Monday, October 18, 2010

Feminist organizing


Halloween approaches and we see via Womanist Musings some prime examples of commercial patriarchy at work.

Far be it from me to say there is no place in the world for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of whatever stripe you like. But what we communicate by pursuing the same theme into every corner of human relations is unambiguous: we value some things about women and not others.

Now, as men, we should reflect on the scale at which this transpires every day. Certain things are communicated to the women in our lives with perfect clarity. Other things probably aren't communicated at all, except at the individual level, between persons. So we are talking about mass manufacturing vs. what may or may not happen within romantic or familial relations, between friends, etc.

Industrial production always has an advantage over what people can produce at an individual level; the production of culture is no different. Wobblies already understand that the solution to the industrial problem is organization. Accordingly, revolutionary unionist men must organize around the principles they want to communicate to women within their organization, their communities, and their lives; as well as to society at large.

What we are up against is plain to see! Join us in making our principles known. An injury to one is an injury to all!

3 comments:

Ethan said...

One of the many things I like about you is that you realize that patterns and context are important things. Many people somehow miss this.

One "sexy" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is of course fine. When there's almost no other option, it's not fine.

JRB said...

Thanks, Ethan.

One of the many things I like about you is that you are really nice person -- and somehow this comes across online!

It seems like there's always a temptation to vilify a preference once it has been adopted by power. Many subcultures seem to take shape in opposition to as many mainstream preferences as possible, because much of what is "mainstream" is imposed.

But that's a very difficult way to live, and it also risks confusing the "sexy" TMNT outfit for the real problem, which is power, not preferences in and of themselves.

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