Reasons why you MEN should smash Patriarchy:

from Wemoons Army
Reasons why you MEN should Smash Patriarchy:
o– because you should care about the oppression of your sisters and mothers and wimmin lovers & friends, whether there’s something in it for you or not.
o– because there’s a lot in it for you.
o– because sexism goes hand in hand with culturally defined gender roles which say that men should be tough, strong, “macho” and always into sex; the same ones that say women should not be free with their sexual energy (that make women feel like criminals for being “sluts” if they enjoy sex (and also ugly if they are not “sluts”)). There is a difference between the cultural gender and the biological sex of a person. It hurts both men and women, sexually and emotionally, to think of women and men as having to fit into these narrow roles of being a MAN or a GIRL. A strong woman with hairy pits can be amazing in bed, and an androgynous-looking, sensitive man can still be sexxy as all hell.
o– because working in an environment with just white, heterosexual men all in gray suits is BORING.
o– because if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, and you best get out of my way!
o– because we all have sexism inside of us (men and women), and unless we work on it we will remain sexist fucks who will alienate women until they hate us all. And then we’ll blame THEM for hating men after everything we’ve done to them. don’t be that asshole. just don’t.

Wemoons Army

from www.wemoonsarmy.com

There have been many revolutions,
but the pattern of patriarchal hierarchy remains…

We raise hell and make a ruckus in order to deconstruct patriarchy & hierarchy within ourselves, our communities, and our world once and for all (for all time and all people).

Wemoon’s Army trains, educates, confronts, reports, agitates and mobilizes. Wemoon’s Army exists to energize connections between revolutionary wemoon, to recruit and to build bridges between genders and all oppressed affinity groups.

Wemoon’s Army embraces the earth, hir life forms and elements as interrelated and sacred. The earth must be respected, protected and fought for.

We are pro-choice.
We are anti-capitalist.
We redecorate property.
We are dedicated to love and creativity as our power to shape a future in which we thrive.

This is an army, not a political party.
We are ready. Some of us are rabid.

getting to know yourself: some questions for men

from www.plantingseeds.org

Be patient with yourself in answering these questions. get support if painful memories surface. every question holds a story that needs to be told carefully. add questions or amend these to represent your issues more accurately.

questions on socialization

at what point where you aware that you were not a girl but a boy?

who taught you more about your gender role? mother, father, peers or others?

before puberty, what was your awareness of the male body- both yours and others? what was your awareness of the female body?

do you remember any recurring dreams or fantasies from this time?

how did you feel about being out of doors? at school? at home with family? by yourself?

who were your best male friends? who did you look up to among your elders? whom did you avoid or fear?

whom did you have fights with? how often? who disciplined you? how? how often?

who would you go to if you were in trouble? where did you go to be safe? who cared for you when you were sick?

what did you accomplish in elementary school? did you excel in games, music, and school subjects? were you well liked? what kinds of problems did you have?
what were you told about your race/ethnicity/religion? what were you told about other races, ethnic groups or religions?

who taught you about religion? did you believe it? what were the hardest parts to believe?

did you go through a time when you didn’t like girls? did you have friends who were girls? girlfriends? were you ever called a girl or a sissy? by whom? how often?

what toys did you play with? what games did you play?

what were your clothes like? what kinds of haircuts did you have?

what tv shows, movies or stories did you like?

what did you want to be when you grew up?

did you have heroes or idols?

did you have sex play? with whom? how often? were you ever caught? punished? by whom? how?

were you ever forced to have sex or seduced by someone? how
did you feel about it? was there anyone you could talk with who would help you?

did you hunt, fish or garden? who taught you how?

did you have pets, hobbies, special treasures?

did you have favorite teachers or relatives? teachers or relatives you disliked or feared?

what was one of the best things that happened to you as a boy?

what was one of the worst?

what happened to you as a boy when you reached puberty?

was there anyone who you could talk to about any problem you had? who? why were you able to talk to them?

what do you miss about being a boy?

assuming you have or could have a son or foster son, how would you want his boyhood to be different from yours?

questions on sex

define sex?

how many kinds of sex are there?

what are other possible definitions of sex?

define rape?

define sexual assault/ abuse?

is there a difference? if yes, what?

do you think your definitions of sex and sexual assault/abuse are learned? if yes, where did you learn them from? if no, how did you come up with these definitions?

are there ways to violate your partner that aren’t included in your definitions of rape and assault/abuse? name some of these ways.

how do you feel about sex? are you comfortable talking about it with others? what is it like for you when you see sex on the tv or in movies?

who initiates most of the sex you have- you or your partner?

why?

what are some of the things you really like, when having sex? ie. oral sex, etc.

name at least 3 ways to pay attention to your partners body language during sex.

can you think of a time when you had sex but weren’t sure if you or your partner wanted to or meant to?

how do you know when you want to have sex?

were you ever forced/coerced to have sex or seduced by someone? how did you feel about it? was there anyone you could talk to with who would help you?

do you know someone who has been sexually abused? how did you react when you found out? do you know any skills in how to be an ally to abuse survivors?

name 3 things you can do if someone you know was raped?

have any of your closest friends been accused of rape? how did you feel? did it change your relationship? if yes, in what ways?

what are 3 things you can do if a friend of yours is accused of rape?

how much do you and your partner communicate during sex?

how does it feel?

do you practice safer sex? why or why not?

name one person, if any, who you’ve been in an intimate relationship with who was physically stronger than you? was the difference noticeable? how did you feel?

if you haven’t, how does the idea of being in a relationship with someone physically stronger than you feel?

questions on sexuality

are you queer?

if not, how do you feel about people who are queer?

if yes, how do you feel your answers to these questions will differ than those of straight people?

does the thought of two girls having sex turn you on? why or why not? how does lesbianism or “women with women” make you feel?

questions on love

define love? name 2 people that you love. how do you know you’re in love?

can you “fall out of love?” how do you know you’re falling out of love?

do you feel loved by other men? is this love different then the love you feel from women? if yes, how so?

questions on sexism

what is sexism? who can be sexist? are you sexist? why, or why not?

is sexism the same for queer people? if yes, how? why or why not?

questions on emotions

do you talk about your emotions?

do you have trouble expressing your emotions?

what ways do you express your emotions? (ie. talk, do art, etc.)

when you get angry, what physical sensations do you feel?

have you ever taken your anger out on someone else? how? when? what happened?

what are some skills you can use when you get angry to feel your emotions and not hurt others in the process?

questions on power & violence

define power? what is one of your earliest memories of feeling power? who are some powerful people in your life?

define violence?

how do you feel about violence?

what are some experiences in your life where violence was present? what were they? how did you feel?

did you watch movies or tv with a lot of violence in them? which programs? how did it feel to watch them?

how does violence manifest in your present relationships?
question on images of men

list 5 characteristics portrayed in the media as sexy in men. in women.

list 5 characteristics portrayed in the media as strong in men. in women.

list 5 characteristics that you consider sexy in men. in women.
list 5 characteristics that you consider strong in men. in women.

which of these characteristics match up?

what are 5 things you look up to in men? in women? why?

questions on intimacy

define trust? how can you tell somebody is trustworthy? is there

one type of people you generally consider trustworthy?

what are 5 of your ideal characteristics of being in a relationship?

are you able to be intimate with other men? if no, why not? if yes, how does it feel?

do you feel closer with your male or female friends? why?

do you get attracted to the same type of partner over and over again? if yes, what are the similar characteristics? why do you think this is?

what do you believe that the women in your life understand the least about you? what about the men in your life?

questions on manhood

define manhood? how did you come up with this definition? are you happy with this definition? if yes, why? if no, what would you like to change about the definition of manhood?

what do you dislike most about men?

what makes you proud to be a man?

is there anything you would like to change about yourself? if yes,
what?
is there anything you would like to change about how society portrays men? if yes, what?

————-

credits:

some of these questions were brainstormed between me, matthew campbell, and matthew mullinnex. most of the socialization questions came from a book edited by franklin abbott, called boyhood: growing up male. a bunch of the sex questions came from a flyer written by katie dugat. other random questions were written by sarah kennedy, michelle luellen, shayna swanson, and heather lynn in a flyer titled “some things a few women always wanted to know about men…” which i distributed at a few men’s workshops in chicago during the summer of 1995. compilation of these questions was by me, basil

Note: these questions originally appeared in “On the road to healing: A booklet for men against sexism” issue #1 (download)

W.I.T.C.H.

(I did some research and came across this interesting historical manifesto!)

W.I.T. C. H. -

Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy From Hell-New York Group.
We are WITCH We are WOMAN. We are LIBERATION. WE are We. The hidden history of woman’s liberation began with witches and gypsies. For they are the oldest guerrillas and resistance fighters, the first practicing abortionists and distributors of contraceptive herbs.

We are the WITCHES, ex-Tuesday night group that has been meeting regularly in New York for almost one year. Our coven consists of approximately 13 heretical women. Some of us will be making contact with you at the conference.

WITCH is a total concept, a new dimension of women.

It means breaking the bond of woman as a biologically and sexually defined creature. It implies the destruction of passivity, consumerism and commodity fetishism.

WITCH is also a strategy, a medium of subversion : witchcraft.

Who is the enemy—,

Witches must name names, or rather we must name trademarks and brand names.

Recently,we formed a Witch Guerrilla Theatre. It grew out of the realization that a small group must be skilled in the use of masks and crafts. It also evolved out of two actions already taken. On Halloween, WITCH went trick or treating on Wall Street. We hexed the Corporations, damned the banks, exorcised as well as blew some minds, advised anyone who asked us about the stock market and sang the home-made tune of Up-Against -the-Wall -Street. Since then, we freaked out at a Wellesley Alumni Fund-raising Bridge party. Our short-term purpose is to become better Witches, attack where we are least expected, to possess other women with witch fever, and to reveal that the routine of daily life is the theatre of struggle.

What I am

from www.wemoonsarmy.com

I only have a small space to explain why I am what I am (which is to say that I am a feminist).

It is because society is always showing me that I am ugly when a womyn needs to be pretty. I am chubby when a womyn needs to be skinny. In mags. In movies. On TV shows. In the way I get shouted at when I am walking down the street by men who have no guts but have a big bad car and can drive away before I beat their faces in or smash their rear window.

It is because my father told me womyn should not have sex until they are married & then cheated on my mother. It is because the boys in school were encouraged to take business while the girls were told to take home economics.

It is because the boy scouts went camping and the girl scouts did bake sales to raise $ for charity.

It is because all of the great authors and directors are MEN. Because in 8th grade, two of my best friends were raped, and were then called whores because the word got out. Because the rapists still got to go to IVY LEAGUE colleges & become successful “fascists” (that is, politicians, businessmen, or laywers).

It is because every time there is a rape scene in a movie, I feel like some one is getting off on it. Someone’s brother. Someone’s father.

It is because even the “enlightened” men that are my friends still tell sexist jokes and like sexist films.

It is because ads that use sexy womyn are directed at men and insult me twice. Once by showing me how I should look to be an accepable woman. Once by ignoring me as a possible customer.

It is because all of my close female friends have been raped or molested, and most of them had eating disorders and because most of my male friends think I am exaggerating if I say so.

It is because almost every womyn who has won an academy award, won it for playing the role of prostitute, and even more of them had to show their breasts in the film. It is because even films that are supposed to be about strong womyn are still sexist. Still show the strong womyn half-naked and she is still thin and beautiful and its still directed by a man.

Because the Rolling Stones are considered Rock-n-Roll, while Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos are called “Women’s Music” – even if the Rolling Stones sing more songs about sex & sexualize the opposite sex.

Because most politicians are men. Every president has been a man. The top scientists are men.

I am what I am because I am a womyn in a man’s world.
And I fucking know it.

www.wemoonsarmy.com/

Patriarchy

This is a really important concept to define. So here are a variety of definitions and quotes and writings about this complicated word. I will publish this….and add more to it as I find more definitions.

What is patriarchy?

(from against patriarchy 07)

Patriarchy is a “concept that explains the systematic gendered organization of all areas of social life—economic, political, and ideological—such that more social resources, power, and value accrue to men as a group at the expense of women as a group” (Rosemary Hennessy, “Queer Visibility in Commodity Culture,” p. 744).

Patriarchy is a form of domination, which extends to and is manifested in all forms of oppression. This includes, but is not limited to, racism, classism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, the destruction and exploitation of the Earth, the murder of indigenous peoples, the commodification of daily life experience, and all forms of personal and societal oppresion.

-Patriarchy is a system of entitlement that rewards behavior that is anti-woman, anti-queer, anti-body, anti-nature, and anti-color.

-Patriarchy interacts with other forms of oppression and affects people differently based on their social locations.

-Patriarchal values are embodied in interpersonal relationships and everyday life.

-Anyone, whether he/she/co occupies a socially subordinated category or not, can gain degrees of power and privilege by advocating patriarchal values.

-There is no one or singular form of patriarchy. It manifests itself differentially in different social and historical contexts.

There are many ways to respond to the problem of patriarchy. While some women have attempted to claim equal access to the dominance, exploitation, and power of men, others have emphasized the feminine as “better” than the masculine, essentially just flipping the coin. However, neither approach reflects our core beliefs. We understand gender oppression is deeply intertwined with racism, classism, colonialism, ableism, the state, the destruction of the environment, and ultimately civilization itself. As many have discovered, single-issue struggles fail to create radical change.

Patriarchy from Wemoons Army “Eco-Anarcha Feminist Primer” zine

Patriarchy means rule by men.

Patriarchy is a Hierarchy. A hierarchy is like a pyramid… A few at the top have the most control, the people in the middle have medium, and the majority on the bottom have very little. The people at the top control/own the media (value systems) armies, money, law, institutions, corporations, land, air, and water. They keep this control by force (and threat of force), fear, and reward systems. They reward behaviors that go along with thier plans and values. The rewards differ. They use the philosophies of sexism and racism to give out rewards differently. (Sexism is when Men are given more value than women; Racism in America is when white people are given more value than people of color). There are more rewards for men, more rewards for white people. White people and men want to keep their privileges. They use their positions of privilege to control others. Men control women. White people control people of color. Straight people control queers. We are all taught to be superior to others and that it is good to do so. But philosophies of sexism and racism keep us against each other so the people at the top can control us all. The few at the top of the pyramid are men and they are sexist, racist, and greedy. They are making all the important decisions about the day to day existence of all of us. They decide when and where to blow up nuclear bombs and what to tell us about it, what chemicals go into the land and our food, how many forests the next generation will have, which dictatorships will remain because it profits them, who gets to be a doctor, who is burned at the stake, who is put away in prison, who is raped, who terrorizes who, and who works for less money than it takes to eats. The controlling few decide these things. The controlling few are men. And the people at the bottom doing unpaid and low paid labor are mostly women and most with children. There have been many revolutions but the pattern of patriarchal hierarchy remains… How does this make you feel? What are ‘ya gonna do?

The Undercover State

by Lava Flow

Picture this; almost half of your town’s population has become undercover police officers and most of your friends are harassed and attacked by them. Imagine that two out of five emergency room visits are now because of police violence. That the non-police half of the populace are now living in constant wariness. You yourself have stopped going outside after dark. Your roommate has been acting strange and you suspect him of being an agent…
Would you consider this a state of emergency? Low-level warfare? Would you deem this political or would it seem personal, a matter between the individuals involved?
Well, let me lay some statistics on you, and I quote my T-shirt: In the USA half of all women experience an intimate relationship with an abuser, one in four women are raped by the male “date”, every nine seconds a man beats a woman, a man rapes 1 out of 3 women, a male partner kills a woman every two hours.
How does this touch my life? A painter friend tells me her father raped her and her sister all their childhood. A musician friend says a man raped her with a knife. A writer mourns her friend, left on the side of the road, drugged, raped and killed. My friends strip so they can make as much money as some “real worker” guy who drives the road repair machinery. And I am walking around after dusk curfew, aside from me, the pedestrians are all men, comfortable men, sauntering around, thinking their own private thoughts, maybe stoned, maybe drunk, at home in a world made for them. Perhaps a police car drives by and they momentarily freeze. Oh, if all I had to fear was a uniformed man in a brightly marked car!
Do you have a class-based analysis? I’ll quote United Nations figures: Women do 70% of the world’s work, earn 10% of the world’s pay, and own 1% of the world’s property. But how easily despised is the rich woman in furs who is buying the stairway to heaven? Like the corporate receptionist, she is a buffer between us and the rich elite males. Women and children are 80% of the homeless in this nation. Women and children are an economic class or caste in themselves. So much for the noble burly-man worker of the world.
Sometimes I see the pyramid of control more like an ice berg. The visible tip is the corporate state, rich men and uniformed men doing violence to other men. But the state is a formulation of the father-controlled family unit. The huge, underwater part of that state consists of men who police women at home, work, on the streets. The obvious agents of force need only be relatively few because men are doing the work of the state, terrorizing (or supporting the terror with silence) and keeping the majority of the population — women and children — in line. Without male supremacy, the state would be impossible. But the collapse of the state can and does leave male supremacy intact. This is why anarchy without feminism has been called reformist.
Perhaps you will learn more about feminism. And when you hear “smash the state”, you’ll think about the undercover state, about what isn’t being said and how you’re going to say it.