Up Front: Walk This Way
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Obviously this is a cause of great significance, but it’s an important cause that has appointed Gloria Steinem as an honorary co-chair, how does this march relate to the LGBTQIA community?
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What can we do?
I keep meaning to do what I usually try and do – write about it in a way that might be useful to other people – but it’s surprisingly difficult.
There’s just too much data. Every day, some fresh absurdity, some new outrage. How do you finish a thought? Where is there a pause for breath? When does the grim humour wear out?
I think I might have a hook with this New Yorker story on the Conservative “intellectuals” furiously backfilling some sort of theory into Trumpism.
Their theory is wholly unconvincing and ultimately adds up to a lot of culturally insecure white people trying to hold on to their societal privilege, but it’s something to go on. And look, there, I wrote some sentences. Thanks Emma!
PS: Will also go to the local march and remind others about them.
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The people knitting the Pussy Hats for it in the States have caused a wide-spread shortage of pink wool.
I'm going to the Wellington march, and am churning out a few Pussyhats as well. Here's the pattern for craftily-minded readers.
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Emma Hart, in reply to
Yeah, Steinem is problematic on trans issues, like so many feminists of her generation, which is a fucking shame. (Maher is not problematic. Maher is an arsehole.)
This is a list of the Women's March supporting partner organisations, who will be marching and/or providing some kind of support. It includes a number of LGBT organisations.
I can't remember the last time I saw any kind of large-scale protest action that didn't have some kind of problematic angle to it, especially ones like this that have been basically franchised. Likewise, I've never met a political party whose policies I agreed with in their entirety. Everyone has to decide where their "too problematic to support" line is.
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Emma Hart, in reply to
I keep meaning to do what I usually try and do – write about it in a way that might be useful to other people – but it’s surprisingly difficult.
It's really difficult! I even used an exclamation mark, which, ugh. But y'know, we argue with them, they become more entrenched. We try to push forward information, but information's lost all its value. What's the solution? I don't fucking know.
But this is why stories like the Jennifer Holliday one are so important. People gave her information and explained how they felt, and she changed her mind.
Planned Parenthood saw a 900% increase in appointments for IUDs after the election.That's how scared American women are: they want long-term birth control while they can still access it. I want people to know that. I just, man, I wish I had some better words, more powerful words.
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mark taslov, in reply to
For me with Steinem, it’s not so much that she’s problematic but more that she is a seasoned bigot against women – promoted as a leading figurehead of the marches. That’s what the photographs will show and the headline news will read.
Supporting the cause is rather easier than supporting her cause in this instance.
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the year so many people decided to Choose Hate. Brexit. Trump.
And johnkey decided I'm outta here, chicken shit.
Its all been in the pipeline of human consciousness for a long time IMO.
When business' were able to ship manufacturing offshore, unions were demonised, and self centred philosophies gained a glittering stage on which to peddle selfishness/ its your attitude bullshit( otherwise known as emotional blackmail or guilt tripping) to humanity.
The dumbing down large swathes of the global population got itself in motion.
And meaning what you say, was traded for polishing the language to make oneself look like one had all the answers. It got its own name too, spin. How appropriate.Just to me it looks like an end of empire period. And there's going to be a lot of salvaging of one's own arse and flogging off of the family jewels. Its already started where it all heads is anyone's guess, 'cause those who think they can direct it haven't got a clue no matter what nonsense they spout.
Sorry I'm not trying to say give up, this will just take us where it will and one day sense of a kind may prevail.
But when that will be...? -
Emma Hart, in reply to
Supporting the cause is rather easier than supporting her cause in this instance.
It's not her cause.
On November 9, Teresa Shook of Hawaii created a Facebook event and invited 40 of her friends to march on Washington to protest Trump's election. Similar Facebook pages created by Evvie Harmon, Fontaine Pearson, Bob Bland, Breanne Butler and others quickly led to thousands of women signing up to march.[5][6][7][2] Harmon, Pearson, and Butler decided to unite their efforts and consolidate their pages, beginning the official Women's March on Washington.[2] To ensure that the march was led by women of differing races and backgrounds, Vanessa Wruble, co-founder and Head of Campaign Operations, brought on Tamika D. Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour to serve as National Co-Chairs alongside Bob Bland.[2][8]
Organizers state the march is not intended to target Trump but is "more about being proactive about women's rights," and, more broadly, "a stand on social justice and human rights issues ranging from race, ethnicity, gender, religion, immigration and healthcare"
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Russell Brown, in reply to
promoted as a leading figurehead of the marches
To be honest, this is the first time I recall seeing her name mentioned in connection with them.
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mark taslov, in reply to
I had hoped I could leave my objection here without the requirement to reread the wikipedia page. As I said I support the cause. I’m ok disagreeing on the benefits of the publicity Steinem and her views may derive from her being positioned front and centre.
With that in mind I’m more interested in how our own franchisees might be willing to localise and distance themselves from that in order to send a more inclusive message.
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mark taslov, in reply to
Same, that's why I'm commenting on it here now.
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I read an article about the liberal left presidential campaign in Austria, which resulted in an increased victory for the greenish candidate over the far right one. That said the lefts campaign had been all about shared values and common decency rather than parties- hence the lefts candidate running as an independent.
In an intersectional view, I think that approach has a lot of potential for bringing people together. -
Stephen R, in reply to
I'm going to the Wellington march, and am churning out a few Pussyhats as well. Here's the pattern for craftily-minded readers.
My partner finished her one this evening. It's very pink.
Looks like we're going as well,
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Rich Lock, in reply to
Every day, some fresh absurdity, some new outrage.
You might be mildly interested to know that I've actually been waiting/wondering when you're going to write about this. Partly because I need a place to just vent about exactly this: just...what the fuck? What the actual fucking fuck?
There's been a few jokes circulating about how the world has actually fallen into the alternate reality - the 'evil' time stream - like this one. I've always felt at least a bit out of step in terms of things like my opinions and thought processes, but until now never so completely that I actually genuinely occasionally wonder, even if only for an instant, whether I'm the crazy one, like some sort of 2nd-grade Twilight Zone/I Am Legend* rip-off.
*the book, obviously, not the rubbish Will Smith film.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
You might be mildly interested to know that I’ve actually been waiting/wondering when you’re going to write about this.
Aw, how sweet! Thinking I'll have a crack tomorrow, actually, once the Herald Business feature I'm doing is filed.
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TracyMac, in reply to
Frankly, this is the first I heard of Steinem being involved in the US march. And since she is still the most recognisable feminist in the country, it'd actually be odd if she weren't a "prominent figure" involved in it. And she is certainly not an organiser of the thing as a whole. She still represents many second wave and mainstream feminist views.
Regarding her views, she wrote an essay on her evolving views on transpeople several years ago, and wholeheartedly apologised for the hurt her earlier views caused. For the Maher thing, she clarified and apologised the day after for being seen to imply younger women are not politically engaged.
Perhaps if you had such an interest in Ms Steinem's career and views as you purported to, you'd know these things. I don't follow the doings of second-wave American feminists that closely, and yet I knew of these mitigating factors.
No-one's perfect, and she is a feminist of her generation, with some of her views not perhaps as nuanced as we'd like even now, but she is certainly not broadcasting the kind of trans hated these days as you seem to imply. You need to look at arseholes like Sheila Jeffreys for that kind of thing.
Anyway, it's a shame that the association of Steinem's name with the US event (in an honorary role), despite all the other awesome women who have put their names to it, has so put you off attending an NZ march as you so obviously planned to. Perhaps you'll reconsider.
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Derail done, I feel pretty damn disheartened as well. I'll be going along to the march in Canberra on Monday, but I think the whole thing is going to be pretty futile. Maybe it'll kick off a rolling series of protests, like Occupy, but that did nothing concrete either.
:-/ Eh, I'm pretty depressed in general - work is kicking me in the guts already this year, with no end in sight. Doing something, symbolic as it is on this side of the world (and there as well), is better than nothing.
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There is also now a march in Dunedin. If you know of other NZ events, please link to them here.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
I keep meaning to do what I usually try and do – write about it in a way that might be useful to other people – but it’s surprisingly difficult.
I wont be marching. I have a prior engagement sorry. Also crowds kinds freak me out now as I get older.
I have a friend whose political views are wildly different to my own and he, rightly I think, keeps reminding me that what is happening in the USA and the UK really won't have much impact for us - we then drink wine and argue about global human rights.
But he's right, for us here in NZ, what is happening has less impact.
EXCEPT
We have an election coming up. And we currently (and for the last 9 years) have a government that really doesn't give a fuck about people unless they are rich donors. A government that sells trickle down economics and the false dream of being rich-like-me.
Everything I've seen about the USA and UK experience says that The Right have not become stronger, their vote has been static (even dropped). Rather The Left (those of us who care more about people) have stopped voting.
Whether that is because the left candidate didn't have a penis (USA) or because of rotating old white guys (NZ Labour) is kind of irrelevant now. The simple fact is if The Left chose not to vote then we hand power to those who have proven they don't care about the people.
So please march and support those who will be harmed in the US by their government but more importantly later this year VOTE to prevent it happening here.
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As an alternative to marching there is the option of a communal reading of Foucault's 'Society must be Defended'
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/16/anthropology-groups-organize-foucault-read-inauguration-day -
mark taslov, in reply to
Perhaps if you had such an interest in Ms Steinem’s career and views as you purported to, you’d know these things.
Why would you assume I don’t? How could I not? I understand that the kind objectification that Steinem participates in in the interview is deemed acceptable behaviour on these threads:
If it was for a transgender participant, it could be “A flock on a frock, on a cock”?
680 transgender New Zealand teens attempted suicide last year. Been there done that. Perhaps rather than mansplaining about how someone apologised and trans people should just be ok with that despite her not exhibiting a meaningful change in behaviour you could take some time to consider the level of erasure the transgender community routinely face and perhaps also consider whether that’s something you wish to contribute to. I’m not sure what comes next, perhaps someone calls me a twatcock or some other similarly dyadist pejorative, and the LGBTQIA skips off towards the rainbow.
"Forty per cent of high school students reported significant depressive symptoms, and nearly half of them had self-harmed in the last twelve months,"
Been there done that also. I’m didn’t tell anyone not to attend the march, I said I support the cause, I live nowhere near close to anywhere there’s a march on, so why not leave it there. I mean you’re quite welcome to defend Steinem or any transmisogynist for that matter, drawing the trans person back into that conversation doesn’t magically validate it.
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mark taslov, in reply to
My apologies for the typos.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
or any transmisogynist for that matter, drawing the trans person back into that conversation doesn’t magically validate it.
This was posted on The Standard the other day and held me engrossed for over an hour...reading the text, following the links and reading the comments.
I've been mulling it over ever since...and seeing parallels in other 'groups' who aim for inclusion but end up diversifying...if that's the right word. A whole bunch of disparate individuals who for safety, maybe, join up and the assumption is made that they're all essentially on the same page. When they are not. And misunderstanding and bitterness ensues until the component parts begin to split...
And the oppressed inadvertently become the oppressors.
It was like being at a 70s consciousness raising session.
We'd be marching in Auckland if the march began at Myers Park and went down to the US Consulate. I am too old and unfit to push the wheelchair up the hill.
(And could someone explain to me the significance of the pink pussyhats...I'm scared to ask Mr.Google)
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mark taslov, in reply to
That link was a depressing read. In case there is need for me to clarify Rosemary, I’m not calling Steinem a transmisogynist because she won’t sleep with me, I’ve no idea about her sexuality. That 1.2% or so of the population – leading rape and suicide stats – pose a threat to someone’s sexuality is quite an allegation.
misunderstanding and bitterness ensues until the component parts begin to split
Which is exactly what we don’t want.
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