what is activist love?
"Being an activist means being aware of what's happening around you as well as being in touch with your feelings about it - your rage, your sadness, your excitement, your curiousity, your feeling of helplessness, and your refusal to surrender. Being an activist means owning your desire. The history of women has been a history of the denial of desire.
We fell in love with each other's refusal to be silenced, buried, undone or contained. We fell in love with each other waking up at 5 a.m. in a soggy plastic tent, our sleeping bags intertwined. We fell in love rubbing each other's feet for hours on trains to and from demonstrations in Washington. We fell in love as we were thrown into paddy wagons and it was dark, but we could feel each other's warm, sweaty skin as we sat, pressed together. We have continued our love affair in other countries and other contexts.
...
When you stand up in solidarity with another woman, that moment becomes an act of love. We found each other through action. We claimed our desire."
(paula allen and eve ensler, "an activist love story" in duplessis and snitow eds., the feminist memoir project: voices from women's liberation)
We fell in love with each other's refusal to be silenced, buried, undone or contained. We fell in love with each other waking up at 5 a.m. in a soggy plastic tent, our sleeping bags intertwined. We fell in love rubbing each other's feet for hours on trains to and from demonstrations in Washington. We fell in love as we were thrown into paddy wagons and it was dark, but we could feel each other's warm, sweaty skin as we sat, pressed together. We have continued our love affair in other countries and other contexts.
...
When you stand up in solidarity with another woman, that moment becomes an act of love. We found each other through action. We claimed our desire."
(paula allen and eve ensler, "an activist love story" in duplessis and snitow eds., the feminist memoir project: voices from women's liberation)