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"New Feminisms" Revise the Domestic Violence Movement

toward a multi-issue intersectionist analysis

Forum: WMST-L
Date: 05/22/2002

On 05/21/02 10:39 pm, "Heather Merle Benbow" wrote:

what I find depressing is the kind of uncritical celebration of sexuality in whatever form which sometimes is passed off as feminist scholarship, not Professor Jeffreys' critique of it. What is 'feminist' about work which celebrates marriage, SM and rape? [snip] Isn't feminism based on a critique of hierarchy and power?

Yes, including the hierarchy of adult consentual sexual expressions and desires (e.g. vanilla good, S/M bad) promoted by radical feminists.

How, for example, would an advocate of this 'new feminism' critique sex slavery and domestic violence?

I already critiqued sex slavery in my April 9 response to Sheila Jeffreys (see http://eminism.org/interchange/20020410-wmstl.html). As for domestic violence, some of the most progressive organizations fighting against domestic and sexual violence (for example, SFWAR and Asian Women's Shelter in San Francisco) are leading major ideological and structural shifts as they incorporate multi-issue, intersectionist views on violence and oppressions rather than the one that focuses primarily on the impact of the "patriarchy." I know that many "radical feminists" are not happy with these changes, but you should at least listen to SFWAR and others if you want to know how "new feminism" is critiquing domestic violence and how that challenges older understanding of domestic violence.

Also, I have a project on domestic violence that I've been working on since last year which looks at the experiences of women who have been abused by DV shelters and other "feminist" anti-DV services, and how to hold feminist anti-DV organizations accountable using tactics successfully employed in other fields (e.g. homeless advocacy, HIV prevention). I have presented some of this previously (I gave the opening keynote for Women's Herstory Month at New York University titled "Shelter as a Tool of Social Control: Is there a Domestic Violence Industrial Complex?" - which I was surprised they actually let me speak about). Again, you are probably not going to agree with what I have to say, but it is simply not true that "new feminism" does not have any sophisticated critiques of domestic violence.

Emi Koyama <emi@eminism.org>

--
http://eminism.org/ * Putting the Emi back in Feminism since 1975.


Forum: WMST-L
Date: 05/22/2002

On 05/22/02 05:27 am, "Leah Ulansey" wrote:

Emi wrote:

As for domestic violence, some of the most progressive organizations fighting against domestic and sexual violence (for example, SFWAR and Asian Women's Shelter in San Francisco) are leading major ideological and structural shifts as they incorporate multi-issue, intersectionist views on violence and oppressions rather than the one that focuses primarily on the impact of the "patriarchy."

I'd like to read more about this. Can anyone recommend some sources?

I think scholars researching in the areas of domestic and sexual violence should make donations to the cutting edge activist organizations like San Francisco Women Against Rape, The Network/La Red (Boston), Survivor Project (Portland), Northwest Network (Seattle), Asian Women's Shelter (San Francisco), INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, and others, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because you will receive newsletters that reflect the most up-to-date thinking within the anti-violence movements.

For example, the last issue of San Francisco Women Against Rape's newsletter in particular had an article discussing internal restructuring of SFWAR itself; the theme for the last issue of newsletter from The Network/La Red was "abuse within the anti-DV movement" - that is, abuse of survivors by the service provider, abuse within service provider hierarchies, and the problem of abusers working at anti-DV agencies. Survivor Project's next issue of newsletter will profile the struggle of a homeless, prostitute transsexual woman in obtaining genuine support from feminist anti-violence organizations.

See the web sites for informations on how to contact/contribute:

San Francisco Women Against Rape
http://www.sfwar.org/

The Network/La Red
http://www.thenetworklared.org/

Survivor Project
http://www.survivorproject.org/

Northwest Network
http://www.nwnetwork.org/

Asian Women's Shelter (not an official site)
http://bapd.org/gasner-1.html

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
http://www.incite-national.org/

Community Against Rape & Abuse
http://www.cara-seattle.org/

I also think that scholars writing and teaching about domestic and sexual violence should attend conference of INCITE!, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and other grass-roots networks, because there are a lot of interesting conversations happening at these places - if you know how to find them.

[Full disclosure: I am the community board chair for Survivor Project, and I was paid $50 by San Francisco Women Against Rape for reading poetry at its recent event.]

Emi Koyama <emi@eminism.org>

--
http://eminism.org/ * Putting the Emi back in Feminism since 1975.