I *am* a feminist AND...

[caramida]

There's a lot written this week about gay rights, human rights, the oppression of blacks, hispanics, queers, women, feminists, and more. There have been smart people speaking up about it, there have been smart people speaking up about people who speak up, and there are always trolls.

Many people have said good things about the issue that are much more articulate than I, but feel I gotta say my piece, even if I'm speaking to the choir, or even if nobody hears my small voice. It's not a matter of whether or not someone hears me, but whether or not I speak.

A thoughtful person wrote, "I'm not a ________ist I'm a humanist." This is all well and good, but it does not quite strike the target. Sometimes it is important to say more than I like people, and can't we all just get along. Sometimes failing to claim a cause and stand by it, implicitly gives ground to its opponents.

Sometimes it is necessary to do something good to make up for something else bad. Martin Luther King once wrote, "A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis." This works for racial discrimination, sexual/gender-identity discrimination, and sexual orientation discriminition.

Embrace the power of 'AND.'¹

For anyone to honestly claim to believe that America is a fundamentally fair society is must cause some amount of cognitive dissonance. That we aspire to fairness is just, but aspiration is not enough. Good intentions can take you down a familiar road, but only good actions will take you down the right road.

As a white, straight², male, I feel it absolutely necessary to identify that I am a feminist, in that I believe in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes,
AND
I am a humanist, in that I am concerned with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans,
AND
I am agnostic. I don't know, and I'm ok with that. I'm also okay with people believing otherwise. Faith, whether justified or not, may have a purpose.
AND
I recognize racism within my society. I work to combat it in my communities and in myself,
AND
I am an ally to those treated unfairly whether because of the color of their skin, their gender, their sexual identity, their economic circumstance, their faith, or any of the myriad reasons small people use to denigrate or disparage human beings.

The essence of inhumanity is alienation. Demonizing, and de-humanizing people is how the fearful perpetuate atrocities. Antilocution is anathema. Tutsis are not cockroaches. Gay men are not degenerates. Muslims are not monsters. Women are not bitches. Feminists are not man-haters.

This I believe.

¹ thanks miss_mimsy
² for a given definition of straight.

Comments

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

Nice post. I wish it were public to link to.

By the way, you have busted html somewhere - the post repeats itself.

[name-redacted.livejournal.com]

But, how far are you willing to take equality, or equalizing? How does one deal with the fact that women, on average, are slightly shorter and have less upper body strength than men, and are the only members of our species capable of bearing and suckling offspring? Not to mention the vast differences between individuals of the same sex or sexual orientation; ethnic, cultural, or natonial group; economic situation; or what have you.

How do you address the fact that certain cultures, due to geographic factors, developed in areas that gave them access to a wider array of food crops and domesticable animals than others, allowing them to accumulate greater surpluses and freeing up their populations to develop technology and engage in warfare? Not to mention develop immunity to diseases caught from their domesticated animals, which they then carried to other peoples with whom they came into contact.

And that a few of those cultures, again due to geographic factors, developed in areas whose terrain led to relatively small states at a certain balance point of contact, competition, and independence, to really drive development of technology and warmaking?

Or the fact that some cultures and individuals, for various reasons of fear, ignorance, or hatred, have biases that they're unwilling, and possibly unable, to surrender, though they might never act on them to harm another's person or property?

[aliteraryaffair.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing. Our voices are so important.