Saturday, June 26, 2010

The Other Side of Activism: Withdrawal as a Radical Act of Defiance

War is raging over this planet. The 20th and 21st centuries have proved to be the bloodiest times in recorded history and certainly our erased herstory. The United States alone has more soldiers abroad than any other nation on earth, with troops in more than 153 countries. The country I presently live in is storming around the planet, one along with many others, waging war on unprecedented levels. War is being waged supposedly in our names. Recall that when we first invaded Afghanistan one of the calls was to free women of the oppression they were subjected to under Taliban rule. Are the women any less oppressed? What is even more alarming is that war is not just waged against an “enemy state”, but it is being waged on every major life supporting system we depend on from the air we breath, and food and water we nourish ourselves with. So many issues and demands to draw our attention… where exactly are any of us as activists to put our focus if we are to bring about an end to war against our precariously woven ecosystem, the people, and the land itself?

I can’t tell you how many emails I get a week from various organizations to write letters, sign petitions, make calls, and send money. I do my best to respond. I write, I call, I sometimes show-up at events and stand in vigils, yet even as I do all this I wonder if it matters? As of late I have been asking myself more and more if it makes a difference; if I have allowed myself to be steered into a rather passive state of being? It is an uncomfortable place to be and uncomfortable questions to ask. Yet I feel that when I now consider how to be an effective activist I can no longer not afford to ask such questi0ons, even when the answers are not always readily available or easy when they are. All those emails, all the “difference” I think I am making as a computerized armchair activist are all acceptable forms or dissent within the United States and in fact is encouraged. My democratic, capitalistic, American, (let’s not forget god-given right) to exercise my voice in protest may really be just a diversion, a smokescreen… a well conceived way to delude myself as an activist into thinking I am making changes; a way to shift the focus off the continued brutal destruction of the planet and all things female.

This violent exploitation of people, resources, and land is not acceptable, yet rarely is the analysis present that names those who will primary benefit from this endeavour, be it war or activism, will be men and those who will suffer the most regardless will be womyn. Why do we as activists rarely talk about the one common root to all of this raging war on global levels? I am talking about heteropatriarchy or if you don’t quite get the hetero part of it, the patriarchy. When we look at almost any well-known activist organization, we see the same hierarchical structure with males poised at the top. Their solutions are just as patriarchic in their nature as the problems. Asking the boys to please be nice, please stop murdering countless persons, please stop pillaging the land, please stop decimating the environment, please help the hungry, the homeless, and please be good to the women. All the letters, the emails, the channeling of money to worthy causes, the peaceful protests and vigils may unfortunately be two sides of the same coin.

Well I am tired of saying please. I am weary with following the acceptable ways of creating change. It feels like a futility of unending bureaucracy and all for a few paltry concessions (crumbs really), patriarchy is still standing strong conducting business as usual. As of late I feel a strong and compelling desire in me to cross over into something else. I want the alternative; a world where womyn and girls are safe and assured that the environments where we live nurtures our growth on every level. At the same time I am also figuring out exactly what that means. I find myself asking more questions even as I am searching for the answers. Even as I write these words I feel the uncertainty or perhaps the unfamiliarity of where I am going. One thing is for sure I am no longer wiling to say please and I am definitely advocating for stepping outside acceptable forms of activism, to continue the defiance of heteropatriarchy through the withdrawal of our energies. Consider wimmin’s lands, collective households, cooperatives, clandestine schools, feminist presses and bookstores as alternatives to what Mary Daly termed the Malestream. It may be as simple as sharing an uproarious evening filled with good food and laughter. It may also be of the greatest personal risk. Those who have crept out of an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with only the clothes on their backs; or those who have read a book even if to do so would mean certain death. What has not happened is any energy been given to heteropatriarchy. That is where I want to be. So that is the garden I cultivate.

I want to put my energy into what feels like the alternatives. I have had the good fortune to see it in tangible forms. Consider this journal you are holding. It is the result of many hours of dedicated work by a few individual womyn who believe that naming the fallacies of patriarchy and sharing the wisdom of women and girls is more than necessary. Across the world are many places that womyn have created Wimmin’s lands are but one of the many alternatives womyn create. I have visited a few of them in my home country. One place I return to again and again exists in New Mexico. It is the dream of many womyn that has been happening for more than 20 years. In this place as one travels along the dusty roads to the land, there are four gates that must be passed through. Each one an act of leaving behind the world of men; the last gate in fact has a mirror upon it. According to Jae, who presently lives on the land this is to reflect back patriarchy, to leave behind that world and enter completely into an alternative and very real world that places women at the center. These examples of course do not mean there is no strife or hard work. In fact withdrawing of our energy from patriarchy to create and maintain these alternatives is nothing short of monumental. I think of the clandestine schools in places like Afghanistan. Women and girls risk their very lives to bring knowledge to themselves. Even when men destroy the buildings and kill countless numbers of them they continue to meet. I All these acts show us it takes great perseverance and great strength to step out of what we have known not just since our birth, but has been known for thousands of years. But in all that time many have known there is something beyond than what is presented to us and no matter where we live we can reach for more than what patriarchy is handing us.

We must never forget that our true strength is when we do not push against the mighty fortress. Patriarchy is quite ready for that. Little by little we can remove our support. The structure of heteropatriarchy is quite dependent on the support of women, right down to our very bodies. Imagine what happens to a great tower when the unseen and often disregarded support structures bearing the weight at the bottom are removed? It may seem slow at first, not even perceptible, but inevitably it will topple. When we disengage and let heteropatriarchy become insignificant. Then we have shown our real power. The one power all men fear in us, the power to truly create. We cannot wait for all women to do this; we must decide when and how is the right time and way for us to engage this idea. And it might just be that I am the only one who would call this a form of activism. Still it is not an understatement to consider the removal of tangible support by us and then the creation of preferred spaces as powerful acts and I am compelling you my sister readers to consider this other side of activism. Freedom for us from heteropatriarchy may not yet be consistent or continual, but every moment we reserve for a different way; every instance we place our wisdom, our growth, our ideas, our thoughts and feelings in the forefront we bring change to all women’s and girl’s lives. By resisting long held patriarchal customs, including their defining language in our homes, our gathering spaces, and in how we come together in circles is nothing short of radical activism. We as womyn by choosing to remove ourselves to create lives free of male rule are saying boldly we do not need their approval to exist. It is time to accept that we will never have their approval to exist. We have before us many opportunities to take our selves to the world we deserve to exist in. One where we are the center, where we rejoice in our abilities as womyn. Make love, make art, make laughter, make alternatives, make change, and make magic, Make revolution!


No comments:

Post a Comment