There's a women's community center in, I think it's Alabama (I read about it in a book called Conquest by Andrea Smith, you should check it out), and it provides health, educational services, daycare and other resources for women in the area. It is not pro-choice though. The feminist/anti-feminist dichotomy might make it so that feminist groups wouldn't work with this women's center since it might be seen as "anti-feminist" by pro-choice groups. Also, I think people should be able to choose whether they identify as a feminist. You can be a female-bodied person living in society, advocating for your rights, raising your consciousness without identifying as a feminist, but the fact that you don't identify as a feminist might make other people put you in the category of anti-feminist. Some really fucked-up shit has been done in the name of feminism; liberating women from the men in their countries is an older justification for colonialism than I think we learn in school. And women of color, femmes, trans people etc have been excluded from the mainstream feminist movement (to whose benefit? I don't know). I just think that this binary can be harmful, and thinking beyond the dichotomy of "are you for us or against us?" is better for a movement that seeks to fulfill a vision of a more just society. Like we can work together on the things we agree on.
that sounds about right. i mean, definitely when i started reading more woc feminist blogs (most of the ones i read--or used to read, i'm too tired for blogs most of the time nowadays--self-identify as feminist even though they all do have problems with mainstream american white feminism) i started thinking a lot more about the problems with mainstream american white feminism (and also a lot about my own privilege, like for a long time i didn't read woc blogs and i told myself it was because, oh, right now i'm really into gender issues, not race issues, like you can separate them, or, oh, they just happen not to talk about the things that interest me most. but eventually (actually when jessica of feministing released her book) i started questioning, well, why ARE those things the things that interest me, anyway? could it possibly be because i am white, and am only interested in oppressions i encounter? maybe i should rethink this. this experience incidentally is why i am super skeptical of people who say they're not interested in one set of "issues" while being interested in another and claim it has nothing to do with privilege or an internalized sense of what's worthy.
anyway. yeah, i used to be very "just FREAKING CALL YOURSELF A FEMINIST ALREADY" and i still have some problems with people who are like "i'm not a feminist, i'm an EQUALIST" because in my experience those people tend to have a pretty misguided conception of what feminism is (like, yes, there are plans with mainstream white feminism; no, i would not say rampant man-hate is one of them. lesbian separatists are a pretty tiny minority, y'all). but when i started reading people give reasons for why they didn't identify as feminist, it started to make more sense to me (though in my head i sometimes still mentally classify them as feminist. oops).
i had never thought about the antifeminism thing though. i think you have a good point about dichotomies generally not being productive. also i feel it ties into my own sense that one problem i have with mainstream feminists is their need to frame everything as a specifically feminist issue, like, "feminists should really care about poverty because women are more likely to be poor." um, no, feminists should really care about poverty because decent human beings should really care about poverty. this is sort of the other side of the "the patriarchy hurts men too!" coin. the patriarchy DOES hurt men too, but even if it ONLY hurt um HALF THE HUMAN RACE, hopefully decent men would still want to care. maybe i'm too idealistic.
Also, I think people should be able to choose whether they identify as a feminist. You can be a female-bodied person living in society, advocating for your rights, raising your consciousness without identifying as a feminist, but the fact that you don't identify as a feminist might make other people put you in the category of anti-feminist. Some really fucked-up shit has been done in the name of feminism; liberating women from the men in their countries is an older justification for colonialism than I think we learn in school. And women of color, femmes, trans people etc have been excluded from the mainstream feminist movement (to whose benefit? I don't know). I just think that this binary can be harmful, and thinking beyond the dichotomy of "are you for us or against us?" is better for a movement that seeks to fulfill a vision of a more just society. Like we can work together on the things we agree on.
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anyway. yeah, i used to be very "just FREAKING CALL YOURSELF A FEMINIST ALREADY" and i still have some problems with people who are like "i'm not a feminist, i'm an EQUALIST" because in my experience those people tend to have a pretty misguided conception of what feminism is (like, yes, there are plans with mainstream white feminism; no, i would not say rampant man-hate is one of them. lesbian separatists are a pretty tiny minority, y'all). but when i started reading people give reasons for why they didn't identify as feminist, it started to make more sense to me (though in my head i sometimes still mentally classify them as feminist. oops).
i had never thought about the antifeminism thing though. i think you have a good point about dichotomies generally not being productive. also i feel it ties into my own sense that one problem i have with mainstream feminists is their need to frame everything as a specifically feminist issue, like, "feminists should really care about poverty because women are more likely to be poor." um, no, feminists should really care about poverty because decent human beings should really care about poverty. this is sort of the other side of the "the patriarchy hurts men too!" coin. the patriarchy DOES hurt men too, but even if it ONLY hurt um HALF THE HUMAN RACE, hopefully decent men would still want to care. maybe i'm too idealistic.
we should email more, you and i.
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