Flashback Friday, a column on feminist notions...
Joan McGregor
“It should be noted that normally we do not let others exploit an incapacitated person and take advantage of their condition.”
Adrienne Rich
"The assumption that ‘most women are innately heterosexual’ stands as theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease; partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a ‘preference’ at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force, is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and ‘innately’ heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system or racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness."
Abusers beat a woman down psychologically first, making her feel she isn't good enough, before they start with physical violence - they call her weak, emotional, menstrual, pregnant. Casting these things as 'bad'. Society does the same thing, and then berates women for not achieving more. If you beat a dog every day from when it is born... it's not going to be the dog it can be. I have been wondering if heterosexuality, the expectation of heterosexuality, is part of the process of weakening women so that they accept (your) will.
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Cinnamon Gurl sparked this off. Thanks. Each week the Flashback Friday: Feminist Edition will feature a story that has something to do with being or becoming a woman or feminist. This series will continue until I run out of stories. I love having guest bloggers. If you have a story you want to tell and you want to be a guest blogger here, please email me; or feel free to link to your own story in the comments.
Joan McGregor
“It should be noted that normally we do not let others exploit an incapacitated person and take advantage of their condition.”
Adrienne Rich
"The assumption that ‘most women are innately heterosexual’ stands as theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease; partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a ‘preference’ at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force, is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and ‘innately’ heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system or racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness."
Abusers beat a woman down psychologically first, making her feel she isn't good enough, before they start with physical violence - they call her weak, emotional, menstrual, pregnant. Casting these things as 'bad'. Society does the same thing, and then berates women for not achieving more. If you beat a dog every day from when it is born... it's not going to be the dog it can be. I have been wondering if heterosexuality, the expectation of heterosexuality, is part of the process of weakening women so that they accept (your) will.
...
Cinnamon Gurl sparked this off. Thanks. Each week the Flashback Friday: Feminist Edition will feature a story that has something to do with being or becoming a woman or feminist. This series will continue until I run out of stories. I love having guest bloggers. If you have a story you want to tell and you want to be a guest blogger here, please email me; or feel free to link to your own story in the comments.
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