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Feminist
friendships and activism | 30.11.07 Wednesday
night was our monthly discussion meeting and the topic was activism, to be discussed
were such things as: what is feminist activism? What is the relationship between
feminist friendships and activism? What is the difference between group activism
and individual activism? I
feel that it was a really constructive useful discussion, and what came out of
it will be used to strengthen Mind The Gap as a network on several different levels. There
was some discussion on how as society has become more consumerist and more individual
people pick labels for themselves and don't work out what that actually means
or what that actually entails. "feminist" is not an identity label,
it is a principled political position that entails working for change, that entails
working with others and actually doing stuff. Talking about it is not the end
point it is the beginning point. The discussion groups are good and important
but if that is all people do then is that really feminism? One
of the most important things that came out of it was the discussion we had on
the relationships between friendship and activism. How for activism to work and
for women to be comfortable doing it they need to know each other, we need to
talk about each others feminisms, what they are built on, the ideas involved in
them, what they are influenced by. Often the place where the passion for activism
comes from is the same place where we are most wounded and we need to be aware
of that in ourselves and each other. Knowing each other in such ways is especially
important in a network such as MTG because there are many different strands of
feminism that the members bring to the organisation, radical, anarchist, liberal,
queer, socialist, religious etc and while this is an enormous strength it also
means there will probably be flashpoints and disagreements and knowing who other
women are, where women are coming from means we will have empathy and compassion
for someone's position even if we disagree with them. It
was discussed how activism should never be seen as just a means to an end, but
as an end in itself. What happens while we are doing it is just as important as
what it changes. Women working together, building friendships and support systems
together is activism, is a way of working against the system because we live in
a society that doesn't value women, that especially doesn't value feminists, that
doesn't value female friendships Another
reason friendship is so important is that feminist activism like most woman's
work can be draining, thankless, grindingly depressing, so to offset that we need
to take time to celebrate, to celebrate women, our victories, our foremothers
victories, we need to take time to regroup and recharge and we need to do this
with the same people we are doing the activism with. Obviously we will not click
with everybody we work with politically, but the possibility of building friendships
has to be there. Also if you do activism together, if you know you have a group
of women supporting you with the big things then it makes the piecemeal individual
activism easier to do .I know certainly I am more focused on feminism in my personal
life if I have a group of women I can talk about feminism with and who I know
are actively trying to change things. This
then led on to discussion about what is individual activism and what can we learn
from women who do not call themselves feminists but who are working for the liberation
of women and working to support women. Ideas
for practical activism at the meeting were mostly about creating cross-generational
communication, because that often seems to be lacking in feminist spaces. An idea
was put forward that we create a Zine/pamphlet/newsletter for young women who
have not been exposed to feminism except for media stereotypes. It would possibly
be a UK wide endeavour and it would include such things as a feminist timeline
an accessible booklist, definitions from feminists of what feminism means to them.
And a whole lot else besides! One
of the other ideas was that we interview older feminists and archive these interviews
so we have accessible oral history from people who took part in it firsthand;
as it does often seen with each new generation of feminists time is spent relearning
things that could be passed down if only we had those connections. One
of the really important things that came out of the meeting in respect to how
the network works is that we are now going to have an informal get together once
a month so we can get to know each other better and strengthen the bonds between
us. .
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Jake Dyche | Mind The Gap