104 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
104 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Letters
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Dear Sekhmet,
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Hello and thankyou to the organisers of the 3rd Annual Anarcha-Fem
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Conference. I had a relatively foul time at the Conference by it wasn't
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your fault. In fact if everything had been as nice as the organisation I
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would have had 48 hours of blissdom and rejoicement.
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A friend and I agreed that aspects of the conference in fact resembled
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less of a meeting of progressive radicals and more of our first few days
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at high school.
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As women who don't meet mainstream expectations of femaleness, (ie we are
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active rather than passive) we all cop a lot of shit. We reap few of the
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benefits allotted to those who conform and comply. Given this, and given
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anarchy and feminism's commitment to creating alternatives communities,
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why the hell some people had to put up with put-downs and more ridicule
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and alienation, in what should have been a safe environment for all
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women, I don't understand.
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Some bigot-boy comedians I once had the misfortune of having a
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conversation with, told me, when I complained about their
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homophobic/racist/sexist jokes, that all humour offended somebody. I
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couldn't be bothered pursuing that issue, they'd heard my point of view
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and they didn't matter that much to me. But when I see humour used by
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women as a tool to make themselves feel important and loved ( I do think
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we can and should find other ways to feel this), and has the dastardly
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but very real side effect of making other people feel stink, at a
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conference with should be challenging cretinous behaivour not giving it
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space, it matters.
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To all women and to all the moments when women weren't too cool, (and/or
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were feeling strong enough) to meet new people, have new conversations,
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to laugh at themselves and to make an effort to ensure other people were
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feeling happy and safe, thankyou.
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Maria
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Palmerston North
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p.s (q) What do you do if you're
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driving along and see a space-man?
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(a) You park in it man!Letters
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Thank you for your comments, the collective felt it was important to
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reply to some of your serious concerns. We would like to emphasise
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though that there were many good things that came out of the conference
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and difficult issues like the ones you describe. We hope in future that
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with better organisation, more time, more emphasis on bonding and
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building trust that these issues can be overcome next time. So that we
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can maintain the high level of emotional satisfaction and support we
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women expect from each other.
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Dear Sekhmet,
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It was great to be at the 95 Anarcha-feminist conference at Makahika
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Lodge in February. Its bloody cool to have an annual get together which
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is women only space. I found on the whole women respectful of others
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talking space and listening well and spouting interesting ideas too. The
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workshops were diverse and practical and to look at areas where anarchism
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has fallen short was good too. Like talking about how to support te tino
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rangatiratanga in this land in practical instead of just token ways.
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Another new thing was lesbian workshops which I thought was really
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important considering the good lesbian turnout. I also want to say thanks
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to Lou for her skills in food mastery or mistressy I should say.
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What changes would I like to see next year? Well more time when women are
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less tired for getting to know each other. More of a chance to talk about
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what we would like out of the weekend, and the kind of respect we would
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like from others. But I must say it was a fab time for exploring ideas,
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common interests and differences and yeah lets do it again. If youve got
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any ideas for next year send them to us
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Bye bye
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Caitlin
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Wellington
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Dear Sekhmet,
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Today I witnessed a truly horrendous sight. I was up at Victoria
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University using the Sutherland Room which is for students with
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disabilities. Interestingly enough I had been reading on the subject of
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Images of Women for a womens studies course. I look up to see this *!:*!
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man wearing a T-shirt with the words Shut up stupid bitch splattered
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across his chest. I felt so fucken pissed off my first reaction was to
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pull out a gun and put a gaping hole right through the middle of his
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macho puke torso. Why not? Hothead Piscean would have had his guts for
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garters. However that is fantasy and that option was out. My next idea
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was to throw paint t him - still impractical given the circumstances.
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What should I do? Tell him what I think of his taste in shirts, well
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isnt that what he wanted, feminist backlash?
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I left the room having done nothing but fume (damn - no smoke came out my
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ears) and decided to ask my anarch-fem mates for ideas. So let me know
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what you think of this one and other sexist slap in your face situations.
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What youve done, would like to do.
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Write to SEKHMET but dont call our 0800 number coz we aint got one.
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See ya
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Caitlin
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Wellington
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