File spoon-archives/marxism-feminism.archive/marxism-feminism_1997/marxism-feminism.9705, message 69


Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 18:58:08 -0700
From: redflag <redflag-AT-hominy.dominy.amen>
Subject: Re: "education," feminism, and bargaining (was Re: M-FEM: feminism


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
 
> I agree that it is totally annoying to hear men say that they expect women
> to teach them how to respect us. While education should and will go on in a
> multi-gender feminist circle, one needs to do some *homework* if one
> expects to learn something. Besides, as Jan says, the need for more
> education shouldn't be used as a way to displace the responsibility for
> change.

==>	I never meant to imply that that the resposibility for educating men 
	about their insensibility lay exclusively with women.
	Nor did I wish to convey the idea that men are somehow excused
	from having to invest significant effort in their own enlightment.
	This discussion, i hope, is a good example of men and women trying
	to arrive at a common understanding of reality with a view to
	effective revolutionary activity.
	It is my opinion that socialists have a solemn duty to approach their 		
	proletarian fellows with a version of reality in tune with
	working class interests. Under the influence of capitalism, workers
	are generally unable to perceive things from their legitimate class 
	interests. It's not their fault; that's the only way they've learned 
	to think. Socialists (workers lucky enough to have have matured 
	politically and socially) possess the necessary understanding to
	make sense of all things social and economic. Who's responsibility is
	it to make that knowledge available to workers? 
	This also applies to women who have a clearer understanding of reality
	regarding the nature of gender oppression. It is primarily *their*
	responsibility to insist on enlightening men whose social conditioning
	prevents them from asking the right questions and pursuing the
	answers as far as logic will take them.  
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