File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9803, message 536


Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:19:55 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: M-TH: Self-Emancipation (was Cross-Dress (was Wiggle them hips))


Justin wrote:
>Anyway, what's all this about seduction? Isn't that
>that a classic sexist game in which some guy tries to get some gal to
>screw him by acting charming and pretending he's interested in something else?

Well, if that's the limit of your imagination....

>So I repeat (not necessarily to you
>> but to the entire list): stop carping about the 'NSMs,' 'identity
>> politics,' 'pomo,' etc. and try to get rid of ressentiment against women,
>> queers, people of color, etc.
>
>I will not stop carping about bad politics and bad theory. It's not
>resentment in French or English of any groups or sorts of persons that
>makes me loathe identity politics and pomo. I am in favor of women, etc. I
>just wish they wouldn't pretend that bring women, queers, etc. gave them
>an "identity" that might be the basis of a politics of liberation.

It is not a sole basis, obviously. But my being a bisexual woman creates a
*direct (as opposed to indirect + solidarity-based) stake* in pressing for
queer liberation, free abortion on demand, etc., to take just one example.
This matter of having a *direct stake* is at the root of the question of
*self-emancipation*.

>National minorities are somewhat different in this regard, I think,

Care to explain the difference so that the list can continue discussion?

> A nearly all-male & almost all-white e-list
>> isn't a very seductive place for women of color to hang out, for instance.
>> (Also see my post titled "Arbitrary Quota Now!".)
>
>It's a problem.

Is this problem not a worthy subject of discussion on the list? Should we
not think of how to correct it, instead of, as Jerry does, saying that
"Marxist groups in general, and internationally, are willy-nilly dominated
by men"? Don't posts like Jerry's (re: "Wiggle them hips") constitute a big
turn-off for women who might possibly become interested in taking part in a
list like this and marxism?

>> Now here are several pieces of concrete advice for you and all other men
>> here. Before posting anything, try to read what you have written as if it
>> had been written by someone else. Cross-dress (across gender, racial, and
>> sexual divides) when reading your own writing. Try to see if you would like
>> it if you were a queer woman of color, for example. There are limits to the
>> above exercises, since we obviously can't fully imagine ourselves in social
>> positions different from our own, but they might possibly help. Write for
>> potential marxists who are not here yet because of one reason or another.
>> Try, at the very least, not to alienate women who are either already here
>> or might check out the archives or are lurking without posting. Don't write
>> for men like yourself; that's been done already.
>
>Yoshie, I can't stand this sort of stuff. I have no tolerance for
>misogynist and homophobic prejudice,a s you know. But I think what we have
>to is to true to write what we think is true and to support it with
>reasons. Clearly we have to express our reasons in ways taht will, we
>hope, move people wr'd like to move. But if you are calling for than
>ordinary courtesy and sensitivity, and I think you are, I think you are
>wrong. All this stuff that involves prefacing everythiong ones says with,
>"As a queer woman of color, I say . . . ." There are times when that's
>relevant. Mostly it's not. It doesn't make truths more true or falsehoods
>less false if they are stated bya  queer woman of color than if they are
>said by a straight white male. The truth doesn't care who says it.

I am *not* calling for ordinary courtesy and sensitivity. I *know* that I
*cannot* even expect that much in a place like this. I speak from
experience in this regard, so my expectations regarding courtesy--I dislike
the word "sensitivity" in this context, because it's acquired a right-wing
connotation--are *very low* indeed. If I ever raise such an issue, the only
replies I shall get will be *accusations of political correctness.* So my
strategy as to the lack of courtesy is for me to return to the sender what
I get in kind.

What I am asking the list to think of, however, is how to write in a way
that appeals to the under-represented groups. Issues of *propaganda,
recruitment, and organizing* are what I am talking about.

And if you have nothing to learn from those who do not share your gender,
sexuality, etc., because you already know everything correctly and do not
have to be corrected by others through dialogues + debates + collective
inquiry, then why bother to take part in e-list discussion?

Yoshie




     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005