Inauguration Day – The Battle Has Begun
I didn't watch it. I wouldn't have watched it even if I could have. Women across the country are striking and marching in protest. I forgot to find a gynecologist today to make an appointment for an IUD. I have Plan B stashed away. I've been nauseous all day. Social media only made it worse. Also, I'm on my period. Even my ovaries are crying. After work, I picked up National Women's Liberation Women Strike signs for the March on Tallahassee tomorrow. My boyfriend suggested we prepare basic solutions for our eyes in case of mace. The Facebook event for the march is disintegrating because of a weather-based location change. The left cannot seem to keep it together long enough to go for a walk; meanwhile, the right has elected a sexual predator in the midst of all our in-fighting. There's a time to critique your own side, and there's a time to band together in solidarity despite our differences. If there was ever a time for unity, it's now. We are in a state of emergency. We have to learn how to agree to disagree in order to accomplish something. I used to have a plaque in my apartment that said "There are no rules around here; we're trying to accomplish something." We are accomplishing nothing by arguing over where the march ends except dismantling our own resistance without any help from our oppressors. Well, that's not fair. They're helping, for sure--instigating, even--but we have to see through their manipulation in order to form a unified front of resistance. We have to have shared goals and ways of achieving those goals. We have to find common ground. We can critique ourselves in the privacy of our own meetings. When we go public, we must be united because where they see weakness, they attack. We are already on the defense. We cannot afford to show any weakness now. They're not backing down. The following pages disappeared from the government website following the inauguration--Women, LGBTQ, HIB/AIDS Strategy, Climate, Civil Rights, AAPI, Disability, and any and all Spanish translations pages. If we think they're not going to erase us if we don't stand up and shout together, we're wrong, and we'll be sorry. This is a wakeup call for us to get it together and start working as a unit. White people, that means listening to your comrades of color. Heterosexuals, that means listening to your queer comrades. Cis people, that means listening to your trans comrades. And not just listening, but stepping back and following. It's time to let the marginalized lead the fight. It's time for an intersectional, unified front. It's time to fight back. The battle has begun, and this is a fight for our lives. Let's act like it. Show up, step up, and know your role. It's time to be organized.
Inauguration Day – The Battle Has Begun
I didn't watch it. I wouldn't have watched it even if I could have. Women across the country are striking and marching in protest. I forgot to find a gynecologist today to make an appointment for an IUD. I have Plan B stashed away. I've been nauseous all day. Social media only made it worse. Also, I'm on my period. Even my ovaries are crying. After work, I picked up National Women's Liberation Women Strike signs for the March on Tallahassee tomorrow. My boyfriend suggested we prepare basic solutions for our eyes in case of mace. The Facebook event for the march is disintegrating because of a weather-based location change. The left cannot seem to keep it together long enough to go for a walk; meanwhile, the right has elected a sexual predator in the midst of all our in-fighting. There's a time to critique your own side, and there's a time to band together in solidarity despite our differences. If there was ever a time for unity, it's now. We are in a state of emergency. We have to learn how to agree to disagree in order to accomplish something. I used to have a plaque in my apartment that said "There are no rules around here; we're trying to accomplish something." We are accomplishing nothing by arguing over where the march ends except dismantling our own resistance without any help from our oppressors. Well, that's not fair. They're helping, for sure--instigating, even--but we have to see through their manipulation in order to form a unified front of resistance. We have to have shared goals and ways of achieving those goals. We have to find common ground. We can critique ourselves in the privacy of our own meetings. When we go public, we must be united because where they see weakness, they attack. We are already on the defense. We cannot afford to show any weakness now. They're not backing down. The following pages disappeared from the government website following the inauguration--Women, LGBTQ, HIB/AIDS Strategy, Climate, Civil Rights, AAPI, Disability, and any and all Spanish translations pages. If we think they're not going to erase us if we don't stand up and shout together, we're wrong, and we'll be sorry. This is a wakeup call for us to get it together and start working as a unit. White people, that means listening to your comrades of color. Heterosexuals, that means listening to your queer comrades. Cis people, that means listening to your trans comrades. And not just listening, but stepping back and following. It's time to let the marginalized lead the fight. It's time for an intersectional, unified front. It's time to fight back. The battle has begun, and this is a fight for our lives. Let's act like it. Show up, step up, and know your role. It's time to be organized.
Day (8 and) 9 of Trumpocracy: It’s time to act!
Yesterday, I ran out of time to post because my day was overloaded with Bar studies and feminist class.
Today, I finally have an action for you to take (if you live in Tallahassee). National Women's Liberation is coming to Tallahassee! For those of you in town, we are planning a meeting for 2pm on Sunday, December 11th (location TBA - stay tuned via our Facebook event). We will be discussing NWL, doing a consciousness raising exercise, and coming up with an action plan, or at least some next steps. If you've been looking for a way to get involved, now you have one! Come to our meeting, and join the women's liberation movement!
That's it for today. In the meantime, watch Hillary Rodham address the Children's Defense Fund.
Today, I finally have an action for you to take (if you live in Tallahassee). National Women's Liberation is coming to Tallahassee! For those of you in town, we are planning a meeting for 2pm on Sunday, December 11th (location TBA - stay tuned via our Facebook event). We will be discussing NWL, doing a consciousness raising exercise, and coming up with an action plan, or at least some next steps. If you've been looking for a way to get involved, now you have one! Come to our meeting, and join the women's liberation movement!
That's it for today. In the meantime, watch Hillary Rodham address the Children's Defense Fund.
Day (8 and) 9 of Trumpocracy: It’s time to act!
Yesterday, I ran out of time to post because my day was overloaded with Bar studies and feminist class.
Today, I finally have an action for you to take (if you live in Tallahassee). National Women's Liberation is coming to Tallahassee! For those of you in town, we are planning a meeting for 2pm on Sunday, December 11th (location TBA - stay tuned via our Facebook event). We will be discussing NWL, doing a consciousness raising exercise, and coming up with an action plan, or at least some next steps. If you've been looking for a way to get involved, now you have one! Come to our meeting, and join the women's liberation movement!
That's it for today. In the meantime, watch Hillary Rodham address the Children's Defense Fund.
Today, I finally have an action for you to take (if you live in Tallahassee). National Women's Liberation is coming to Tallahassee! For those of you in town, we are planning a meeting for 2pm on Sunday, December 11th (location TBA - stay tuned via our Facebook event). We will be discussing NWL, doing a consciousness raising exercise, and coming up with an action plan, or at least some next steps. If you've been looking for a way to get involved, now you have one! Come to our meeting, and join the women's liberation movement!
That's it for today. In the meantime, watch Hillary Rodham address the Children's Defense Fund.
Day 7 of Trumpocracy: White women
This post will not consist of me shaming white women for voting primarily for Trump. However, this post will consist of my attempt to break down exactly why so many white women voted for Trump and against their own interests, seemingly. One explanation is that pro-Trump white women mistakenly believe we live in a post-feminist world, and I would venture to guess this misunderstanding arises from their experience of white privilege.
However, we must be careful not to mistake white privilege with equality, or with male privilege. Many people experience both white and male privilege, but they are two very different privileges. White women only experience white privilege, not male privilege, obviously, but maybe this fact is not so obvious. White privilege does not negate the need for feminism. White privilege and female oppression can exist simultaneously, but for some reason, these pro-Trump white women do not see either. They make the same mistake as many people with privilege--they assume they earned their privilege through hard work and dedication, or something like that. They make an interesting mistake as to their oppression as women, however. While they explain away their privilege as earned, they completely ignore their oppression as invalid.
Here's my theory, or a theory of mine--they have adopted the white, male narrative as their own without realizing it does not speak for them. I think this is because white men want oppressed people to be blind to their oppression, and white women are relatively easy to target because we have so much privilege already, being white. Hence, it's not too challenging to convince a white woman that she is not oppressed. At least, that seems to be the reality.
I find that theory to be incomplete, though, and thus unconvincing. There's another theory, and it goes along with the "pro woman line." In The Radical Therapist, Judith Brown writes, "The Pro-Woman Line insists that women are neither brainwashed nor 'conditioned' to servitude, but instead that at the moment we perceive that our chains are loosened, we will break the bonds and go free." She then goes on to define male supremacy as, "behavior which benefits men at the expense of women." She does not attach an actor to the behavior, so she cannot attach a gender to it. This means both men and women can perpetuate male supremacy through their behavior. The Pro-Woman Line suggests that women "participate," for lack of a better word, with their own oppression not because we are brainwashed or complicit in our oppression but because we get something out of it. In other words, we don't make waves, we blend in, we survive...maybe.
In the Redstockings Manifesto, it says, "We also reject the idea that women consent to or are to blame for their own oppression. Women's submission is not the result of brain-washing, stupidity or mental illness but of continual, daily pressure from men. We do not need to change ourselves, but to change men."
Women reported lying about voting for Hillary so as not to upset the men in their lives, i.e. their husbands. I would venture to guess some others just voted for Trump instead of lying about voting for Hillary because it was easier, and it was safer. Sometimes, it is safer for the oppressed to comply with their oppressor, and sometimes it is necessary for survival. Women in abusive relationships comply with their batterers all the time, and we do not blame them for their abuse. Well, we shouldn't, at least."
It then goes on to say, "Because we have lived so intimately with our oppressors, in isolation from each other, we have been kept from seeing our personal suffering as a political condition. This creates the illusion that a woman's relationship with her man is a matter of interplay between two unique personalities, and can be worked out individually. In reality, every such relationship is a class relationship, and the conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that can only be solved collectively." In other words, we are blind to our own oppression due to the very nature of our oppression--isolation.
So I will not blame white women for voting for Trump, but I will expect you to step out of your home, look around, accept the hand of a feminist reaching out to you, and learn about your oppression. Open your eyes. We cannot fight what we cannot see. It is not enough to have your own privilege. Everyone deserves equality.
Day 7 of Trumpocracy: White women
This post will not consist of me shaming white women for voting primarily for Trump. However, this post will consist of my attempt to break down exactly why so many white women voted for Trump and against their own interests, seemingly. One explanation is that pro-Trump white women mistakenly believe we live in a post-feminist world, and I would venture to guess this misunderstanding arises from their experience of white privilege.
However, we must be careful not to mistake white privilege with equality, or with male privilege. Many people experience both white and male privilege, but they are two very different privileges. White women only experience white privilege, not male privilege, obviously, but maybe this fact is not so obvious. White privilege does not negate the need for feminism. White privilege and female oppression can exist simultaneously, but for some reason, these pro-Trump white women do not see either. They make the same mistake as many people with privilege--they assume they earned their privilege through hard work and dedication, or something like that. They make an interesting mistake as to their oppression as women, however. While they explain away their privilege as earned, they completely ignore their oppression as invalid.
Here's my theory, or a theory of mine--they have adopted the white, male narrative as their own without realizing it does not speak for them. I think this is because white men want oppressed people to be blind to their oppression, and white women are relatively easy to target because we have so much privilege already, being white. Hence, it's not too challenging to convince a white woman that she is not oppressed. At least, that seems to be the reality.
I find that theory to be incomplete, though, and thus unconvincing. There's another theory, and it goes along with the "pro woman line." In The Radical Therapist, Judith Brown writes, "The Pro-Woman Line insists that women are neither brainwashed nor 'conditioned' to servitude, but instead that at the moment we perceive that our chains are loosened, we will break the bonds and go free." She then goes on to define male supremacy as, "behavior which benefits men at the expense of women." She does not attach an actor to the behavior, so she cannot attach a gender to it. This means both men and women can perpetuate male supremacy through their behavior. The Pro-Woman Line suggests that women "participate," for lack of a better word, with their own oppression not because we are brainwashed or complicit in our oppression but because we get something out of it. In other words, we don't make waves, we blend in, we survive...maybe.
In the Redstockings Manifesto, it says, "We also reject the idea that women consent to or are to blame for their own oppression. Women's submission is not the result of brain-washing, stupidity or mental illness but of continual, daily pressure from men. We do not need to change ourselves, but to change men."
Women reported lying about voting for Hillary so as not to upset the men in their lives, i.e. their husbands. I would venture to guess some others just voted for Trump instead of lying about voting for Hillary because it was easier, and it was safer. Sometimes, it is safer for the oppressed to comply with their oppressor, and sometimes it is necessary for survival. Women in abusive relationships comply with their batterers all the time, and we do not blame them for their abuse. Well, we shouldn't, at least."
It then goes on to say, "Because we have lived so intimately with our oppressors, in isolation from each other, we have been kept from seeing our personal suffering as a political condition. This creates the illusion that a woman's relationship with her man is a matter of interplay between two unique personalities, and can be worked out individually. In reality, every such relationship is a class relationship, and the conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that can only be solved collectively." In other words, we are blind to our own oppression due to the very nature of our oppression--isolation.
So I will not blame white women for voting for Trump, but I will expect you to step out of your home, look around, accept the hand of a feminist reaching out to you, and learn about your oppression. Open your eyes. We cannot fight what we cannot see. It is not enough to have your own privilege. Everyone deserves equality.
Day 6 of Trumpocracy: Unity, my ass
Today I got in an argument with someone about the definition of violence. For him, it was a game of semantics. He limited the definition of violence to physical violence. The quote was something like "harassment and intimidation aren't violence." Now, maybe it's because I work in the domestic violence field, but intimidation and harassment are definitely violent behaviors, which would categorize them as violence, in my opinion. This reminded me eerily of the "forcible" requirement in rape laws. This requirement mandates some sort of outward resistance by the victim as an essential element of the crime. This means if someone doesn't put up a fight and possibly put their life in greater danger, they weren't technically raped. This is another semantic distinction that serves no practical purpose other than for the privileged's sake of argument, or entertainment. Semantic arguments are for the privileged, and I'm tired of arguing with people who endorse bigotry while preaching some bullshit message of unity under Trump. I'm sick of it already.
Day 6 of Trumpocracy: Unity, my ass
Today I got in an argument with someone about the definition of violence. For him, it was a game of semantics. He limited the definition of violence to physical violence. The quote was something like "harassment and intimidation aren't violence." Now, maybe it's because I work in the domestic violence field, but intimidation and harassment are definitely violent behaviors, which would categorize them as violence, in my opinion. This reminded me eerily of the "forcible" requirement in rape laws. This requirement mandates some sort of outward resistance by the victim as an essential element of the crime. This means if someone doesn't put up a fight and possibly put their life in greater danger, they weren't technically raped. This is another semantic distinction that serves no practical purpose other than for the privileged's sake of argument, or entertainment. Semantic arguments are for the privileged, and I'm tired of arguing with people who endorse bigotry while preaching some bullshit message of unity under Trump. I'm sick of it already.
Day 5 of Trumpocracy: The cabinet
I'm back from the forest, and the short list is out. It is worse than we feared. Notably, Rick Scott made the short list for the Health & Human Services Secretary position. Let me say that another way. The man who recently tried to enact a "health" bill restricting access to abortion by stripping away Medicaid from women's health clinics such as Planned Parenthood made Trump's short list for the Health & Human Services Secretary position. This means women's right to access basic healthcare is very likely under attack, just as we suspected.
This means women across the country need to start organizing NOW.
If you're in the Tallahassee area, come to the Planned Parenthood of Tallahassee volunteer meeting tonight at 7:30 at Oasis. Also, if you're in the Tallahassee area, get in touch with me if you're interested in joining a Tallahassee chapter of National Women's Liberation, a grassroots, radical feminist organization that's been fighting in the women's liberation movement since the 1960s. I'm gathering interested names in preparation for a meeting soon.
If you're in the NYC area, you can join NWL there.
If you're in the Gainesville area, you can join NWL there. They have a meeting coming up on Tuesday, November 15.
If you're in none of these areas, find a local feminist organization and get moving! Get in touch with me if you'd like help finding a feminist organization in your area.
No matter where you are, consider making travel arrangements to attend the Women's March on Washington in D.C.
Now's the time to start acting. We cannot "wait and see" what he will do. We already see who he is selecting, and it's terrifying. The time to act is NOW.
This means women across the country need to start organizing NOW.
If you're in the Tallahassee area, come to the Planned Parenthood of Tallahassee volunteer meeting tonight at 7:30 at Oasis. Also, if you're in the Tallahassee area, get in touch with me if you're interested in joining a Tallahassee chapter of National Women's Liberation, a grassroots, radical feminist organization that's been fighting in the women's liberation movement since the 1960s. I'm gathering interested names in preparation for a meeting soon.
If you're in the NYC area, you can join NWL there.
If you're in the Gainesville area, you can join NWL there. They have a meeting coming up on Tuesday, November 15.
If you're in none of these areas, find a local feminist organization and get moving! Get in touch with me if you'd like help finding a feminist organization in your area.
No matter where you are, consider making travel arrangements to attend the Women's March on Washington in D.C.
Now's the time to start acting. We cannot "wait and see" what he will do. We already see who he is selecting, and it's terrifying. The time to act is NOW.
Day 5 of Trumpocracy: The cabinet
I'm back from the forest, and the short list is out. It is worse than we feared. Notably, Rick Scott made the short list for the Health & Human Services Secretary position. Let me say that another way. The man who recently tried to enact a "health" bill restricting access to abortion by stripping away Medicaid from women's health clinics such as Planned Parenthood made Trump's short list for the Health & Human Services Secretary position. This means women's right to access basic healthcare is very likely under attack, just as we suspected.
This means women across the country need to start organizing NOW.
If you're in the Tallahassee area, come to the Planned Parenthood of Tallahassee volunteer meeting tonight at 7:30 at Oasis. Also, if you're in the Tallahassee area, get in touch with me if you're interested in joining a Tallahassee chapter of National Women's Liberation, a grassroots, radical feminist organization that's been fighting in the women's liberation movement since the 1960s. I'm gathering interested names in preparation for a meeting soon.
If you're in the NYC area, you can join NWL there.
If you're in the Gainesville area, you can join NWL there. They have a meeting coming up on Tuesday, November 15.
If you're in none of these areas, find a local feminist organization and get moving! Get in touch with me if you'd like help finding a feminist organization in your area.
No matter where you are, consider making travel arrangements to attend the Women's March on Washington in D.C.
Now's the time to start acting. We cannot "wait and see" what he will do. We already see who he is selecting, and it's terrifying. The time to act is NOW.
This means women across the country need to start organizing NOW.
If you're in the Tallahassee area, come to the Planned Parenthood of Tallahassee volunteer meeting tonight at 7:30 at Oasis. Also, if you're in the Tallahassee area, get in touch with me if you're interested in joining a Tallahassee chapter of National Women's Liberation, a grassroots, radical feminist organization that's been fighting in the women's liberation movement since the 1960s. I'm gathering interested names in preparation for a meeting soon.
If you're in the NYC area, you can join NWL there.
If you're in the Gainesville area, you can join NWL there. They have a meeting coming up on Tuesday, November 15.
If you're in none of these areas, find a local feminist organization and get moving! Get in touch with me if you'd like help finding a feminist organization in your area.
No matter where you are, consider making travel arrangements to attend the Women's March on Washington in D.C.
Now's the time to start acting. We cannot "wait and see" what he will do. We already see who he is selecting, and it's terrifying. The time to act is NOW.