1)We hate men
2)we think all men are rapists
3)we think women are worth more than men
4)we sit around whining and not trying to make things better for ourselves or other women
5)focusing on women and wanting women only spaces makes us sexist
6)if we talk about oppression we have been on the receiving end of as women we are "tarring all men with the same brush" or "bashing men" or "reveling in our victim status"
7)were anti sex

for me feminism is about ending opresion, all opression, it is about giving women a voice, education, saftey,political power, equal pay,reproductive choice, bodily autonomy,it is about learning and teaching that women matter, it is working for the right of women everywhere to have independance and self determination.

It is about giving us a space to talk about rape, abuse and violence and put it in a political and social context not just a personal one.

It is about supporting other women and bulding strong powerfull relationships that matter.

from http://www.abuseofpower.info/WomansCreed.htm


We are female human beings poised on the edge of the new millennium. We are the majority of our species, yet we have dwelt in the shadows. We are the invisible, the illiterate, the laborers, the refugees, the poor.

And we vow: No more.

We are the women who hunger—for rice, home, freedom, each other, ourselves.

We are the women who thirst—for clean water and laughter, literacy, love.

We have existed at all times, in every society. We have survived femicide. We have rebelled—and left clues.

We are continuity, weaving future from past, logic with lyric.

We are the women who stand in our sense, and shout Yes.

We are the women who wear broken bones, voices, minds, hearts—but we are the women who dare whisper No.

We are the women whose souls no fundamentalist cage can contain.

We are the women who refuse to permit the sowing of death in our gardens, air, rivers, seas.

We are each precious, unique, necessary. We are strengthened and blessed and relieved at not having to be all the same. We are the daughters of longing. We are the mothers in labor to birth the politics of the 21st century.

We are the women men warned us about.

We are the women who know that all issues are ours, who will reclaim our wisdom, reinvent our tomorrow, question and redefine everything, including power.

We have worked now for decades to name the details of our need, rage, hope, vision. We have broken our silence, exhausted our patience. We are weary of listing refrains on our suffering—to entertain or be simply ignored. We are done with vague words and real waiting; famishing for action, dignity, joy. We intend to do more than merely endure and survive.

They have tried to deny us, define us, defuse us, denounce us; to jail, enslave, exile, gas, rape, beat, burn, bury—and bore us. Yet nothing, not even the offer to save their failed system, can grasp us.

For thousands of years, women have had responsibility without power—while men have had power without responsibility. We offer those men who risk being brothers a balance, a future, a hand. But with or without them, we will go on.

For we are the Old Ones, the New Breed, the Natives who came first but lasted, indigenous to an utterly different dimension. We are the girlchild in Zambia, the grandmother in Burma, the woman in El Salvador and Afghanistan, Finland and Fiji. We are whale-song and rainforest; the depth-wave rising huge to shatter glass power on the shore; the lost and despised who, weeping, stagger into the light.

All this we are. We are intensity, energy, the people speaking—who no longer will wait and who cannot be stopped.

We are poised on the edge of the millennium—ruin behind us, no map before us, the taste of fear sharp on our tongues.

Yet we will leap.

The exercise of imagining is an act of creation.

The act of creation is an exercise of will.

All this is political. And possible.

Bread. A clean sky. Active peace. A woman's voice singing somewhere, melody drifting like smoke from the cookfires. The army disbanded, the harvest abundant. The wound healed, the child wanted, the prisoner freed, the body's integrity honored, the lover returned. The magical skill that reads marks into meaning. The labor equal, fair, and valued. Delight in the challenge for consensus to solve problems. No hand raised in any gesture but greeting. Secure interiors—of heart, home, land—so firm as to make secure borders irrelevant at last. And everywhere laughter, care, celebration, dancing, contentment. A humble, early paradise, in the now.

We will make it real, make it our own, make policy, history, peace, make it available, make mischief, a difference, love, the connection, the miracle, ready.

Believe it.

We are the women who will transform the world.

I think sleep is not going to happen as I feel really lousy, all stuffed up and snotty. Did nothing today except drift in and out of sleep, play WOW and watch lots of the Simpsons.

In other news though I'm blogging twice a month as a representative of Mind The Gap over at The Fem Soc blog I wrote that post last night when I was woozy and really tired so not sure how coherent it is,

So in I'm chairing the next feminist discussion meeting and the title is "feminist activism" Partly because there is a real issue in the group that while people turn up to the discussion meetings very few are actually involved in the activism we do and we think its a real issue.

I personally think that as society has become more consumerist and more individual people pick labels for themselves and don't work out what that actually means or what that actually entails. To me "feminist" is not an identity label, it is a principled political position that entails working for change, that entails working with others and actually doing stuff. Talking about it is not the end point its the beginning point. The discussion groups are good and important but if that is all people do I'm not sure they can call themselves feminists.

I'm not really sure how to structure it but I'm going to put forward these questions as discussion points and see what that kick starts

What is feminist activism?
What is the relationship between feminist friendships and activism?
What can we learn about activism from older feminists?
Difference between group activism and individual activism?
How do we radicalise ourselves and others into activism?
What is the place of activism within feminism?

I know that feminist activism isn't just what happens in feminist spaces, I know that. I consider the fact that I'm setting up a women only depression support group as feminist activism and raising strong female children and non sexist/misogynistic male children is feminist activism. And empowering female students. And supporting women, emotionally, practically, financially, politically all this is activism I think, so I think that all feminists do do some sort of activism but I think what we are more concerned about is practical activism that the group can do together.

I also think that if you do activism together, if you know you have a group of women supporting you with the big things then it makes the piecemeal individual activism easier to do I think. I know certainly I am more focused on feminism in my personal life if I have a group of women I can talk about feminism with and who I know are actively trying to change things.


I'm going to use
The womans timeline to illustrate that things change when activism happens.

and

this

and

this,
to start discussions

if anyone can suggest some more links on the relationship between feminism and activism that would be cool.

Something that really, really pisses me off is men expecting women to educate them on feminism and at the same time behaving like they are doing us a favour or its some great benevolent act on their part that they are interested.

I was sorting the emails in the feminist group email account the other day and one of the emails was from a male student basically wanting to come a long and take notes on the group, and interview "key members" for an assignment he was doing.

he prefaced this by saying i hold pro feminism views, although my knowledge is quite hazy at best, how can you hold pro feminist views if your knowledge of feminism is hazy exactly? How can you know feminism (or any political movement) is something you want to support until you know what it is?

Anyway I told him no, he couldn't come and take notes, because we were not guinea pigs, members may very well feel uncomfortable and guarded in what they say if they knew it was going to be written up by someone outside the group, it wasn't our job to educate men about feminism and we were an egalitarian group so we didn't have "Key members"

And he sent me this really rude passive aggressive email in reply, clearly pissed off that we wouldn't cater to his needs. He told me I hadn't understood what he was asking when I clearly had. Ive noticed that the passive aggressive thing is really common as well, it happens a lot online when men post to feminist blogs asking completely inane questions which are totally googleable and then the female posters are like "go find out for yourself" and the men say something like "I was only trying to learn, you should be pleased/grateful I'm interested" Like what does he want a cookie?


Its not that I think men shouldn't be involved in feminism, I think they should, our group is open to men, I just think it is not our job to educate them on what feminism is, there are plenty of resources both online and in book form that they can find to educate themselves.

It has always been women's job to cater to men's need and wants and I'm dammed if I'm going to let that happen in feminist spaces.

So I'm having a long convoluted email conversation with a couple of people about a lot of different bits and pieces and one of them said

I also have issues about the word “rape”, I find it horribly objectifying since it refers to devaluing of property rather than assault,

And I kind of get where shes coming from but I think I disagree, I mean yes when It became a crime to have sex with a woman by force that was because it was seen as a crime of theft that something was being stolen from a father or a husband but language changes and society changes and i think on several levels not using the word rape would be problematic

firstly I do think rape is a kind of theft but theft from the woman, theft of her sense of bodily integrity, of her trust in the world, of her assumption that she is safe, of her peace of mind, and often of her mental wellness. Many women also experience rape as the actual theft of the body, they become detached from their bodies, think of it as something that no longer belongs to them.

But also according to The online etymology dictionary the word rape derives from c.1386, "seize prey, take by force," from Anglo-Fr. raper, O.Fr. raper "to seize, abduct," a legal term, from L. rapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct" which isn't really the same thing as theft, it suggests kidnap more than steal I would say.

Also what word do we use if we don't use rape? I don't think the term "sexual assault " cuts it really because people do not think of forced penetrative sex when that term is used I don't think. And I do think being raped is worse that being other wise sexually assaulted.

Also for many women who have been raped the word itself is incredibly powerful and difficult to say, difficult to claim as an experience and when they can say the word "rape" or say "I was aped" or say "he raped me" that is often the point that healing can begin.

So I had a long conversation with other Paul, some of which consisted of fighting (fighting with Other Paul means me shouting and him very calmly and gently apologising) but also he was telling me what other people Id been at college with were doing with the rest of their lives and I was like "don't tell me that it makes me feel crap because I'm not doing anything with my life" he pointed out that that really isn't true. And I guess it isn't. so I don't have a paid job but i need to learn not to set my worth the way the capitalist system sets worth, because I am being a useful member of society, i am just not being paid for it.

I do at least nine hours voluntary work a week and I really, really like my job and my manager has made it clear that she values me and likes working with me because I work hard and get stuff done.

I am averaging about two feminist meetings a month, which might go up to three if we have a social every month as well and I feel like I am doing important activism there we are currently running a campaign to raise awareness of how rape crises centres are shutting down.

I am in the very preliminary stages of setting up a women's depression support group in Caerphilly, which I will then run.

So you know I am doing usefull stuff with my life I guess. I just still have my parents voice in my head that pretty much said the only way to contribute to society was by getting a full time "respectable" job, or by bringing up your own children (which is quite interestiong inn itself considering I am not actualy my parents child)