feminism and what it's not.
Nov. 29th, 2010 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalmnfeminism is not about choice.
every single blessed lemming that runs over the cliff does it of it's own free will. and dies on the rocks below.
feminism is about equality. equality on all sorts of multiple overlapping intersecional axes. (axises?)
does equality lead to more choice? yes, yes it does.
choice in an unequal system is a rigged game. it is not a free choice.
i want you to have free choices. i want me to have free choices.
but i don't, and you don't. and not all choices made by feminists are feminist choices, sometimes they're the choices we have to make to get along, whether we consciously realize that or not. sometimes the choices we want to make, actually really want to make, are the ones that are the ones that are the same ones the patriarchy encourages us to make. [waves at ms v, way up there on those rocks]
if someone makes a choice that isn't the one i'd make, that i wish, for feminist reasons, isn't the one they'd make, i will usually try to keep my mouth shut. (because, hello, the patriarchy hurts everyone, and do you need me poking you on a difficult issue? no.)
for the record, i do not always make the patriarchy-killing choices myself. i am currently wearing an uncomfortable yet well fitting bra, made an effort to look pulled together this morning, and dyed my hair a color that doesn't stand out from the crowd last week. not to mention that i am being fairly closeted about several things to achieve a goal that i cannot achieve unless i am not noticeably different from the norm.
people get to make their own choices, they do. me, you, everyone.
whether or not those choices are equal, whether or not those choices advance equality, *even if you are a member of an oppressed group, that's a different matter.
every single blessed lemming that runs over the cliff does it of it's own free will. and dies on the rocks below.
feminism is about equality. equality on all sorts of multiple overlapping intersecional axes. (axises?)
does equality lead to more choice? yes, yes it does.
choice in an unequal system is a rigged game. it is not a free choice.
i want you to have free choices. i want me to have free choices.
but i don't, and you don't. and not all choices made by feminists are feminist choices, sometimes they're the choices we have to make to get along, whether we consciously realize that or not. sometimes the choices we want to make, actually really want to make, are the ones that are the ones that are the same ones the patriarchy encourages us to make. [waves at ms v, way up there on those rocks]
if someone makes a choice that isn't the one i'd make, that i wish, for feminist reasons, isn't the one they'd make, i will usually try to keep my mouth shut. (because, hello, the patriarchy hurts everyone, and do you need me poking you on a difficult issue? no.)
for the record, i do not always make the patriarchy-killing choices myself. i am currently wearing an uncomfortable yet well fitting bra, made an effort to look pulled together this morning, and dyed my hair a color that doesn't stand out from the crowd last week. not to mention that i am being fairly closeted about several things to achieve a goal that i cannot achieve unless i am not noticeably different from the norm.
people get to make their own choices, they do. me, you, everyone.
whether or not those choices are equal, whether or not those choices advance equality, *even if you are a member of an oppressed group, that's a different matter.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 05:24 pm (UTC)(Well. Not so much me, and you. But you know what I mean.)