The Movement
Kenya's women's movement like any other freedom, activist movement has had its successes and failures. We have come a long way, and we have a long way to go. But somehow we are forgetting what we are about - activism, freedom, choice, empowerment, and most importantly, sisterhood.
We have allowed politics, greed, competition, jealousy,selfishness to tear us apart. We have become mouthpieces for the patriarchy we opppose. We are not building each other up. We are tearing each other down.
Our divisions are tribal. They are age and status defined. Some of us have turned this movement into an eight to five job. Professionalized.
I always remember Sylvia Tamale's 'Be Drunk' (in reference to Charles Baudelaire's poem). She talks about the need for feminists and women's rights activists to be 'poetically drunk' - drunk with passion, anger, outrage, with justice.
I want to hug Sylvia Tamale when she casts doubt on the term 'gender activism'. She and I share the view that gender activism has led to complacency, diplomacy and a lot of general vagueness. What on earth is gender activism? I hold the view that gender in and of itself is an inequality of power. So while some may argue therefore that one has to be gender sensitive, that is, presumably,sensitive to these inequalities, the truth is our approach to tackling gender inequalities is not working. We have no business going around fumbling, making apologies, stressing SOME men so as not to insult the men amongst us. We shy away from being called 'feminist' (God forbid), 'revolutionary' and 'radical'. We end up being so diplomatic that we are inactive.
We name and accept gender differences, but skirt around dominance, or deny it. We don't look pervasive cultural misogyny in the eye. In many cases we perpetuate it. If one does not know what one is fighting, if you do not know, taste, smell and hear it, or do not recognize its potence, you are fooled and sucked into it. You become a part of it.
Sylvia Tamale talks about 'careerism' overtaking the struggle. We are NGO-ized, professional, we have CEOs. We have CEOs!!!
Our strategizing has changed from 'what can i do to bring change for my community?' to 'how do I make the most money, benefit financially?'. Voluntarism, struggle, sisterhood - forgotten.
I wish the career people (women and men) would leave the movement alone. Leave it to the activists, the drunkards. And remember that there are those of us who will die for it.
We have allowed politics, greed, competition, jealousy,selfishness to tear us apart. We have become mouthpieces for the patriarchy we opppose. We are not building each other up. We are tearing each other down.
Our divisions are tribal. They are age and status defined. Some of us have turned this movement into an eight to five job. Professionalized.
I always remember Sylvia Tamale's 'Be Drunk' (in reference to Charles Baudelaire's poem). She talks about the need for feminists and women's rights activists to be 'poetically drunk' - drunk with passion, anger, outrage, with justice.
I want to hug Sylvia Tamale when she casts doubt on the term 'gender activism'. She and I share the view that gender activism has led to complacency, diplomacy and a lot of general vagueness. What on earth is gender activism? I hold the view that gender in and of itself is an inequality of power. So while some may argue therefore that one has to be gender sensitive, that is, presumably,sensitive to these inequalities, the truth is our approach to tackling gender inequalities is not working. We have no business going around fumbling, making apologies, stressing SOME men so as not to insult the men amongst us. We shy away from being called 'feminist' (God forbid), 'revolutionary' and 'radical'. We end up being so diplomatic that we are inactive.
We name and accept gender differences, but skirt around dominance, or deny it. We don't look pervasive cultural misogyny in the eye. In many cases we perpetuate it. If one does not know what one is fighting, if you do not know, taste, smell and hear it, or do not recognize its potence, you are fooled and sucked into it. You become a part of it.
Sylvia Tamale talks about 'careerism' overtaking the struggle. We are NGO-ized, professional, we have CEOs. We have CEOs!!!
Our strategizing has changed from 'what can i do to bring change for my community?' to 'how do I make the most money, benefit financially?'. Voluntarism, struggle, sisterhood - forgotten.
I wish the career people (women and men) would leave the movement alone. Leave it to the activists, the drunkards. And remember that there are those of us who will die for it.
posted by Sichoki at 9:50 AM
1 Comments:
I totally agree with you. I was in the so called "gender activism" for a while, but got totally fed up and disillusioned with the squabbles involved. Many of the women in this movements seem to pick up the chauvinistic attitudes I so despise in men in the belief that equality means behaving and being exactly like men.
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