domination

Domination does not have to be defined by malice or ill will... Oppression can come from a place of good intentions. A father can teach his son to distance himself from femininity in order to protect him from harm, to protect his manhood. A teacher can assert their knowledge and reality over her students, effectively erasing their own reality. A woman can tell a girl her femininity is what matters in order to secure a place in the world. Domination's oppressive function arises out of a need to control, a need to assert one's reality over another... And this need can come from a need to protect, to teach others the ways of patriarchal heritage.

imagine a world where being "gay" the norm & being "straight" would be the minority [short film]

women

My soul and heart is with women. If I can't love them in all the ways men have been allowed throughout our history without question, I can't grow as a person because I am a lesbian, through and through: sexually, spiritually, and in platonic friendship. Why I constantly have to stand up for my lesbianism is lost to me. Am I not equal to you?

slavoj zižek

gendering women

It is critical for women to learn skills in order to gain independence. Women in our society, however, are often restricted to assuming the role of the “traditional” woman, whether it’s through social pressure or the fact that it is one of the only legitimate roles for women in our society. I think women do the best they can with what they’ve been given. Everyone is trying their best to survive and to be happy, and assuming the role of a traditional housewife or mother is one way. And I believe it to be worthy and commendable. I think people do the best they can with the gender roles they’ve been assigned. Some resist it, some accept it, and I think it’s okay either way. However, I think it’s important for us to learn that our roles as women and men are assigned. They are socially constructed. Women weren’t born wearing heals and makeup. Men weren’t born knowing how to play football. Women weren't born to be submissive and men dominant. We learn to be gendered.

queer autonomy

I think the queer movement has helped in legitimizing breaking down the gender barriers. It has become more acceptable to be something other. Yet, I know this isn't the answer, only a way of tinkering with the system (although that tinkering is critical to saving lives).

I think it is more a question of class society. No one can achieve full human status in a society that not only distributes its resources unequally, but what also has criminalized self-knowledge of what true independence looks like. Capitalism has destroyed our autonomy, destroying our ability to take care of ourselves. People need access to very basic things: food, water, shelter, support from others. In our society, corporate America has taken away our knowledge to care for ourselves and has substituted factory commodities and corporate work in order to make profit.

If women are ever to be free, we must see that our freedom is linked to others’ ability to be fully autonomous. Right now, we rely on a broken system that makes us dependent on the system (i.e. toxic industrial food, health care based in treating symptoms not causes, debt, gas to run our cars to get to our jobs, commodified housing). And because women are a stigmatized social group within this system, we are seen as incapable of taking care of ourselves unless we are linked to a man in some way (husband, boyfriend, father, boss, etc.)

As a first step towards autonomy, I think we, as women, need to unite as women, as a gender class. We also need to unite with anyone else who shares our goals. For so long, we’ve had to rely on men for our wellbeing, for our survival. To turn to other women for support is critical to seeing that we share political goals. This is not enough, however, since we ultimately need to unite with all effected by capitalism (which is everyone). I think we need to develop ways to be independent of capitalism, whatever that may be. We need to re-build our self-knowledge, creating true independence. We need to know how to grow our own food again. We need to re-learn basic medical knowledge of our bodies. We need to learn how to protect ourselves; we need to begin to refuse to rely on a system that pretends to help us but really breaks us down.