I think of the work I do in my life as consciousness-raising and consciousness-challenging. I could go on a rant about why or why I don’t like the word feminism, but I’ll save that for another time. The label we use is not important; what we challenge/allow, accept/reject, embrace/shame is important. Being critical is one thing, but in doing that it is essential to be critical of the reasons why the world is constructed the way it is. We cannot ignore the root causes of an issue. Patriarchy and heteronormativity exist for a reason, power exists for a reason, privilege is constructed by those with power, and when we go about our daily lives we cannot back down from challenging those structures. Everyday I think about the women who existed in a time before me who challenged their world. The majority of them are not a ‘research source’ because their struggles and victories are not recorded. They worked for their own freedom in a struggle that should never have been a struggle and I acknowledge their work in my life. I also guide my work on the idea that I should “Be the change you want to see in the world” (Ghandi). If we advocate for change, we must apply that change to our individual lives and stick to it even when it becomes difficult and we are challenged.
Manifesto
- Practice what you preach. The way you live your life should be a projection of what you believe in. Don’t be a hypocrite; if you stand for something it should be reflected in your thoughts and actions.
- Don’t preach to the choir. We certainly must value those who understand us and get what we’re talking about, but real growth comes from educating, explaining, and encouraging others to become more aware.
- Challenge the subtle and integrated forms of all those “-isms”. Calling someone out when they make a rape joke is challenging overt sexism and calling someone out when they use the word “guys” to address women is challenging a subtle form of sexism. Challenging the overt is undeniably important, but we need to start challenging the little things that make up a larger attitude.
- Validate yourself and don’t wait for or ask others to do it for you.
- Reinforce positive behaviour in yourself and others.
- Become conscious of things we have the privilege to overlook. If I gain fifteen pounds will anyone think I have a compulsive eating disorder? Not in the same way that if I lost fifteen pounds people would assume I restricted my eating. Both are legitimate eating disorders. Straight women who do not consider the issues of non-straight women and too comfortable in their privilege.
- Do not participate in your own exploitation.
- Find value in the opinions of others.
- Just do what you can. We compare ourselves to others too much. We have to live our life knowing what we can take on and when things become too much. It’s called self-care, and we all need to practice it a bit more.
- Have presence.
Response to Rachel Kovach Blog-
ReplyDeleteI agree with your manifesto and how you suggest consciousness raising is important and crucial. I think there should be solidarity among women in strategies for liberation that touched off the second wave I think there needs to be a sisterhood-a notion of unity among all women, that is, that all women are sisters. But what makes women sisters? I think women need to bond over our shared experiences of oppression. Women might bond over our shared anxieties, sufferings and trials. The more difficult the situation through which people endure or survive, the more likely the people will reach out to each other in some ways or at least feel connected simply because they shared an experience. Sisterhood is a bond similar to these experiences. Perhaps women share a bond or seek to connect to other women because they relate over difficulty of their experiences of being subordinated, the victims of violence, stereotyped, excluded or otherwise oppressed. Hopefully this will lead to consciousness rising. I think there also the personal benefit that comes from sharing one`s story and realizing that one is not alone in the experiences of violence and oppression when women are sisters they support each other and share an understanding-often unspoken. In other words, sisterhood implies moral and epistemological bonds between women regardless of whether individual women actually know one another.
I agree that women need to create women’s spaces or women centred culture to allow women to be free from the oppressive prescriptions and learned to be woman identified. Heterosexuality per se is not problematic, but the dominance and presumption of heterosexuality as well as the social privileges that accompany it are patriarchal conditioning exclusively towards heterosexuality keeps women from being free.
I agree with you in regards to women claiming their autonomy. I feel like autonomy can be reworked to include a relational aspect or it may need to be abandoned in favour of a more fluid, communal concept. I feel that community plays a more important role than autonomous individuals. I think there needs to be recognition of the interconnection between what happens on the local level and what happens on the global level. The unity provides a forum for identity formation and is integral part of full self determination. The individual participates in a variety of communities thereby forming or defining them while they in turn also contribute to the individuals’ identity.
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ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteThe various juxtapositions in your writing to provide illustration as to what your post means is fantastic. The opposition between ideas provides an emphasis on action which is evident throughout your post. Without action, these are all just words with no meaning. I like how you set a standard for the necessity to critically engage and not back down when challenged. When you write that "...we must apply that change to our individual lives and stick to it even when it becomes difficult and we are challenged" I couldn't agree more.
You put this idea further throughout your post, reinforcing the necessity to "practice what you preach" and you articulate this as "thoughts and actions." I think that this is great point as it speaks towards two sides of the individual, not just the one that everyone sees. This can be related to the end of your post where you speak towards "do[ing] what you can."
I like your comment towards "self-care" and how this can differ from ideas of "self-surveillance." It is not about restricting yourself or monitoring your actions in a negative way. The need for positive, healthy, self-examination is something which I think is often forgotten. I'm glad that you brought this forth as it is a reminder to my own life.
Your point which states that "challenging the overt is undeniably important, but we need to start challenging the little things that make up a larger attitude" is a crucial point which I think I often forget, evidenced by me being incredibly guilty of addressing women as "guys". While I can rationalize this as thinking in gender-neutral terms, this is a farce. Language has weight and influence and needs to be corrected if it is infringing on the rights of others. I like this point because it keeps others (myself) in check. While this could be interpreted as policing, I think that this provides a foundation for correcting what you describe as the "larger attitude." We need to call others out and I'm glad that you are willing to take this on. To say that we are conditioned into using particular words or phrases is not enough. We (I) need to be conscious of the words and language which we (I) use.
Thanks for sharing this!