#BlameFeminism: For the Hurt & the Hustle

[ismnotwasm]

A little bit rambling- but awesome conclusion

Feminism is the hustle to survive in a world that does not care about you. The latest Internet satire tells us to #blamefeminism for everything from dying houseplants to paper cuts to breaking down the nuclear family to trigger warnings. As an avowed feminist, and a tad millennial, I’ll join the bandwagon. I #blamefeminism too. As most feminists, I have taken on an unspoken oath to let the bad things in. I’m hyperaware of sexist oppression, trauma, survival, violence, suicide, self-hate, rape and abuse. Being feminist is still more complex than man hating or being the misogyny police, despite modern-day media definitions. Contrary to popular belief, feminists are not simply hypersensitive and unattractive — we’re akin to an Atlas bearing the world’s burdens.

And we’re not shrugging it off.

Letting the bad things in is an act of strengthening our critical consciousness. Many women of color, immigrant, queer and trans people of color, lay on the margins of conversations in the mainstream white-feminist sphere, which seek to lean-in, negotiate, and strive for equality. But when tragedy and sexism overcomes the news like wildfire, as did the murder of scholar Jonathan Ferrell, the massacre of innocent mall-goers in Nairobi, the objectification of black bodies à la Miley Cyrus, or the horrifying gang rape in Delhi, we must confront it, and let the bad things in. That is, feminist work in the new millennium requires a loving recommitment to reckon with oppression, but to not fall apart in the process.

This is when it gets hard.

Fighting is not so easy. We lose our jobs. We deal with the pain of losing family, friends and lovers. We run out of money. We don’t have health insurance to get a check up or go to therapy. We make art no one wants to buy or pay us for.

These are everyday tragedies of living, and no one is spared. It’s only a matter of when it’s our turn. Yet it’s in these moments, when we are experiencing oppression, that beckons revolution and response. We begin to embolden a feminist politic that is for everyone. This is when we dream, forgo the hurt, and embrace the hustle.

http://thefeministwire.com/2013/10/blamefeminism-for-the-hurt-the-hustle/

[seabeyond]

1. this is so huge. so real. need to be heard. this is not a game. it is not easy.and someone needs to

do it.

thank you for this. which is exactly significant to what makes redq "new branded" feminism the ridiculous that all of us can hear.

there was an Op and an 8 yr old girls that said no to a comic book that said what boys do and what girls do. what struck me the strongest was that her eyes are opened. and once they are opened, unless being jsut a shit, one cannot close them again. this 8 yr old girls was allowed to so easily define, by seeing print side by side. she will never unsee. and she will live it a lifetime.

i cannot undue me. i cannot undue what i see. i cannot undue what i know.

and it will effect my life hugely. that may be the scary part for so many. and that is what makes this just so much more hard.

[redqueen]

2. OMG that hashtag.

It's sarcasm, right?

I've seen too much MRA dumbassery. Such sarcasm is forever doomed to fall under Poe's law.


Anyway, great piece. Love the last paragraph especially...