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By icybear • 14 years ago

Violence and Ignorance

I have seen quite a few entries around the social justice blogosphere recently that deal with the concept of ignorance. As people have very rightly pointed out from a number of perspectives, it is dangerous to label groups of people (for their ideas or position in life) ‘ignorant’ or ‘misguided’, which creates an us vs. them mentality and perpetuates systems of inequality in our world that value some people’s ideas more than others.

This concept is something I’ve been struggling with personally for a long time. I’ve never been a fan of dismissing large groups of people, or even any individual person (often leading to great personal distress, so perhaps I should rethink that position…). I think it is crucial to the feminist project to learn to value others, even when it is difficult.

But of course, this becomes quite problematic when people have ideas that are violent.*

I honestly have trouble thinking of any reason for a person to have incredibly violent ideas unless they are either a) ignorant, or b) mean. In my way of using these words, if you are ignorant, you have the best of intentions but haven’t been taught or been encouraged to think about your privilege and the way oppression operates in this world. If you are mean, you know all this stuff, but still choose to hate a specific group anyway. I find the ignorant idea usually more useful, because I tend to believe that most people have the ...
By icybear • 14 years ago

Objectification of Asian women apparently makes a great Christmas gift.

I was out shopping today at Habitat, a store I generally like but have not been to very often. I was completely disgusted to see these mugs.

I am having trouble expressing exactly what the problems here are in such a way that I can write about it to Habitat (any suggestions would be most welcome!) but honestly, this is so totally gross. These are faces that look like photographs – so, we presume, faces of real Asian women. These mugs use real Asian women’s faces as pretty decorations for us to admire, the same as a normal mug would use a design of a flower or something. These women are nameless (quite a different situation from a mug ...

I was out shopping today at Habitat, a store I generally like but have not been to very often. I was completely disgusted to see these mugs.

I am having trouble expressing exactly what the problems ...
By icybear • 14 years ago

One experience of intersectionality

In light of all the disability issues recently, and inspired by katemoore’s beautiful entry prior to this, I thought I would share my own experiences of how living with a disability has influenced my feminism.

I am very new to disability rights activism, and still learning. It is very probable that I will say something that goes against key ideas in the field, or that is deeply problematic in some way – which is why this is nothing but a very personal (and difficult to write) post. This is how the form of feminism I practice has departed from some norms and developed in unusual ways because of my disability.

I have lived for many years now with a mild form of ...

In light of all the disability issues recently, and inspired by katemoore’s beautiful entry prior to this, I thought I would share my own experiences of how living with a disability has influenced my feminism.

I am very ...
By icybear • 14 years ago

Activism and Ableism?

I’ve heard a lot of people claim that feminists ought to be participating in some sort of feminist activism (I don’t remember exactly what posts on this site I saw this claim being made, but I have noticed it a number of times, and I’ve also heard it frequently in books and by feminists I know in real life). This is a sentiment that I agree with wholeheartedly in principle, but at the same time, I’ve been wondering exactly who may be excluded by this definition of feminism.

Here’s the thing. I’m disabled, in the sense that I have neurological issues that mean I will probably never be able to hold down a job outside the home, and I am ...

I’ve heard a lot of people claim that feminists ought to be participating in some sort of feminist activism (I don’t remember exactly what posts on this site I saw this claim being made, but I have ...