critique of your behaviour and silence our already marginalised and seldom heard voices. If you truly wish to join the fight for female liberation then you must listen to us when we are detailing our experience of your and other males’ oppressive behaviour – denying its existence does not make it go away. You must engage with our perspective and embark on a long and arduous journey of self-criticism, analysis and reflection. In doing so, you will see what has been clear to us all along: that your denial and refusal to self-criticise is a direct product and reflection of the power structure to which you are opposed, in which (predominately male) heads of nations, bankers and CEOs also deny culpability for systematic violence and oppression, while (male-dominated) police and prison systems protect and maintain this system. While we will continue to challenge this macro-oppression, we will no longer remain silent in the face of your oppression of us, your fellow female activists.
In closing, we ask you to listen. Listen to us when we speak, listen to our criticisms, listen to our experiences. Stop defending sexism, stop defending men, stop defending yourself. Do not interrupt women when they speak and stop immediately disagreeing with us. When it comes to sexism, you are not under attack, women are. We are under attack from this patriarchal male power structure all day, every day, and we need activist spaces to be safe and respectful places in which women are treated as equals. You will not win without us, so it is in your interests to work with us as equals. You can create these spaces of equality by actively challenging sexist gender roles, by taking over the chores and actions typically still carried out by women: washing up, cooking, making tea, cleaning, tidying up, looking after children, doing the food shopping, providing emotional support, washing and drying clothes, emptying bins, sorting recycling, listening to people, caring for the sick, etc. Take the minutes at meetings. Make sure the male to female ratio of speakers, facilitators, participants or chairs is always 50/50. Take minutes, type up e-mail lists and take over the other menial administrative tasks still disproportionately done by women. Become aware of what the women around you are doing, feeling and experiencing and help and assist them however you can. Notice the male-female dynamics in meetings, on demonstrations and in conversations and actively address this imbalance. Do not attribute the hard work and ideas of the women in your organisation to men; stop taking the women in your organisation for granted. Incorporate an awareness of gender and feminism into your everyday life; for if you want to bring about revolutionary change, you must begin with yourself.
Yours,
Sisters of Resistance
Sisters of Resistance
e-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://sistersofresistance.wordpress.com/
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Can someone explain to me why they feel they are completely above criticism and any criticism is "oppression"? It also seems to me like they have a sense of absolute female unity where they are fighting a battle of sexes to destroy the male menace. Shouldn't they be trying to lessen the gap not enlarge it?
Summary of article:
we (as in "we who claim to represent each and every woman") are always right...and you (as in all men) are always wrong when you disagree with us. Not because our arguments are better, but because men have no ability nor right to establish that what we say is wrong...because...that is sexist and men can not establish what sexism is because they are men. We want you to listen....and then do as we say. Because if you don't you are sexist.
--> implication: men are all sexist because they are men.
I love the irony.
Liberal feminism is not good in my opinion, especially in a service sector economy where traditional 'male' jobs are far and few between. Men and woman's access to the means of production has become more equal over the decades and some people need to realize the old forms of patriarchy won't fully dissipate until all have equal acces to the means of production. Same with racism. Racism and misogyny may still exist with equal access to the means of production but the socialtal consequences of racism/misogyny will be nil (random violence being the worst). So long as women and minorities are economically independant it doesn't matter what anyone says to or thinks about us (outside of random senseless violence). Trying to control mens minds is going to be a detriment to our cause. It will simply drive a wedge between the two sexes as many forms of feminism does. Many relationships can become abusive if one of the people are economically dependent on the other. This transcends gender. Would you see a woman who's a lawyer stay in a relationship with a unemployed abusive alcoholic? Materialist feminism needs to be studied by socialists and some of us need to look at the role we have been conditioned to play. As if we're incapable of aggression. Too many of my fellow feminists, I feel, are they themselves too caught up in traditional gender roles.
The same movement to be obtusely politically correct drives away many potential socialists. I see it first hand everyday. In trying to create a free world I fear all too many people are setting the foundations for a far more restrictive environment. So long as ones actions do not effect anther's material well being I think we should all get over it. This is the point of communism- to give everyone the same unrestricted access to providing material well being. Everything else- after a socialist revolution, is connected to this. Fighting for class/race/gender equality under capitalism is a dead end prospect. A noble task but not one I see being completed under capitalism. This doesn't mean we should do nothing it means we should be realistic concerning the outcome of our efforts under capitalism. It means we cannot expect to change the consequences of the ways people treat each other until we change all of our relations to the means of production. We should fight to minimize these consequences under capitalism but don't fool ourselves into thinking we will end it all under capitalism.
I suggest if you have a problem with males in the activist community then stand your ground on whatever issue you have because you, in the end, unless you're economically connected to him or if he's being violent, have no reason to give a shit what he says either way. How have y9ou been effected, materially, by whatever asshole made you write this letter?
No it wont but neither will rants such as the liberal feminist rant above. Society as a whole changes with a change in our relation to the means of production. Economic revolution will wither away the effects of many negative aspects of capitalist society. The reason we fight racism under capitalism is to minimize the negative effects racism has under capitalism and to make a revolution more probable (solidarity)- the same can be said of feminism. Many times militant anti racist people of color have had the opposite effect- as in creating more white racists rather than chipping away at white racism. This isn't to say we shouldn't be militant it means we need to form bonds of actual solidarity and if we can't in certian cases let it go. There will NEVER be equality under capitalism.
Last edited by Amphictyonis; 27th March 2011 at 22:14.
Boss-class feminism.
Read it again except without being stupid.
I'm on some sickle-hammer shit
Collective Bruce Banner shit
FKA: #FF0000, AKA Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
"This letter arose from a specific set of experiences in the activist community"
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
This is not what is being said at all.
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
No, not exactly. There are contradictions in there but not in the way you see it. My main point of contention is the emotion put into stopping oppression under capitalism- oppression under capitalism is a HUGE problem but....my whole post above was explaining the "but". If it were possible to have equality under capitalism then non of us would be socialists.
EDIT- and details were lacking.
Excellent article!
I can't agree more with the above statement. It's almost remarkable that there even is a "Woman's Struggle" forum on this board, given how much sexist shit male chauvinists dish out on women and feminism here.
That's why I don't think this sort of rhetoric is at all helpful. A female activist, I presume, felt ignored/disrespected/belittled by male activists. We know nothing beyond that. And yet because of this "specific set of experiences" the author felt the need to write an article accusing the men of the left of sexism and misogyny. No qualifications, no specifications, no nothing...what is that supposed to accomplish? What does it amount to other than blind finger-pointing? There is no attempt to connect with men here, just an attempt to blame all of them for specific experiences with a specific set of individuals.
And simply asserting that I'm a "sexist" does not make it true, either.
I've tried to start a thread or two with no replies and then was reminded of the gender and age group predominate on RevLeft. I think it was mostly early 20's males. Anyhow, there's a reason I chose the name Amphictyonis- she was a Greek goddess of wine and friendship between nations.
I always thought you're a woman.
Sexism is fairly common within the left and often overlooked. Are you denying that sexism exists within the left?
The article was addressing a wide audience- it will reference some but apply to all.
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
Not at all. I agree that there is sexism within the left, although it's hard for me to say how much or how little because I don't feel it the way sisters do.
True...but it's this sort of issue where generalizations are most counterproductive IMO. I think the article's audience would be a lot more receptive if things weren't put so absolutely.
Liberal pseudo-psychological drivel consisting mostly of commands, not argument or reason.
The successful execution of those 'commands' (assertive suggestions) gives a victory to everybody- not one side over another.
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
In many parts of the world, I do not agree that those two 'sides' are currently the most relevant to the crux of injustice. Which is not to say I do not consider it relevant at all, or that sexism itself is not prevalent. That is two separate issues.
Besides the obvious pseudo-psychological and straw man-building form of the linked 'article', I agree with many of the commands made in the text, about organization and so on. However, until the working class has seized control of society and the means of production, the control the working class can possibly have over most aspects of their social existence is limited. On the other hand, if this text is not about working class power or working class women and men, but about "women in general" versus "men in general", professing its belief in that liberal idea, I fail to see its relevance outside of the Opposing Ideologies or Chit-Chat forums.
and is adressed to all male activists
Yes...it actually is. If its so meant is another issue.
But here goes:
see above for my arguments.
