I’d say the fights for “equality” are part of the problem in ways people don’t realize. It reminds me of a post with pretty typical mainstream feminist rhetoric circulating Tumblr that went as follows:
As a feminist I think women should also be drafted if necessary.
As a feminist I think women should not be given a lighter sentence compared to a man who did the same crime.
As a feminist I think female abusers should be held at the same level as male abusers
As a feminist I think male rape victims are just as equal as female rape victims and deserve the same attention.
As a feminist I believe in complete equality between genders even if that equality isn’t always “beneficial” to me
I however had issues with the post & challenged it with the following:
As a feminist, I believe very strongly that NO ONE should be drafted, and that the military is a horrible waste of our time and of people’s lives at the gross expense of other people’s sovereignty and dignity. The wars that this countries wages are inherently capitalistic, imperialist, and violent as hell.
As a feminist, I know mass incarceration is a deeply racialized issue that disproportionately affects communities of color and poor folk. So the solution “Just incarcerate women more too!” is fucking terrifying and gross to me, especially when we look at rates and reasons for incarceration and how unjust and unfair they are, and how, thanks to the school to prision pipeline, some people don’t ever have a chance outside of it.. End the prison industrial complex!
As a feminist, I am willing and able to check my privilege and mindfully talk about rape culture, sexual assault, and abuse as a patriarchy/power/at times gendered phenomena without being gender essentialist, transphobic, or erasing victims of any gender. I understand that male rape victims being affected by rape culture is STILL a product of patriarchy.
As a feminist, I don’t think gaining equality in inherently violent social constructs and institutions is the solution. How could a Black queer female CEO make the position of CEOS less violent just because it has been made “diverse”? Rather, I wish for emancipation from those systems for all people, justice for all people, and a destruction of any systems of abuse, not just a restructuring of them.
I seek alternatives to, not investment & equal footing in, current capitalist systems rife with injustice. I do not wish to become equal to those with social power over me in aspects of capitalism, patriarchy, violence, etc that I am gatekept from, I wish to see them abolished.
