Reading List
1) “Feminism is for Everybody” by bell hooks
2) “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde
Today I was motivated to study more on feminism and the various perspectives which exist, hence the booklist above.
As a woman devoted to the empowerment of all women, I feel the first step to building with my sisters is to educate myself. And, although this post may not deal directly with human trafficking issues (as is indicated by the Purple Rose Campaign reference in the title), I hope that you find my reflections today just as significant or even, just as interesting and enlightening.
What I want to digest onto the pages of this virtual journal are my thoughts on global feminism and how important it is that we all, men and women, do our part to dismantle the blatant oppression which holds us all back from sharing in a just society and engaging in true community. bell hooks says that the “goal of global feminism is to reach out and join global struggles to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” It is only in relation to the struggles of other women around the globe that we can better understand ourselves and our experiences, our similarities and our differences. Only within a global context can we come to fully undertand the ties between sexist practices in relation to the site of the abuse- women’s bodies and minds. Thinking globally would allow us to, for example, examine the sex trafficking of Pilipinas around the globe, link it to what women are going through in China, Africa, South America and connect this to our positionality in the United States.
What is the point of thinking globally and engaging in a global feminism? It is to ensure that we continue to make moves which encourage the dismantling of neo-colonialist patriarchical ideologies which dominate the world and our society. Practicing global feminism is neccessary in order to change our realities so that we live can live in a world where racism, sexism, and classism are no longer dividers to our solidarity work.
Believing in global feminism is one thing, but practicing it is another. Practicing global feminism means using your voice to educate the community. It means letting your beliefs transend beyond your mind and out into the streets via praxis (theory put into action). Whether this means mobilizing for a rally, coordinting educational workshops, or hosting various events, the point is that silence and non-action, in this case, do not serve the purpose. In her speeach, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Audre Lorde says,
” In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for eachone of us to establish or examine her function in tha transformation and to recognize her role as vital within that transformation…it is neccessary to teach by living those truths which we believe and know beyond understanding. Because in this way alone we can survive, by taking part in a process of life that is creative and continuing..And where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them an examine them in their pertinence to our lives. That we not hide behind the mocieries of separations that have been imposed upon us and which so often we accept as our own…We can learn to to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired…for it is not difference which immobilizes, but silence. And there are so many silences which need to be broken.”
Indeed, there are many silences which need to be broken. Speaking up about human trafficking and the sexploitation of women, children, and men locally and around the globe is pertinent as many don’t know this grievance against human life is going on in their own backyards.
Here is a link to a recent trafficking case that occured in Long Beach, CA.
Enslaved in Suburbia: Filipino Indentured Servants and Visa Violators Caught in the Eldercare Trap Two different ways to be illegal in America
By Gendy Alimurung
published: February 19, 2009
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-19/news/enslaved-in-suburbia-behind-the-tract-house-door-filipino-indentured-servants-and-visa-violators-caught-in-the-eldercare-trap/
Department of Justice Press Release regarding follow up to the case above
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crt-267.html
Let us not be silent to actions which strip people of their dignity and humanity! Let us be silent no more!
loraleirose says expressyoursoul 