Feminism and race

[alias_sqbr]

This is an intermittently edited collection of ideas for a panel on "Feminism and Race" I ran at femmeconne. As such it's aimed at feminists/women, though anyone else is welcome to read it. I put all the links I found (and there's some really good stuff) in a separate post, since it's important that my argument can stand on its own (I can't give people links

Comments

[emma_in_oz]

can you bring print outs for the library?

[alias_sqbr]

Print outs of this post or of the links? I was planning on revising the post after the panel and then posting it to the community, but I can print out a preliminary version too.

[emma_in_oz]

either or both

Print outs of this post or of the links?

[alias_sqbr]

Righto, will see what I can do (and remember :))

[callistra]

This is going to be fucking awesome
You can have two or three slots if you like.
:-) I am sure Babalon will agree with me.

[alias_sqbr]

Hmm, see I can see that being good in a general sense, but..I think I would burn out after the first session, especially given how generally sick I've been for the past three months or so. Unless someone else was to take over after the first panel was done to moderate general discussion or something.

[vegetus]

Wow, this looks great really informative and if it wasn't being held in a space that I have an ethical problem with, with people who have previously made my life hell and well wasn't on the other side of the planet I'd go! (I think this is my subtle way of saying can you please post about how it was received as I would find it interesting

[alias_sqbr]

(I think this is my subtle way of saying can you please post about how it was received as I would find it interesting)

I'm curious to see how it goes down too!

Yes, I should have specifically mentioned that there are good non-sexist reasons for a woman not to identify as feminist, given the defensive "With us or against us" tack a lot of feminists take (being people :/ )

Those are some good points, thanks for making them. I'm going to have another think and then rewrite some of the post, and they'll definitely go in there.

*reads some of that page*

The relationship of animal rights to human rights is I think a very interesting topic, but something I know so little about I might leave it out rather than ramble on vaguely :) I'll add that link, though, so people can read it for themselves.

[vegetus]

Glad to be of help. I hope it will go well, you've done a hellava lot of research and thought about it lots.

Oh I don't think the AR/HR thing would be suitable for your presentation, just when I was reading through your post I went "hang this reminds me of the stuff that Matthew and Karen were talking about" so though you might be interested for future reference (and I don't know which email address you are using at the moment :)

[alias_sqbr]

18 of the 42 members of the lj community are on my flist, so if nothing else they can back me up if I forget what I'm saying or something :)

EDIT: On further thought I have decided not to add the link since it is a bit off topic, but I've included the stuff you said about immigrants etc and not all non-feminists being anti-women, I hope I got your points across ok.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, I've come accross a few interesting asticles etc about the way that "liberating" women from the headscarf basically just makes life more difficult for those women who feel the need to wear it. In western countries that sort of thing also comes along with a lot of racist baggage.

[fire_fly]

I would suggest even more specific Australian issues and controversies to contextualise the issues. All the examples you've raised in your 'Feminism and racism' section are US examples, which kinda invites white people to dismiss anti-racism as being a "US-centric" perspective. Australia has its own history of sexualised racism, racist sexism, and racially dodgy feminism to talk about. I think US feminists/women of colour are capable of discussing these issues as they pertain to the USA, but we need a dialogue about Australia within Australia to really tackle them here.

If you can, check out the book Talkin' Up To The White Women: Aboriginal Women and Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson, where she goes into some depth about the kinds of conflicts that have arisen between feminists and Aboriginal women activists around issues like representation, sexual violence, and sovereignty

[alias_sqbr]

I would suggest even more specific Australian issues and controversies to contextualise the issues. All the examples you've raised in your 'Feminism and racism' section are US examples, which kinda invites white people to dismiss anti-racism as being a "US-centric" perspective. Australia has its own history of sexualised racism, racist sexism, and racially dodgy feminism to talk about. I think US feminists/women of colour are capable of discussing these issues as they pertain to the USA, but we need a dialogue about Australia within Australia to really tackle them here.

Yes, I could not agree more, I've seen that "Oh, yes, sure there's racism in America but there's nothing like that here" attitude all over the place and it's infuriating

[stephiepenguin]

I love Ien Ang, she is awesome.

When I get home, I will check my bookshelves to see what I've got in terms of other authors to suggest/books to borrow/etc.

[alias_sqbr]

That would be awesome! But remember to keep in mind the limits of my lowly maths graduate brain :)