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  •  Empowerment (4.00 / 4)

    I'm going to take you seriously that  "you don't understand 'empowerment.' " You acknowledge that sexism exists and that it is maintained in subtle and nuanced ways. Exactly. Many, if not most, of the structural, legal, and institutional barriers to gender equality have been broken down through the hard work of feminists and activists of the past 30 years.

    I would like to suggest that colonization may be an effective framework for examining the ways in which sexism is maintained. What are the colonizers tools? Violence (rape, domestic abuse). Religion (Focus on the Family, Jerry Falwell, Promisekeepers). Language (see examples in comment above). The colonizers succeed when they manage, largely through these three strategies and by controlling the other primary institutions--education, media, etc, in getting the colonized to internalize the colonial project.

    Empowerment is one part of decolonizing one's self. For the rape victim who has been told she brought it on herself, she asked for it, she was stupid to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, "Rape = Not Good" is a powerful decolonizing statement.

    Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Decolonizing the Mind is a good place to start.

    "I still think politics is about who's getting screwed and who's doing the screwing." -Molly Ivins

    by hono lulu on Sun Feb 20, 2005 at 11:39:41 PM PDT

    •  i agree (none / 0)

      but i would use the words conquor and conquest rather than colonize.  colonization can take place in uninhabited places.  when outsiders move into an inhabited community and take over, it is  conquest.

      where women's words are valued and respected, Our Word

      by artemisia on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 12:54:56 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      •  interesting distinction (none / 0)

        My first thought was that conquest was the immediate action and that colonization took place over a longer time span. Sort've like invasion and occupation. I'm not sure though that conquest wouldn't also apply to uninhabited lands. The Old World explorers thought of themselves as conquerors AND managed to convince themselves that the lands were uninhabited because they found only "savages." And this profile of Sir Edmund Hillary describes him as the "conqueror of the North Pole" even though it certainly wasn't colonized.

        Not criticizing, just word-playing.

        "I still think politics is about who's getting screwed and who's doing the screwing." -Molly Ivins

        by hono lulu on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 01:16:20 AM PDT

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    •  Thank you for taking me seriously (none / 0)

      And thank you for explaining your concept of "decolonization" - it's a quite interesting way to look at the problem.  I can see how "empowerment" is a method to alleviating some of the subtle framework that causes sexism to persist.  I would also wholeheartedly agree with your identification of both religion and language as other parts of the framework, and I would suggest that both require more novel and less direct solutions as well (since you can't really regulate either).

      Thank you for saying in a few paragraphs what I couldn't say in a few pages - that the structural and legal barriers of bias are largely broken down, and that the lasting biases can be found in more subtle places.  I would add the one caveat that most people, guys included, do not like the persisting biases.  It's not like all guys are trying to keep all women down.  I only add that caveat because sometimes I feel like there are those who claim to champion feminism but are really just condemning males as much as they can - I realize you're not doing that, and I'm not accusing you of it.

      If there is hope, it lies in the proles.

      by Aaron on Mon Feb 21, 2005 at 09:55:36 AM PDT

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