There is one thing I will never understand ... safe and radical spaces that involve alcohol and mostly cisgender men/males who are comfortable to get naked and walk around like that. Maybe make out with a few others ... maybe even a little coercive (hello? alcohol).
First, how on Earth can a space be "safe" and "radical" with alcohol involved? It cannot. I will say it again: IT CANNOT. As I have stated, alcohol is a drug, it is mind-altering, and blinds consent and so much more. It so-called "allows" people freedom to do what they want. Okay, fine, I have been down that road ... but there is no fucking way I want to do that again. I do not want to have to have a drug in me to do something that I actually want to do. I would rather do it honestly. And being sober is honest.
Okay, so there are lots of "safe" and "radical" spaces for freedom of expression and blah blah ... but like, I said, often times there is alcohol (fucking DIY beer, Riight?!). Does anyone actually think I would want to bring my kid there? Or would other people want to bring their kids? People are completely ignoring community needs if we ignore the fact that kids and parents cannot be involved. What about the recovering alcoholics or the people who choose to be sober? Can they really feel safe in a space that allows the use of alcohol and drugs to occur? Fuck no. Not only that - but legal stuff! How many people leave the "safe" and "radical" spaces while drunk or high? Whether that be biking, driving, or walking? Endangering themselves and others on the road? Or having a child there where people are drunk ... or even getting a kid taken away because some stupid fuck had marijuana in their pocket and the cops show up. Gross, no thank you, fucking pathetic.
How is consent being taken seriously when two people are making out and one is in a blackout from being drunk? Well, eh, guess what ... that is not consensual.
The other thing - okay, so who the fuck are the ones walking around naked or without a shirt on, etc etc ... ? The cisgender males, that's it. I rarely see a womyn or a trans/gender/sexual individual walking around like that. Is that equality? Is that a safe space? Would I be seen as "not radical/queer/too prudish" if I chose NOT to take off my shirt? I do not want people glancing at my body as if it is an object ... no matter what "safe" or "radical" space I am in. Why does some people still feel uncomfortable with that?! Guess what? There is still fucking patriarchy!!! And oh it reigns in these types of spaces, just as it does in society. Know how I know? I am female-bodied and identify as a womyn! I have been interrupted, not taken serious, done the cleaning, and watched the kids in the childcare spaces that of course, I brought up at meetings.
These "safe" and "radical" spaces are full of shit. If people are fucking serious about building FOR REAL SAFE and RADICAL spaces that actually challenge capitalism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and misogyny ... then these communities need to include EVERYONE. They do not need to be drunk and labeled with "radical queer", "anarchist", "anarchist punk", or "safe and radical" ... blah blah ... they need to fucking take it serious. Because if these spaces continue just what capitalism gives us to "cope" (alcohol, drugs) ... then how is that fucking challenging anything? These "safe" and "radical" spaces need to be sober, need to support people in recovery, need to support kids, and need to serious and grow out of junior high school times. Challenging capitalism and consumerism is to NOT drink and create fun out of sobriety.
Why the fuck do we all think that nothing is like, ever happening, politically? Do we really think getting drunk and forgetting half of the people in our communities (the ones I define above) really does anything? It just continues the cycle ...
I wrote a book: J Is for Justice! an Activism Alphabet
11 months ago
Posts
In many of these "radical" and "safe" spaces inclusion is not the intention, the intention is to create a space that's exclusively there own while proclaiming an altruistic mantra. As I've seen with many "progressive" dudes who work to foster safe spaces where people can have a voice, the only voice their care about is their own and voices like it.
ReplyDeletePatriarchy is never a topic of discussion.
After reading a bunch of your blog posts, I think you are very strict and rather abusive in how you use the feminist label. This is not anarchist feminism you are talking about, because most of what you calling for is restrictions on everything people do and say and how we behave. I'm an anarchist and I grew up abused and people said I was "like a woman" when I cried from the abuse, but the so-called "anarcha-feminists" who wear victimhood on their shoulders and use guilt to manipulate people and "go beyond" ("go beyond" always means "I have more rights than you") are just another set of bullies I have experienced in my life, and another set of people I do not feel safe around. I have always liked ordinary working class poor women in comparison to anarcha-feminists, who are not anarchists but are a form of Maoist.
ReplyDelete