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[ibarw] My Intersection
I am a woman.
That's a fairly bold statement, don't you think? It is a very political statement. It signifies that I am not a man.
Man, as a rule, has been synonymous with Human.
In Hebrew the word "Adam" is not just a name, it is the word for Human. Son of Adam - בן אדם - Ben Adam is "Human".
As a Woman, I am by default "Other" and I suffer for it, obviously.
However, I do need to qualify my status as a Woman.
I'm also a Queer woman, but if I wanted to I could pass for Straight and most of my problems that step from homophobia and other forms of sexual (not gender) discrimination can quite easily not touch my life.
Isn't there something missing though?
No, not really, don't see anything else that's particularly important to my status as a Woman in a Patriarchal society.
Well, now isn't that significant.
Yes, very.
It signifies that I am a White Woman.
A different kind of default, as it happens.
If we were going to play Oppression Olympics I'd probably end up in the third to last place or somewhere about there.
But the comparison of the different Oppressions that go on in our sucky, screwy world is not only unhelpful, it is insignificant. Because by trying to justify my own oppression, I become blind to the fact that I, myself am an oppressor in turn - and in these parts even worse, an occupier.
So lets throw the Olympics out of the window please. Beyond the fact that it is an insult to people with actual grievances in this world (which I, I am lucky to say do not. I'm living a pretty sweet life, Queerness and Womanhood notwithstanding).
As a member of the Default population (that is to say, White/Ashkenazi Jewish), that had been raised by liberal parents (that is to say, colour-blind) it took me a long time to realise that where you come from, the colour of your skin and the religion that you practice are far more significant and that the meritocracy that the Neo-Liberal wave we currently engulfed proclaims that are living in is utterly and completely false.
That the very fact that I was born in a middle-class neighborhood, in a mostly middle-class city, twenty minutes from Tel-Aviv, enables me, so easily, to prove my merit.
So where is my intersection?
Personally, my intersection, when spoken about in sociological terms in that of Oppression, is in my Queer identity and the fact that I'm a woman.
But as a white woman all I can is to tread carefully.
Because as a white woman I am an oppressor of men and women who have been classes and racialised as Other.
And that really just the way it is.
There is probably something else that there is to be said about this subject, but I'm at a loss at the moment.
Please, comments are welcome!
Edited to add: Go read more entires written for International Blog Against Racism Week, which should be every week, of course.
That's a fairly bold statement, don't you think? It is a very political statement. It signifies that I am not a man.
Man, as a rule, has been synonymous with Human.
In Hebrew the word "Adam" is not just a name, it is the word for Human. Son of Adam - בן אדם - Ben Adam is "Human".
As a Woman, I am by default "Other" and I suffer for it, obviously.
However, I do need to qualify my status as a Woman.
I'm also a Queer woman, but if I wanted to I could pass for Straight and most of my problems that step from homophobia and other forms of sexual (not gender) discrimination can quite easily not touch my life.
Isn't there something missing though?
No, not really, don't see anything else that's particularly important to my status as a Woman in a Patriarchal society.
Well, now isn't that significant.
Yes, very.
It signifies that I am a White Woman.
A different kind of default, as it happens.
If we were going to play Oppression Olympics I'd probably end up in the third to last place or somewhere about there.
But the comparison of the different Oppressions that go on in our sucky, screwy world is not only unhelpful, it is insignificant. Because by trying to justify my own oppression, I become blind to the fact that I, myself am an oppressor in turn - and in these parts even worse, an occupier.
So lets throw the Olympics out of the window please. Beyond the fact that it is an insult to people with actual grievances in this world (which I, I am lucky to say do not. I'm living a pretty sweet life, Queerness and Womanhood notwithstanding).
As a member of the Default population (that is to say, White/Ashkenazi Jewish), that had been raised by liberal parents (that is to say, colour-blind) it took me a long time to realise that where you come from, the colour of your skin and the religion that you practice are far more significant and that the meritocracy that the Neo-Liberal wave we currently engulfed proclaims that are living in is utterly and completely false.
That the very fact that I was born in a middle-class neighborhood, in a mostly middle-class city, twenty minutes from Tel-Aviv, enables me, so easily, to prove my merit.
So where is my intersection?
Personally, my intersection, when spoken about in sociological terms in that of Oppression, is in my Queer identity and the fact that I'm a woman.
But as a white woman all I can is to tread carefully.
Because as a white woman I am an oppressor of men and women who have been classes and racialised as Other.
And that really just the way it is.
There is probably something else that there is to be said about this subject, but I'm at a loss at the moment.
Please, comments are welcome!
Edited to add: Go read more entires written for International Blog Against Racism Week, which should be every week, of course.