I don't like being commanded.
May. 14th, 2010 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_losThe 10 Commandments (http://jezebel.com/5527723/
5 indicates that I can patronize alternate media with sex images I don't find degrading as a feminist gesture--6 speaks to the need not to isolate myself within a narrow, rarefied cultural echelon, wherein I only interact with educated social justice people and thoughtful media. These are contradictory drives that the article doesn't acknowledge as contradictory, or seek to reconcile? In real terms, I'm not sure what 6 is telling me to do? Also there's an edge of what, within the article, they remind you to /avoid/ doing: critiquing women for their survival strategies. If the barrage of sexism is so omnipresent that women are too WORN to attack /every/ instance, or not to prioritize more egregious violations and/or cases where they think their protest may be more effective, I kind of get that?
It's necessary to identify, like with monastic devotion, the Contemplative and Active branches of feminism as /equally/ important, and complimentary, sure. But it seems really simplistic to say 'challenge everything omg don't be a slacker!!', like--okay, ham-fisted analogy, but remember in Bowling for Columbine, the woman Moore followed who (he made the case) was consistently, systematically punished for her poverty, told by a variety of agencies that her lack of initiative was at fault for her condition? A woman can /choose/ to be an activist, but she is not /obligated/ to devote all of her time and energy to ceaseless activism at the expense of her life and personhood. To phrase this in this manner implies that sexism is her fault, her /problem/, even as her institutional poverty was the 'fault' of the woman in the documentary who didn't Work Hard Enough to End It.
It's one thing to emphasize the importance of putting feminist thought into action, and a /different/, flawed thing to demand CONSTANT VIGILANCE!! of every woman who considers herself a feminist, like you're feminist!Mad Eye Moody.
Badly realized feminism is, in its way, worse than BLATANT SEXISM, because you don’t immediately tune it out? It takes you /so long/ to figure out what's creepy about it. Which feels wrong to say because surely any feminist thought is adding to the net good? Like, despite their issues, the Vagina Monologues are still Good Work, right? And doing them still a good use of one's time? Sometimes the nebulous nature of social justice work exhilarates me with its complications, juxtapositions and intersectionality, and sometimes it just guts me that the work I've done could be interpreted as meaningless or even harmful via a perspective of greater hindsight. Didn't the people taking aboriginal and native american children away from their parents to learn English think themselves not only morally justified, but /progressive/? Don't we now look back at a vast array of social justice initiatives and find them worse than useless, backward-moving, almost reactionary? Even if they were necessary in the development of our thinking about movements and issues, /still/, to be the retrograde motion in a Ptolemaic model of social justice would be ghastly.
And I'd call this a light instance of internalized sexism? To see that within the feminist blogosphere is depressing.
5. Thou shalt vote with thy wallet (also known as the "I will not pay $12 to see ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell' commandment.")
6. Thou shalt consume shitty forms of media (i.e. tabloids, reality TV) to be aware of what the "mainstream media" is saying about (and to) women and girls.
Also:
1. Thou shalt not see a sexist, misogynistic ad, say "that sucks" and leave it at that.
and
7. Thou shalt write letters, make phone calls, and send emails to let Dodge know you won't buy their cars or to tell GoDaddy.com that you'll look elsewhere for a domain (or ? or ?).
These need to be better connected as points? In isolation, one lacks a workable IMPERATIVE. 'If not that, then what? Oh, point /seven/.'
It's necessary to identify, like with monastic devotion, the Contemplative and Active branches of feminism as /equally/ important, and complimentary, sure. But it seems really simplistic to say 'challenge everything omg don't be a slacker!!', like--okay, ham-fisted analogy, but remember in Bowling for Columbine, the woman Moore followed who (he made the case) was consistently, systematically punished for her poverty, told by a variety of agencies that her lack of initiative was at fault for her condition? A woman can /choose/ to be an activist, but she is not /obligated/ to devote all of her time and energy to ceaseless activism at the expense of her life and personhood. To phrase this in this manner implies that sexism is her fault, her /problem/, even as her institutional poverty was the 'fault' of the woman in the documentary who didn't Work Hard Enough to End It.
It's one thing to emphasize the importance of putting feminist thought into action, and a /different/, flawed thing to demand CONSTANT VIGILANCE!! of every woman who considers herself a feminist, like you're feminist!Mad Eye Moody.
Badly realized feminism is, in its way, worse than BLATANT SEXISM, because you don’t immediately tune it out? It takes you /so long/ to figure out what's creepy about it. Which feels wrong to say because surely any feminist thought is adding to the net good? Like, despite their issues, the Vagina Monologues are still Good Work, right? And doing them still a good use of one's time? Sometimes the nebulous nature of social justice work exhilarates me with its complications, juxtapositions and intersectionality, and sometimes it just guts me that the work I've done could be interpreted as meaningless or even harmful via a perspective of greater hindsight. Didn't the people taking aboriginal and native american children away from their parents to learn English think themselves not only morally justified, but /progressive/? Don't we now look back at a vast array of social justice initiatives and find them worse than useless, backward-moving, almost reactionary? Even if they were necessary in the development of our thinking about movements and issues, /still/, to be the retrograde motion in a Ptolemaic model of social justice would be ghastly.
And I'd call this a light instance of internalized sexism? To see that within the feminist blogosphere is depressing.
