Feminism and Systems of Power.
I've been thinking about feminism using the paradigm set forth by critical race theorists such as Gloria Ladson-Billings. Mostly, I've been clicking around links to various feminist blogs and reading some of the FAQs about why we should be feminists, and what feminism is, and I found this quote:
Mr Shakes): Feminism benefits us all
"Men need to get it through their heads that they, too, are under the heel of power structures that have no interest in promoting their welfare. They must understand that the rights and privileges that they have hitherto been enjoying fall far short of the privileges they could enjoy were they to try and achieve them. The internecine warfare that occurs between women and men, people of color and white people, straights and gays, as they all squabble like schoolchildren in an attempt to gain or deny rights, is exactly what those in power want."
(I would link to this entry, but it doesn't exist anymore. Found the quote here.
And it got me thinking about what Ladson-Billings said about Brown v. Board and how it failed because it stressed how people of colour would benefit from being in white classrooms-- that white schools were superior, therefore, whites were superiour-- the argument pandered to racism and notions of white power, where it could have argued differently.
A disclaimer:
I tend to be a person who likes to see these sorts of connexions, even if they're not readily related. I know people of colour who dislike that the movement for equality for GLBT Americans is being compared to the 1960s movement for equality for Americans of colour (who decided that the 1960s owned civil rights, btw? Aren't we yet fighting for civil rights?). I can understand the reasons I've heard for that dislike. However-- here's my privilege-- I think the comparison is helpful to me. There was a lot of good that came out of that struggle, and I can see how others might want to use a similar model, or use tales from that time to give hope to those who struggle now.
I know, during the Ride one of the most powerful moments for me was walking through the Civil Rights museum in Birmingham. It was empowering to me to see and read about the Freedom Riders, who walked a similar path and faced such trials and pains for what they knew was right. It was validating to me to see that some of the tactics used against us were the same as some of the tactics used against them-- something that would have been disheartening suddenly empowered me to continue and to be strong.
Racism was about a system of power which put one group of people at a disadvantage for the reason of their existance, based on a lot of history and misinformation about that group of people. Legislation that was enacted to attempt to neutralize this disadvantage focused on the victim, while allowing the system of oppression that created that disadvantage to remain largely the same (as Ladson-Billings says, (I'm paraphrasing heavily) 'we cannot legislate private behaviours' --> white people can't be forced to stop being racist by laws and court rulings. Rather, racist people need to be shown the personal negative consequences of their racism.
Anyway, how are feminists framing feminism? Often times I hear vicious comments being used about /people/ who happen to be white, middle-class, straight and male, as if those characteristics were grounds enough for dislike or hatred, when the object of feminism is not to replace one disequal group with another. To me, feminism is about dismantling the /system/ that puts men over women (and those who do not identify as men or women). It isn't about people, so much as about the culture within which people live.
How do we combat a system without allowing ourselves to fall prey to the idea that one group of people is bad and one group of people is good, not because of their actions but simply because of their being?
So, are we framing the discussion as "All people are equal. Some (men) have more equality than others. Those with less (those who are not men) want to have as much as others (men)" and if we are, does that reinforce the system of power that feminism is attempting to dismantle?
If we aren't framing the discussion in this way, how is it being discussed and who is in charge of the message and the delivery of that message? What advantage is there for people in power to relinquish that power for the sake of those who are disadvantaged by the system that created the place for that power differential to exist?
Mr Shakes): Feminism benefits us all
"Men need to get it through their heads that they, too, are under the heel of power structures that have no interest in promoting their welfare. They must understand that the rights and privileges that they have hitherto been enjoying fall far short of the privileges they could enjoy were they to try and achieve them. The internecine warfare that occurs between women and men, people of color and white people, straights and gays, as they all squabble like schoolchildren in an attempt to gain or deny rights, is exactly what those in power want."
(I would link to this entry, but it doesn't exist anymore. Found the quote here.
And it got me thinking about what Ladson-Billings said about Brown v. Board and how it failed because it stressed how people of colour would benefit from being in white classrooms-- that white schools were superior, therefore, whites were superiour-- the argument pandered to racism and notions of white power, where it could have argued differently.
A disclaimer:
I tend to be a person who likes to see these sorts of connexions, even if they're not readily related. I know people of colour who dislike that the movement for equality for GLBT Americans is being compared to the 1960s movement for equality for Americans of colour (who decided that the 1960s owned civil rights, btw? Aren't we yet fighting for civil rights?). I can understand the reasons I've heard for that dislike. However-- here's my privilege-- I think the comparison is helpful to me. There was a lot of good that came out of that struggle, and I can see how others might want to use a similar model, or use tales from that time to give hope to those who struggle now.
I know, during the Ride one of the most powerful moments for me was walking through the Civil Rights museum in Birmingham. It was empowering to me to see and read about the Freedom Riders, who walked a similar path and faced such trials and pains for what they knew was right. It was validating to me to see that some of the tactics used against us were the same as some of the tactics used against them-- something that would have been disheartening suddenly empowered me to continue and to be strong.
Racism was about a system of power which put one group of people at a disadvantage for the reason of their existance, based on a lot of history and misinformation about that group of people. Legislation that was enacted to attempt to neutralize this disadvantage focused on the victim, while allowing the system of oppression that created that disadvantage to remain largely the same (as Ladson-Billings says, (I'm paraphrasing heavily) 'we cannot legislate private behaviours' --> white people can't be forced to stop being racist by laws and court rulings. Rather, racist people need to be shown the personal negative consequences of their racism.
Anyway, how are feminists framing feminism? Often times I hear vicious comments being used about /people/ who happen to be white, middle-class, straight and male, as if those characteristics were grounds enough for dislike or hatred, when the object of feminism is not to replace one disequal group with another. To me, feminism is about dismantling the /system/ that puts men over women (and those who do not identify as men or women). It isn't about people, so much as about the culture within which people live.
How do we combat a system without allowing ourselves to fall prey to the idea that one group of people is bad and one group of people is good, not because of their actions but simply because of their being?
So, are we framing the discussion as "All people are equal. Some (men) have more equality than others. Those with less (those who are not men) want to have as much as others (men)" and if we are, does that reinforce the system of power that feminism is attempting to dismantle?
If we aren't framing the discussion in this way, how is it being discussed and who is in charge of the message and the delivery of that message? What advantage is there for people in power to relinquish that power for the sake of those who are disadvantaged by the system that created the place for that power differential to exist?