Liberation
When I was writing the post about Jacob Zuma there was a place where I just couldn't figure out what word I was looking for:
This isn't rare, there is a long history of men in left-wing political movements (of many different sorts) claiming to believe in equality and raping women.See there, I didn't describe what I meant, except in the vaguest kind of way. I couldn't think of a term, and I thought hard. Everything was too wooly, or too specific. I was so frustrated that I didn't have a term to describe the sort of movements I was trying to write about.
There are men who believe that women are objects, rather than human beings. There are many, many more men who won't challenge those men's beliefs. How can we create any kind of movement under those circumstances?"
Then, two days later, I realised I knew exactly the word that was missing - liberation.
So what I meant to say was: How can men and women join together in liberation struggles when so many men won't treat women like people?
How can men and women join together in liberation struggles when so many men won't treat women like people?
ReplyDeleteYou may just as well ask why we should let Kiwi women drive cars when most women in the world cannot?
These are both stupid questions. The skills, abilities, attitudes of most or many men (or women) has no baring on individual men (or women). To think otherwise is a sweeping generalisation, stereotyping at its worst. Ugly collectivism.
When you join others in struggle you don't join "men" or "women" but individuals. Choose your friends and foes by their merits, not by their sex.