Hey B,How
are you doing today?
I'm good. Tired,
but good. I've been sitting here for a while trying to
write something for this issue of Bekhsoos. Our upcoming
theme is all about movements. I told you how our
community is trying to put its energy into turning
itself into a movement for change, and I believe it has
such a great potential to do so. Plus, I like so many
others are am in need of a movement in order to start
righting/writing all the wrongs in our lives.
Babe, I'm angry.
And I'm scared. Because the past women's movement, if we
could ever call it that, has let us down. And for me, I
feel that its failure has meant that Ive had to deal
with the insecurities, with healing the scars of
uninvited hands on my body, with healing the greater
scars of all the women in my family and my society,
alone, in silence. Oh, they are far from healed, I know,
B. They will take years and years to mend. But
hopefully, this movement can bring about deeper,
everlasting change, for us and for generations of women
to come. It has to, you know?
I mean, you know
some of these older women's rights activists. They kill
me. They seem to sit at conference panels and show
videos of these "poor" women talking about how they
survived sexual or physical abuse. But these activists
never tell us if they've ever been in these "poor
women's" shoes. Like, are they all working on women's
issues for purely altruistic reasons?! And I guess this
is where queer women have an advantage. No one wants to
talk about us. So we do all the talking about our lives
and our issues. And you see what a major difference that
has made for us, in understanding ourselves better.
But there's so
much more to be done. I told you how I've been having
these great conversations with a couple of friends about
what being queer means to us (and really, reading Joanna
Kadi has helped me figure this out, so thank you for
telling me about her book!). And so we're coming to
understand what it means to be queer: yes, it means
loving women when you're supposed to channel all your
sexual and emotional energies towards pleasing men; and
it means being a sexual woman in a culture where that is
the greatest taboo. But it also means being a man who
actively refuses what "a real man" implies in this
society; it means being poor in a country that hates and
fears the poor; being mentally or physically challenged
in a society that totally abandons you if youre not; it
means being of dark skin when your skin color should be
light, and so on. You get the point.
And I believe that
for our movement to be truly effective, we have to work
with all these queer people who have been rejected by
this society, to help each other. But most of all, I
think that feminism has the ability to be the force that
drives us and connects all of us queers together,
because it offers visions of a better world, for people
of all genders. I know thats what you believe as well,
and I love you for it. But tell me more what you think.
Looking forward to
hearing from you.
Miss ya, B!
Take care,
deems |
