November 5th thoughts

November 5, 2009

The Feminist Collective is by far the most beautiful space I have ever been a part of.
We are activist feminists.
We are human beings.
We are women who love (and I know there's some men out there too).

Tonight, at our meeting, some of us shared our feelings that primarily had to do with how to really run a collective in the best way possible. I think this happens in every collective after some time has passed and there have been many collectives throughout herstory before us. The discussion started due to having a lack of time at one of our events with the feeling of being rushed, which lead to some more thought and discussion about how the collective has been functioning in the past weeks.

Ultimately, this is our collective, our space to have a voice, and to do something about our thoughts, feelings, and OUR WORLD, NOT SOMEBODY ELSE'S...not the world of a suffocating patriarchy, or corporate America, or a nation at war, a silencing academic administration, a sexist and homophobic/heterosexist media, government, etc...not a world of racist or classist, or ageist policies and stagnant thinking....we're here to be heard, to listen to one another, to do something about it, and tonight we were working on it.

We've been getting a lot done: The Red Tent Event (to share our stories about menstruation and share knowledge about alternative menstruation products, alternative healing methods, and exposing some of the information about how toxic products like tampons are for a woman's body primarily because of pesticides and bleach), and we have been doing the consciousness raising groups and Speak-Out for abortion, we cosponsored an event with the African Women's Alliance about domestic violence....

With planning our events in the past weeks, we looked straight towards the political (which is awesome) but the personal became a little less visible. Tonight some of us came back together and shared what we've been feeling about how things have been running from the inside-out. I think this breakdown and then building back up of our mission and intentions is a good thing. I think it's important to document this to show that it happens. How many collectives have honestly documented the inner workings of their space?
And at the end of the reconfiguring, revibing, and rejuvenating...I find that:

Our very existence is a liberating action and beyond that, I believe that we'll create some even more serious change. How can we not?
We're living through so much. We see sex, and art, and beautiful bodies. We see rape, and battered faces, and a constant critique imposed on us for how to be the right kind of a woman. We see love, brilliance, and safety. We see hatred. We know that we're hardly ever safe. We see tired smiles. We see reality. We hear that we're not good enough. We're told to manipulate and mutilate our bodies, to lose control in so many ways. The list goes on and we see both sides. We've tasted safety, self love,...we see, we hear, we think, we know, we keep listening, we keep learning, we continue to know more, and we recognise more. We can't stop thinking, learning, loving....We are present and we're ready....”rebel girls trying to change the world”

^That quote is from a poem I like called Soldier. I stumbled upon it from this website a while back: http://allecto.wordpress.com/category/poetry-is-not-a-luxury/