November 2006 Archives

I wanted to post the notes that we came up with at the workshop I co-facilitated with Win Chesson from UNC at the NGLTF's Creating Change Conference in Kansas City last week. My notes are in brackets. Here they are!

What Can Men Do?

- Wear t-shirts, be visible
- Speak out in public, be feminist allies
- Acknowledgement / confront your own priviledge / internalized misogny
- Call others out [on their sexism/racism/etc]
- Encouraging women to take on leadership positions, especially in LGBT organizations
- Actively build colaitions with feminist and women's organizations
- Notice who is interrupting who
- Hold anti-sexism workshops
- Reaching out to heterosexual men's groups
- Question hate crimes legislation [Matt Foreman, E.D. of the Task Force, highlighted the "progress" made towards passing this legislation. Several workshops participants questioned whether these laws are racist in practice]
- Looking into our families

Questions To Ask:

- Theory --> Practice. How to translate?
- Inclusivity; What are the brands of feminism?
- What is the role of feminist men?
- Context
- Male privilege and anxiety [Anxiety over negotiating that privilege]
- Intersections with other issues
- Unequal distribution of male privilege among men
- Body image and media representations
- How does that impact desire? [What bodies are seen as desirable, what bodies aren't?]
- Hypermisogyny in gay male communities
- Sense of entitlement [that gay men, particularly white gay men, have]
- Connection between sexism and homophobia
- Feminism as a tool to critique our identities
- Misogyny among FTM [female to male transgender] communities
- Transitioning into and out of positions of power and privilege
- The treatment of effeminate men in queer male communities

What is Feminism?

- Thought and action vs. System of patriarchy
- Pro-sex Feminists
- Against and and all system of oppression / "isms"
- Queer eco feminism (for ending domination}
- Difficult to define, many brands