“The anarcho-communists told me that racism and sexism were a product of capitalism, so I should just help them dismantle it, and my liberation would come… eventually. The anarcho-primitivists told me that racism and sexism were products of industrial civilization, so I should learn to hunt and gather and wait patiently for its collapse. No one seemed to be putting issues which impact women, queers, and people of color first, thus marginalized people were only further marginalized within this “counter-culture.”
—This is from my zine, The First 7-Inch Was Better: How I Became An Ex-Punk,which I wrote in 2008. I revised version I did in 2011 just got published in Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory.
seriously the whole “transgender is just medical condition” thing was bullshit from the start. it was always built around the same sort of destruction of trans* people (especially trans women) in much the same way lesbian, gay and bi people were medicalized, dehumanized, institutionalized and “cured”
those narratives of deviance and inhumanity were created by western medicaliztion and psychology and psychiatry around the same time—cis lgb people of course now overwhelming reject that characterization.
but when it comes to trans* individuals, again especially trans women (true-trans trans men are for another discussion), cis people refuse to acknowledge the obvious similarity in history and the strikingly reminiscent use of power in destroying trans* lives. it serves cis lgb people, radical feminists queers in particular, to hide behind medicalization as yet another faux insurmountable barrier to realness that trans women face—thus allowing their cognitive dissonance to remain intact.
“I had a boss once who said that social workers didn’t really want society to get well. That would leave them all out of jobs. There is a particular energy that drives a person to do social service work. Much of the time the person doesn’t want to earn a living in corporations, can see that the world is messed up, and has a desire to somehow fix it in some small way. There is real potential in those convictions. I can only remotely imagine the power inherent in social workers if they were to unite against this system of brutality. It would be truly revolutionary.”
—C. Inza DeBoise, “Domestic Violence and Social Work from an Anarchist Perspective.”“...trying to end misogyny but preserving the state is like stopping one war but not destroying the military. Sure, you managed to stop this one event in the present, but you are still granting people the authority to subjugate you.”
—(I think this will be my answer to the question “what the hell is anarchafeminism?”)
Winter Additions to anarchalibrary
Since late November, I’ve updated http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.com with various e-books (pdfs) (thanks to whomever is uploading them to zinelibrary), a bunch of articles from the 80’s and 90’s, some articles from/about Mujeres Creando (if you’ve never heard of them, please check them out), and a sprinkling of other items. Enjoy!
Anarchism, Existentialism, Feminism, and Ambiguity (1988)
Ecofeminism and Deep Ecology (1988)
Emma Goldman: The Case for Anarcho-Feminism (1986)
Louise Michel (2004)
Voltairine De Cleyre Reader (2004)
Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader (1996)
À propos du féminisme pseudo-libertaire de M. Iacub (2010)
Review: Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, McKinnon (1990)
The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures (1997/2009)
Anarchism, Feminism, Liberalism, and Individualism (1993)
Intersectionality: Implications for Anarcha-Feminism (2012)
Rote Zora (2012)
Y en a pas une sur cent (2010)
Chomsky & Feminism (2006)
L’anarcha-féminisme (2010)
Anarcha-Feminist Notes Vol. 1, No. 2 (1977)
Women’s work and capital’s use of childhood (2012)
Anarcho-Feminism and Louise Michel (1990)
Entre el norte y el sur no hay un oeceano, sino un basurero lleno de prejuicios (2007)
Beyond Feminism: Anarchism, and Human Freedom (1989)
Emma Goldman and Women (1986)
Anarcha-Feminism or Death! the relevance of anarchism and feminism today (2009)
The Convergence of Anarchism, Feminism, and Ecology (1992)
Las mujeres indígenas vistas como “ganado” (2005)
Twenty-first Century Sex (1997)
Re/membering Women, Re/minding men: The Gender Politics of Anarchist History (2010)
Otros Feminismos (2009)
Refractions N°24 Des féminismes, en veux tu en voilà (2010)
Noe, Ito, 1895-1923
Mujeres Creando, Feminismo de Luchas Concretas (2009)
Être anarchiste et féministe aujourd’hui (2010)
Some thoughts on Anarcha-Feminism (2010)
Anarcho–feminism: Patriarchy, Power and Emancipation (2010)
Chickweed – anarchafeminist herbalism zine (2009)
Mujeres Creando (2012)
Emancypunx
“Making valuable DIY theory and herstory through zines”. An email interview with Nina, from Belgium (2009)
¿QUE ES EL ANARCO-FEMINISMO?
Red Dawns Festival: Queering solidarity and honoring militant historical memory (2009)
MANIFEST ANARCHOFEMINISTYCZNY (2005)
I would consider myself a feminist. However, I have never actually read any feminist literature. So honestly I feel like a bit of a fraud identifying as a feminist, but not actually being very well versed in the topic, if you get me. Could you recommend some literature to get me started? Some anarchafeminist stuff wouldn't go amiss either :)
Oh don’t worry. I mean reading up stuff is good so you can learn more but it’s not like you need to be knee deep in theory to be able to identify as a feminist. I find this idea that you need to be well read makes feminism feel a bit inaccessible, it shouldn’t be solely centered around reading academic texts and knowing all the literary names to drop, it feels all classist and ableist and middle class liberal feminist among other things.
Of course there are soooo many good resources out there and I love getting down and dirty with all that theory with big words n junk but it shouldn’t be the thing that makes you a ‘proper feminist’.
Intro to Feminism (real beginner stuff)
Anarchism and Intersectionality
Resources on Indigenous Feminism
The Transwomen’s Anti-Violence Project
Anarchalibrary has lots of resources on feminism
No Authority But Oneself:The Anarchist Feminist Philosophy of Autonomy and Freedom
Women, Race and Class - Angela Davis
Feminism is for Everybody - bell hooks
Understanding Patriarchy - bell hooks
Infoshop.org resource list on anarchafeminism
Sex Class and Women’s Oppression
The Black Feminist Manifesto Blog
Okay it’s mostly anarchafeminism but to be honest I personally find the majority of feminist literature to be annoying unless it is intersectional (focuses on the struggles of women of colour, trans* women and queers) and rather confrontational. I don’t know if I’ve listed stuff that’s a bit beyond what you’re used to but just pretty please don’t subject yourself to the writings of people like Jessica Valenti.
Hope I’ve helped and you find something that interests you and gets you all fired up and ready to smash things. :3 x
Women reclaiming the ability and right to use force would not by itself end patriarchy, but it is a necessary condition for gender liberation, as well as a useful form of empowerment and protection in the short term…
The entire idea that violence is masculine, or that revolutionary activism necessarily excludes women, queers, and trans people is, like other premises of nonviolence, based on historical whitewashing. Ignored are the Nigerian women occupying and sabotaging petroleum facilities; the women martyrs of the Palestinian intifada; the queer and transgender warriors of the Stonewall Rebellion; the innumerable thousands of women who fought for the Vietcong; women leaders of Native resistance to European and US genocide; Mujeres Creando (Women Creating), a group of anarcha-feminists in Bolivia; and British suffragettes who rioted and fought against cops. Forgotten are the women from the rank and file to the highest levels of leadership among the Black Panther Party, the Zapatistas, the Weather Underground, and other militant groups. The idea that fighting back somehow excludes women is absurd. Not even the history of the pacified white “First World” bears it up because even the most effective patriarchy imaginable could never prevent all transgender people and all women from militantly fighting against oppression.
-Peter Gelderloos
