| Feminist Collective |
[14 May 2007|09:34pm] |
So, I’ve decided (with a lot of help and support from the many beautiful women I met through The Women’s Library) to start a Feminist Collective. I’m very excited about it. I’m also terrified and confused. There are so many things I have to think about when deciding what I want the collective to look like. I know about the many painful divisions in the past which still resonate today with women who want to include transsexual people and women who don’t, with women who are lesbians and separatist and women who are lesbians and not separatist and women who are heterosexual and celibate and women who are heterosexual and not celibate, with women of colour and women of the dominant colour, and on and on.
I have read about and heard about all of these divisions but I have never experienced them. I don’t particularly want to. I believe that every woman’s voice is important. I believe that the issues that create these divisions are incredibly important BUT I have to say that I really, really dislike that divisions like these exist. We should not be fighting each other. It is utterly pointless.
So, my own position. I am a woman-born-woman. I identify as such, believe that my life experiences as a woman-born-woman are different than those of mtf transsexual people. I believe strongly in the right for women-born-women to autonomous organising and women-born-women only safe spaces. And though I will disagree with women who wish to include mtf trans people into women-only spaces I will respect their opinions. If the number of women who wish to include mtf trans people into women-only spaces and events outnumber the women who don’t I will respect that also. I would rather include mtf trans people rather than divide the collective or lose numbers.
To a certain extent in my personal life I am a lesbian separatist. I find relationships with women to be far more fulfilling than relationships with men. I try to avoid contact with men as much as possible. I am afraid of them and I am afraid of the things I feel in the company of men. I prefer to avoid those particular fears and feelings of discomfort. I believe that in the end the time and energy that I have for women will do far more good than investing that time and energy into relationships with men. However. I do not for one second believe that lesbian separatism is a good strategy for a political revolution. There are women dying out there at the hands of men. Every minute of every hour of every day of every week there are women being beaten, raped, abused, violated, mentally, physically, spiritually degraded. There are women being killed by men. Not just sometimes. BUT ALL THE TIME. And it is not ok to say, “Oh men are evil so I’m going to go hide away somewhere with my lesbian friends and never face or think about the rest of the women in the world. This is my revolution.” Bullshit. That isn’t a revolution, it’s a cop out. I know because I am very attracted to this ‘revolution’ because it means I can sit on my ass and do absolutely nothing and call myself a feminist.
I read a good argument on another lesbian feminist blog that separatism really doesn’t limit the amount of people you devote yourself to because there are billions of women in the world and millions of those women are lesbians. True. But lesbians are not oppressed because they are lesbians. They are oppressed because they are women. The position of lesbians will not change if the position of all women of all colours doesn’t change. I am a lesbian because I am a feminist not a feminist because I am a lesbian. I am a feminist because I am a woman. And not all women have the luxury of choosing to be lesbians. Even fewer have the luxury of choosing to be separatist. If I want to realise a feminism that is truly global I cannot leave any woman out.
A lesbian feminist once described a lesbian as a woman who does not fuck men and attributed this description to Sheila Jeffreys. If this is the definition of lesbian then every single woman in the entirety of the world including women who use strap ons and have anal intercourse with men every single one of them is a lesbian. Every one. Women are not capable of fucking men. Fucking is an act yes, but it is primarily an institution. Fucking is the ideological basis of our patriarchal society. And in our phallocratic society women cannot fuck men. It is not possible. It is, however, very, very possible for women to fuck each other. And sadly they do.
So, women who do not fuck men are lesbians. Fair enough. Every woman in the world is therefore a lesbian. I can deal with that. I like it in fact. I strongly believe that every feminist in the world is only a women’s movement away from becoming a lesbian. Isn’t that why Robin Morgan needed “a women’s movement like a lover”? Goddess, I sure do.
There are women out there who publish lesbian only magazines with restricted readerships based on political separatism. I support them and their publications but I think ultimately I disagree with them. I do think women have the right to autonomous publications. I absolutely think they have the right to safe spaces and I think magazines like these are great for women who are scared, women who are tired, women who, out of necessity, retreat. But right now I am scared, right now I am tired and honestly I am sick of seeing myself in constant retreat. Lesbian networks and safe spaces aren’t cutting it for me at the moment. I am angry at myself for being so fucking afraid. Compared to the lived reality of most of the women in the world at the moment I have very little to fear.
So, I want to participate in a collective of women whose sense of unity overpowers the futility of divisiveness. I want to participate in a collective that refuses to be silent, refuses to break in the face of the attacks which we will surely face. Refuses to disintegrate into separatist safe spaces and desperately yearns to make connections with other women. ALL other women. I don’t give a shit about who they like to have sex with.
The biggest and scariest issue for me is the paramount necessity of a feminism which is lead and moved by and reflexive to women of colour. If it isn’t it isn’t feminism. I don’t want a white feminism with a sprinkling of token black women to legitimise the collective. I hate tokenism. If we are to be honest to ourselves and our movement we need to do more than listen to women of colour. This is a very difficult problem in Australia as Indigenous politics is incredibly hostile to feminism and feminist ideas.
What I want to do is to invite women like Jaqueline Xtreme and Aunty Shirley to speak. I want to invite the homeless indigenous woman who sits outside the IGA every Friday night eating Cadbury chocolate and begging. I want to invite the woman who was screaming inside the Commonwealth bank the day before Invasion Day that it wasn’t Australia Day to her it was Invasion Day to her. She described herself and illiterate and dyslexic and she said the people at the bank must be smart and be able to read because they have a job. Hell, none of us have the brains and the courage that she does. When something goes wrong for us we pretend we don’t see it. Or worse, we really don’t see it. Indigenous women like her have no choice but to see and they have the clearest eyes among us. I want to give a voice to these voiceless women and perhaps together we can do something wonderful. Perhaps together we can really live our revolution. Not separate but together.
I don’t think that there is any power on earth that can really stop women once we decide to start living for ourselves and for each other.
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