--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
thanks so much for responding, and for the references. I have a couple of comments:
>> *feminists are deluding women in the US into
>> believing
>> that they no longer need to direct their feminist
>> activism to women's conditions in the west
> Perhaps in some cases, though not intentionally so
> -- by making US
> women feel complacent, "Ain't I fortunate, compared
> to Afghan women!"
If some women contact me & tell me how horrible it is in their country, what am I supposed to do? Say, things are tough all over? I think that it is true that as a woman in the US I am fortunate, in some ways, so maybe I should use that privilege to help someone else? I'm not saying patriarchy & violence exists only in Muslim countries, not in the US, not in (hypothetically) Laura Bush's own home. I'm not saying we shouldn't organize women here in the US.
> >. . . were these kinds of criticisms levelled at
> >African-American activists working to end apartheid
> in
> >South Africa? Of Chicanos supporting the
> Zapatistas &
> >various struggles in Latin America? If not, why
> not?
>
> If they haven't been, they should be, if and when
> the same problem (=
> looking to the US power elite to conduct a
> civilizing mission by
> wars, economic sanctions, etc. _when no mass
> movement on the Left in
> nations-to-be-affected by them [e.g., the ANC] are
> demanding them_)
> exists.
I think this may be a valid criticism. But it seems to be levelled at feminists more often than people involved in other struggles. You know: when men do it, they're revolutionaries. When women do it, we're missionaries. Men are showing solidarity. We're "saving our brown sisters."
===== Angie Manzano off our backs magazine 2337B 18th St NW Washington, DC 20009 ph: 202-234-8072/202-682-4000 fax: 202-234-8092 web: www.igc.org/oob
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