So this is sort of a continuation from my last blog, “Stupidity Comes in all shapes, sizes, and sexual orientations.”
Last night at the Madison Equality meeting, we hosted a meeting to show the intersections between the LGBT and feminist communities. The focus was on street harassment because that is Sisterspeak’s focus this semester. Therefore, myself and another member started with an activity where individuals were to yell out derogatory terms that are used for each gender. With these terms on the board, it was easy to mark trends and visually prove gender gaps and how the social construction leads to women seeming sub par.
This activity seemed fun and well received. I think the general body enjoyed it and got something out of it.
However, that was just the opening. When it was time for the lecture, I was feeling a different vibe. Three extremely knowledgeable feminists presented a powerpoint and were pretty thorough in all of their explanations. I would have thought at this point the social construction of gender was clear. I regretfully can say that, I think that is wrong. I’m afraid the point may have been missed.
The fact that the LGBT and feminist communities are intertwined was discussed in numerous different ways. It was presented in a credible manner and I was ready to stand on my chair and say “Amen!” Our speakers discussed Marilyn Frye’s “Birdcage” metaphor and they also included the owning of a public space. Since men are subordinate, they own public space and allow (or don’t allow) women, or someone who looks like a woman, (i.e the LGBT community) to use it.
They then conveyed how women need to carry pepper spray or have their keys in between their knuckles to feel safe walking alone at night. Obvious example? Evidently not.
The general body did not get this, and it wasn’t even women! They thought this was being “smart” and safe”. Of course that is being smart and safe, because that is the society we live in. Women are subordinate to men. Feminine men are subordinate to men. It is not natural though. It is not just being smart and safe because that is life. It is being smart and safe because our world is designed in a way that we’ve let men take over, and now have no other options. Women have to constantly be on the defense, watching their back so as not to disturb men in their world. If we get raped because we were walking alone at night with our guard down, well that’s our fault. We should have been smarter, and safer. We should have been carrying our pepper spray and our keys in the right way.
God, there’s nothing I hate more than victim blaming.
I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe this:
Sigh. You can’t win over everyone, that’s for sure. And I certainly am not trying to push my views on to other people. It’s just, feminists support the LGBT community. Why is it so hard for that community to support feminists?
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
Well, FamilyJules, I have to say I disagree with you about how the meeting went last night. I do agree that some of the members did miss the point about street harassment’s roots lying in larger social forces than just an event involving an assailant and a victim. But the resounding response–when one of the speakers said that it wasn’t as if they were implying that there is a dangerous cult of men running around harassing people– was laughter. To me, that is an implication of agreement.
In other portions of the meeting, people seemed genuinely interested and intrigued in the matter. People stayed afterwards to ask questions, some even voiced interest in submitting pieces to SisterSpeak’s publication.
I also think, as a feminist, it took me a few classes of talking about nothing but feminism to really gather all of the information I wanted to really join the movement. Last night, we had an hour. There is a lot of information, and a lot of traditional gender roles and exceptions that everyone accepts, queer or straight, without thought. Deconstructing those views takes a bit longer than 60 minutes.
I think Madison Equality did a fantastic job by bringing in a feminist perspective to a community that is leaps and bounds ahead of other communities in at least thinking about the intersections between sexuality and gender.
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