Evelyn Lynn,
Noemi Y. Molitor,
Cara Page, and
Lamont Sims,
"A Conversation about Southerners on New Ground:
Transformation, Legacy and Movement Building in the U.S. South"
(page 6 of 8)
Thoughts on Feminism—Deeply Queer
"Feminism has always been a radical framework for social
justice in my life. I have always thought about the destruction of
patriarchal culture on people, but feminism helped me learn and develop
tools to defeat it. I started thinking about this after thinking about
current frustrations with some feminist scholars
and activists—specifically those who neglect to imagine 'difference' and its place
within feminism. I am always excited to talk about feminism, because it
represents the framework for social justice that has transformed my
thinking the most, pushing me further in and through the margins. As I
continue struggling as a low-income worker, complicated by gender
oppression (conformity), homophobia, and anti-Black racism, feminism
helps me cope with these issues by having the power to openly challenge
them.
From my experience, feminism is one of the only forms of
criticism that also exists to challenge itself and other social justice
frameworks. I learned to hold myself and others accountable for
maintaining forms of oppression from male feminist activists. Later,
through women's studies, I also understood how feminists emphasized the
importance of doing internal work for radical change against sexism and
dominant forms of patriarchy. This has been my experience with feminism
in SONG as well. What I think is most powerful is that their feminism
goes without saying. SONG's major goal is challenging oppression, which
comes in multiple forms affecting people, multiple identities and
experiences. Feminism is one of the powerful forces behind this."
—Lamont
We discussed feminism as something we all assume and experience as a
basis in SONG's work. In this sense, we shared an appreciation of
feminisms that don't come narrow, i.e. they might not be identified as
such in the sense of a single-issue agenda or strategy. Instead, in
SONG feminism appears again not as a luxury, but as everyday work. To
Lamont feminism is already there in SONG; in a reference to
womanism[5],
he described SONG as following the commitment that
as you see oppression you do something about it. "Challenging oppression
wherever and whenever you see it" allows feminism to be a part of SONG's
social justice framework for Lamont. Again, SONG emphasizes, "holding
the multiplicities," which suggests that feminism is not/cannot be the
only lens for social justice.
Noemi brought in another "early," yet current discussion around
feminism and queerness in saying that Queer Theory has not always
embraced spirituality. She reminded us of the discussions around
"essentialist" or "cultural" feminism versus the deconstruction of
gender and sex. There have always been several feminisms,
clashing over ideas such as that women are "more peaceful by nature" as
they are closer to it through their ability to give birth, or over
judgmental dismissals of TransMen as supporters of
patriarchy[6]. As
Noemi cited Donna Haraway's ironic comment, "I would rather be a cyborg
than a goddess"[7],
we laughed hard in recognition of feminist
tensions, and SONG's commitment to gender diversity. Noemi also
expressed how SONG's feminism to her is a feminism that is deeply
queer. Deeply queer in that it speaks from the perspective of sex
workers and not about them, deeply queer in that it speaks from the
perspective of trans folks about their lack of health care and not about
them; deeply queer in that it creates space for different allegiances
to spirituality and to gender varieties of all kinds, from Two Spirited
folks to gender queer identified Trans lesbians who were assigned the
female sex at birth.
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