"I said, 'Your lips, they're like whale blubber.' That wasn't my best line, but it worked."

Can we bomb our way to a feminist paradise?

Come September (2002)
Arundhati Roy



Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer and activist. Her book 'The God of Small Things' has been in my reading list for a long time and I hope to read it in the future. I have always been impressed by her outspokenness when it comes to fighting for social justice around the world. She is a liberal intellectual and I came across her speech 'Come September' given a year after the September 11th tragedy at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. In it, she talks about fiction being the relationship between the power and powerlessness. In her speech, she condemns war, imperialism, blind patriotism and nationalism, and unfettered power by a State. The political context of the essay is not of priority for this post. What I want to write about is when she mentions feminism and war.
She mentions feminism in two occasions, both times drawing laughter from the crowd (and me!):
Now that the initial aim of the war - capturing Osama Bin Laden (dead or alive) - seems to have run into bad weather, the goal posts have been moved. It's being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas. We're being asked to believe that the U.S. marines are actually on a feminist mission. [Laughter, applause] (If so, will their next stop be America's military ally Saudi Arabia?) [Laughter] Think of it this way: In India there are some pretty reprehensible social practices, against 'untouchables', against Christians and Muslims, against women. Pakistan and Bangladesh have even worse ways of dealing with minority communities and women. Should they be bombed? Should Delhi, Islamabad, and Dhaka be destroyed? Is it possible to bomb bigotry out of India? Can we bomb our way to a feminist paradise? [Laughter] Is that how women won the vote in the U.S.? Or how slavery was abolished? Can we win redress for the genocide of the millions of Native Americans upon whose corpses the United States was founded by bombing Santa Fe? [Applause]

I remember clearly when the narrative of the Afghan War changed in this country to that of the liberation of the Afghan women. The idea of the U.S. marines being in a feminist mission was hilarious to me (isn't the Marines the archetype for masculinity and machismo?). Then she follows with the idea of bombing our way to a feminist paradise, specially all the locations around the world were women are being oppressed in one way or another (I guess that would be every country in this world). In all seriousness, Roy highlights the fact that you cannot use war to bring equality. If anything, knowing how war ravishes society, specially women, war and equality are antithesis. Furthermore, it is surprising how Western powers use women's equality to justify war. That argument was also use in the Iraqi War, also. The irony is that women had more equality with Saddam Hussein (a secular government) than in many countries the Middle East, particularly those theocratic states.

Thus, why do Western Powers use female equality as a justification for going to war? I think it is a way to formulate a savage/civilized 'us' vs 'them' dychotomy that resonates with the average person. It is easy for people to see violence against women in some 'third world' country with another culture and religion far away from here . Using the narrative of liberators, we can come away as heroes.

I think this section of the speech is a great reminder that we have to be careful with how we analyzed political narrative that claims to liberalise women in other countries (never here, of course, we are all free). And no, we cannot bomb our way to a feminist paradise and we shouldn't try.

We didn't wonder if we'd grow up and be happy

Distance: 11.01 miles
Time: 1 hr 13 mins 47 sec
Average: 8.9 mph
Maximum: 26.3 mph
Calories: 801
Miles in 2012: 40.83
Total Miles: 1,243.22

I haven't been biking a lot lately. Mostly out of lethargy. I feel like my body is frozen and I can't move. I do go to the gym once in a while but I am just not mentally into it. Anyway, today was a beautiful day and I needed to go to the library. I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to bike. The day was indeed glorious, albeit very windy at times. I took this opportunity to also visit the downtown of Sherborn which I have been to many times, but now I am currently working for the town and I wanted to share that here. Its funny because biking in Sherborn is a love/hate relationship. It is a very scenic town but with brutal hills. When I applied for my very part time job (I only work 10 hours per month) I wrote this lovely essay about biking in the town of Sherborn (they needed a writing sample). When I had my interview in front of the Commission (6 people), three of them told me they found out about Sherborn while biking. That was a great way to break the ice and I got the job. So, I thank biking for getting the job! :)

Walden enjoying the scene of Fiske Pond

Fiske Pond, half frozen

Sherborn, settled in 1662 and called Boggastow, became a town in 1674.

Sherborn, MA (I remember the first time I visited this place, I found a small snake. I jumped like 5 feet, got on my bike, and peddled away).

Sherborn, MA - I am sure by 'man' they mean 'human'

Sherborn Town Hall (where I work)

Sherborn - I love the architecture of the churches around here. They get extra points if they have a pride flag like this one.

A farm in Sherborn

Cute horses in Framingham, MA

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

"The Damnation of Women"

Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil (1920)

W.E.B. Du Bois

From Wiki: In his chapter called "The Damnation of Women," Du Bois seeks to elevate women by acknowledging their labor in the home, the workplace and the black church. The chapter has been described as one of the first proto-feminist analyses by a male intellectual. In the chapter, Du Bois gives the black mother even more glorification for her role as child bearer. He calls for women to seek a life of economic independence, and argues that women have a right to control their own bodies and reproductive choices. Yet in his description of women he often describes their physical traits first such as his description of journalist Mary Shadd Cary whom Du Bois described as a "ravishing dream-born beauty."

I found this essay while searching for free feminists text in the public domain. I have found some great feminists classic texts online. I went to Amazon.com to find some inspiration in some feminists theory books. Amazon allows a 'look inside', and I am able to peruse the table of context. That is how I found the chapter titled 'The Damnation of Women' in the book Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois. I read The Souls of Black Folk, a seminal work in African-American literature in college, so I am partially familiar with his work. However, I wasn't familiar with his views on women, and the chapter 'The Damnation of Women' is considered to be a proto-feminist text and a tribute to the dignity and worth of women, particularly black women. You can find the book free here.

The chapter is beautifully written and demonstrates Du Bois' strong respect and admiration for women, particularly black women. Du Bois begins the chapter by writing about four women of his childhood- his mother, cousin, and two friends. They were of different races. He claims that 'they existed not for themselves, but for men.' Du Bois describes the damnation of women as follows:

The world wants healthy babies and intelligent workers. Today we refuse to allow the combination and force thousands of intelligent workers to go childless at a horrible expenditure of moral force, or we damn them if they break our idiotic conventions. Only at the sacrifice of intelligence and the chance to do their best work can the majority of modern women bear children. This is the damnation of women.
All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins.
The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have knowledge. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion. The present mincing horror at free womanhood must pass if we are ever to be rid of the bestiality of free manhood; not by guarding the weak in weakness do we gain strength, but by making weakness free and strong.

When I first read those lines, I thought to myself, 'if that isn't feminism, I don't know what is!' In a text published in 1920, Du Bois indicates that women had to choice between being intelligent (I presume an education) and being a mother. I did find perplexing that he found those issues to be mutually exclusive, which they are not. Du Bois then explains that this world both worships and despises motherhood and virginity. Then Du Bois expresses his support for fundamental issues pertaining self-determination in all women - 1) economic independence 2) education and 3) reproductive autonomy. Du Bois concludes that instead of protecting 'weakness' we must make women 'free and strong.'

I felt this chapter seeks to highlight the role of black women because, according to Du Bois, the world worships womankind but 'forgets its darker sisters.' Quoting Scheneider, Du Bois writes, 'No mother can love more tenderly and none is more tenderly loved than the Negro mother.' Du Bois writes about the role of women in Africa and Asia, and specially its role during slavery. He writes, 'the crushing weight of slavery fell on black women. Under it there was no legal marriage, no legal family, no legal control over children.' He also condemns the insulting of black womanhood who is shown as prostitutes of lust, as he writes. I think the oversexualization of the black body (or any women of color) is common even today.

To conclude, it is always refreshing to read scholarly text from the 1920s expressing its support for the social and economical independence of black women.

Sh*t White Feminists Say

This is hilarious!

Defund Susan G. Komen

The news broke that Susan G. Komen has stopped its funding for Planned Parenthood bowing down to right wing pressure. As expected, many people are angry, including myself, specially seeing how many low income people use Planned Parenthood for breast exams. I send them this message:

I am very disappointed about SGK removal of funding for Planned Parenthood. You are discriminating women who need breast exams based on political beliefs. From now on, I'll stop donating to SGK and instead, give that money to organizations who truly care about the health of people, not pandering to misguided and dangerous religious/political beliefs.

I strongly urge others to do the same. This is very sickening, 16% of the work PP does is breast cancer-related. Women's bodies are a battleground, and this is a clear demonstration of that. I read that the head of SGK, Karen Handel, is a GPO supporter and donor who ran for Governor of Georgia on an anti-abortion platform and to defund Planned Parenthood. No more buying pink related SGK merchandise at the stores. I want to support organization who stand for helping everyone!

breaking secrets and telling other truths

No More Secrets, No More Lies:

African American History and Compulsory Heterosexuality (2003)

Mettie Udora Richardson

I found this scholarly essay by pure chance in my Google Reader. Since I have read Adrienne Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence someone made reference to Mettie Udora Richardson's essay which looks into Compulsory Heterosexuality in African American History. That is a topic I know nothing about, so I found Richardson's essay to be extremely informative and scholarly well done. Compulsory heterosexuality (heterosexuality as default sexual orientation) is a very fascinating topic, and this essay brought more information to light.
Richardson begins by explaining the impact Rich's article had on her, 'a manifesto of lesbian existence that declared us pervasive and distinct.' However, she also highlighted the shortcomings of Rich's essay, particularly 'lack of distinction between various genders and sexualities, claims of a uniform global lesbian sisterhood, the presence of ubiquitous and monolithic male oppressors, and the assertion of a universal lesbian experience.'
Richardson said she wants to go away from the notion of silence, and instead write about 'Black people [having] written histories that exalted their manhood and heralded their femininity to protect themselves from defamation, and have proven their heterosexuality, there
by establishing,themselves as decent, moral and above all, 'normal human beings'.
Richardson, quoting Evelyn Hammonds, said that Black females sexuality outside the boundaries of acceptable sexual and gendered behavior are seem as traitors and dangerous. Richardson states that research about slavery has neglected relationship outside wife/husband normative and also, those living about 'male' and 'female' gender roles. For the later, she used the case of William Cathay/Cathay Williams who posed as a man to join the Buffalo Soldier during the Civil War.
Richardson later states that Black history is a triumvirate of 'equality, freedom, and manhood', consequently a 'culture of dissemblance' has erased the 'emergence of bisexual, lesbians, and alternatively gendered' peoples. Then, Richardson writes about various books addressing the 'matriarchate' in the Black family, and how those researches argue that strong female figures are bringing the demise of Black families. Richardson ends by saying that Black history must incorporate Black queer people because that will enrich research and scholarly discourse.