NH: Remembered that I'd read that Delany quotation only yesterday. Sure
enough, the book was still on the bed. He says:
"I have a great deal of sympathy with a lot of feminist
thinking. I couldn't call myself a feminist, however, because I don't
think a male *can* be a feminist, no matter how sympathetic he is to
women's cause. It's not my fight--it's yours. And I am of the group you
will have to take power from, if you're to win that fight--if only the
power to oppress you.
"How sympathetic then, other than intellectually, can I be?
"It's like a white person calling himself a black militant. It
just doesn't quite...you know...wash. I can be a feminist "fellow
traveler," if you will. But that's it. That was part of my political
education. And indeed, when a man started calling himself a feminist,
that was the definitive sign he didn't understand what feminism was
really about, anyway.
"Recently, I've been barraged by a set of books, coming out of
academia, all pointing out "male feminists," in which (some) women use
the term and men use it also. I grew up in a particular ideological
location where not using such a term was simply the custom. These people
obviously grew up in another context. Now I must say, as I read these
books, I see all the co-optations that I was warned against, that I was
taught the custom was instilled to guard against, and that the idea of
"male feminist" was claimed to represent."
I find it very apt that he says he doesn't want to 'co-opt' our fight, but
to be an ally. I very much wanted to take this quotation and show it to a
male acquaintance of mine whose so-called 'feminism' sounds very much like
'let me fight this fight for you, dears. You just sit over there and be
beautiful. I know you have brains, and I love you for it, and my, you
look wonderful in those frocks. Are any of you free for dinner later?'
Hmph. I don't know or much care whether you can legitimately hang the
word 'feminist' on certain types of male political behaviour that are
supportive of women's issues. If they really are being supportive, and
not co-opting, and are sensitive to when they need to stand back and let
us go to, then I don't mind if people call them feminists. Myself, I'm
wary of doing so. I call them allies.
-nalo
On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Nalo Hopkinson wrote:
> NH: I can find the Delany quote if I look, but I think that the gist of
> what he said is that, as supportive as he is of feminism, he will never
> wear a woman's body and walk in a woman's shoes, any more than a White
> person could claim to be a Black activist. He, by very nature of being
> male, is part of that group of people from whom women have/have had to
> wrest our share of privelege. He says he cannot be inside the experience,
> but he can walk alongside us.
>
> -nalo
>
> On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, lissa bloomer wrote:
>
> > AMP wrote:
> >
> > >2) later on, in _silent interviews_, he explains whatever he thinks about
> > >his being labeled "a feminist sf writer". he tells that he thinks he
> > >isn't, and shall never be such, because he thinks it's impossible for a
> > >man - no matter his sexual preferences - to be actually a feminist.
> > >
> > >does anyone thinks this is food for thought?
> >
> > hmmm. i think anyone who is against rape, against domestic violence, and
> > all for women being treated well and unbiased in the workplace (i almost
> > wrote "equal", but i'm working that word through, these days)(we're not
> > equal... don't want to be)is, in my book, a feminist. what's terrible,
> > though, is that so many people these days don't want to call themselves
> > feminist because it would thus label them as ones who are against males in
> > some way... (which, in many cases, they are... but it seems to be certain
> > males in particular.) i'm thinking of my freshman (freshpeople) class -- i
> > asked them "how many of you would call yourselves feminists?" and 1 or 2
> > out of a class of 25 would raise their hands. but if i ask "how many of
> > you are for women being treated equally in the workplace?" or "how many of
> > you think that women should not have to obey men?" or other questions like
> > this, and of course, all of them raise their hands. i wish i could be like
> > Lillian Robinson (who used to teach here at Va Tech) who tells her classes
> > that if anyone is not a feminist or if anyone doesn't like Virginia Woolf,
> > they should get out of her class immediately. ha. wish i could muster up
> > the same ovaries.
> >
> > i'm surprised that delaney said that men cannot be feminists. because he
> > seems to be a sympathetic and empathetic man -- enough to know that the
> > mind can understand anything, regardless of position. (reminds me of that
> > senator who said to anita hill, "i'm sorry i don't know what it's like to
> > be a woman, so i can't begin to understand your situation." -- i think
> > that's a big ol' cop-out.)
> > feminism is comprised of both sex-issues and gender-issues. and certainly
> > not every woman is a feminist. (even though she should be :)
> >
> >
> > -lissa bloomer
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > if you're wearing pants, thank my great great great grandmother.
> >
> > elisabeth bloomer
> > instructor, english
> > virginia tech
> > ebloomer@vt.edu
> > 540.231.2445
> >
>
> "Would you trade your funk for what's behind the third door?"
> P-Funk, "Funkentelechy"
>
"Would you trade your funk for what's behind the third door?"
P-Funk, "Funkentelechy"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:57 PDT