AWOL

AWOL have uncovered yet another stream of anti-woman vitriol from the heartland of ignorance: the Fred Nile Party. Will Sydney be safe for another day? Only a queer baccanalian riot at the Opera House could possibly save us from this kind of fundamentalist pap.

“Feminism is a form of terrorism much closer to home than Islamic terrorism. It’s a war against God’s design for marriage and family … And [feminism] continues to be propagated in the public education system. Any child that is being brought up under this system will be infected. Girls are being empowered and boys are being weakened. ”

‘Honour thy Father’, article in Good Report magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2005
Good Report Magazine is published in Sydney by supporters of Fred Nile’s Christian Democrat Party

This is scary for a number of reasons. The author totally misunderstands feminism, the aim of which is to empower women, not disempower men (who really cares what men are up to anyway?) , or break down the family. The idea behind mainstream feminism is to create a new kind of famliy where the woman isn’t positioned as a the workhorse of every other family member. AWOL would probably posit that the family structure / relationship is a major problem in society and should be broken down where it sanctions the use and abuse of women and children for the benefit of men and adults generally. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean an end to community, to coupling, to child-raising.

Equally scary is the assumption that the public education system is somehow pro-feminist, pro-woman, or even pro-child. Let someone who’s been there tell you: it isn’t. The public education system is as patriarchal as any other, even more so. At least a private girls school will equip a woman with a sense of confidence and entitlement. Public education equips girls with low self esteem and a lingering sense that they can’t be heard above all the louder, more obnoxious voices of misbehaving boys.

The final reason this comment is scary is that it pretends there is something wrong with equal power between the sexes. The author of this comment sees power in a hierarchical sense - that power must be absolute, and inflicted upon others (women) for it to be real power. The author assumes that boys are emasculated because girls are being empowered, which is indicative of the abusive concept of power the author has - girls can’t be empowered unless it is at the expense of male power. Feminists seek to empower women to gain agency in their own lives - not to become an oppressor of others.

*AWOL thanks A (sydney) for the report*

Going places that scare me: Challenging Male Supremacy

I came across this article on Autonomy and Solidarity. Its interesting because it is written by a male who seems to be genuinely struggling with his sexism and privilege. He can’t be said to have “succeded” at unprivileging himself, but he does highlight different techniques that were used to confront him about his sexism. The most interesting point was that after refraining from speaking in meetings, waiting for women to speak, trying to listen to women, he has a moment of realisation: even the actions he took to redress his privilege were actions of power. For a man to just say “I recognise gender privilege and sexism” is an action that privileges him as an “enlightened man”.

This article might form a good basis for sistas who did want to confront their male friends about sexism.

I struggle everyday to really listen to voices I identify as women’s. I know my mind wanders quicker. I know that my instant reaction is take men’s opinions more seriously. I know that when I walk into rooms full of activists I instantly scan the room and divide people into hierarchies of status (how long they’ve been active, what groups they’ve been part of, what they’ve written and where it’s been published, who are their friends). I position myself against them and feel the most competitive with men. With those I identify as women, the same status hierarchies are tallied, but sexual desirabilty enters my hetero mindset. What is healthy sexual attraction and desire and how does it relate to and survive my training to systematically sexualize women around me? This gets amplified by the day-to-day reality that this society presents women as voiceless bodies to serve hetero-male desire, we know that. But what does it mean for how I communicate with my partners who are women and who I organize with? How does it translate into how I make love, want love, express love, conceptualize love? I’m not talking about whether or not I go down on my partner or say I love you, I’m talking about whether or not I truly value equality in our relationships over getting off on a regular basis.