Miguel Angel Ordorica wrote:
> While I agree, I feel it is important to remember that women are often
> subconciously tainted by patriarchal thinking too- it would be hard to
> characterize Margaret Thatcher, for example, as an enlightened feminist.
And it is, in part, due to the aformentioned conditioning that many women may
need women-only spaces for consciousness raising, etc. Ultimately, efforts
together -- both women and men -- are necessary, of course. But there are
times that women may need to be with other women in their political work. And
only women. Though female relationships are also "tainted" by patriarchy, for
some women, it is only through being with other women first and getting out of
spaces where they may continually answer to men (even if the men aren't
demanding it outright, but due to socially conditioned gender dynamics, etc.)
that they are able too become fully empowered -- to reject certain patterned
behaviors/responses to and with men, or to stop defining themselves in
relation to men, etc.
In my own experiences -- even the women that i might least expect to see this
in -- when in mixed company, such as graduate seminars with lots of men will
act in "feminine" ways. i.e. give men the floor, apologize for their ideas,
etc. When no men are present behavior often changes dramatically. So the
need for women-only spaces in order to get to a point where the above
mentioned "feminine" actions are not as likely to happen in mixed company...
But all the above does not at all mean that i am advocating an ecofeminist
politic minus men. The opposite is true. But i value my women-only time.
And when one thinks of commonly shared public space as non-neutral space, that
is, "male" space, then the idea that women-only space is discriminatory is a
strange critique to make. Also, what needs to be clarified is the fact that
when i talk about "male" space i am not meaning that all you men out there
behave in the same way, but i think it is important to remember that by being
men there are certain privileges, etc. that you have that i do not.
Similarly, the fact that i am white, regardless of the extent to which i
change my behavior/idea in efforts to create a non-racist society, means i
need to remember that day in and day out i recieve lots of privileges because
of my skin. That the world is in so many ways "white" space. If I don't see
this it is because i have the privilege of not seeing it. I am privileged to
think of the dominant white reality as a nuetral, non-raced reality. I always
carry these white privileges with me. Regardless of whether i want these
privileges or not. So then a question of how i use these privileges to create
something different......
that's all for now -
Lori Anne
