Women/trans/queer/
Though the election of the recent presidential administration in the US certainly jolted many Americans awake, the new administration is the result, rather than the originator, of an oppressive patriarchal, racist, and climate change-denying system of power used to oppress the people.
‘Women’, broadly defined, experience this oppression in gender-specific ways including:
• rape culture,
• standards about how women speak/dress/act,
o including control over black women’s hairstyles (https://goo.gl/g96SyC), and women’s appearances in the workplace (https://goo.gl/dmt4TZ)
• domestic violence experienced by women in gender-specific ways,
o i.e. all domestic violence is awful. Yet women tend to experience domestic violence in gender-specific ways: women are much more likely to feel trapped, unable to report to the police, are more likely to be economically-disadvantaged
• the harsh and gender-specific critique of women in power/public-office,
o i.e. a focus on women’s appearance, intelligence, emotions, sanity, etc. as opposed to qualifications and policies.
• a national-level debate about whether birth control should be covered by health insurance companies while other sexual-functioning products by men are readily covered without debate,
• the routine placement of child-care duties on women rather than their male counterparts,
o encouraged when companies provide parental paid leave for women and not men (patriarchy also hurts men…),
• the silencing of women’s voices,
• we could go on…
The International Women’s Strike (IWS) has been in the works since at least October 2016. In the words of the main international organizers, the strike is a “response to the current social, legal, political, moral and verbal violence experience by contemporary women at various latitudes.”
Internationally, women know how we are feeling. Women/trans/queer folk and their allies are striking in over 40 countries on March 8th for all of our rights. Will we answer the call?
All activism is a privilege, in terms of time, money, the emotional capacity to face your oppressors, etc. Engaging in a strike is not an option for everyone, particularly those who could be endangered by striking from work. IWS is very mindful of this and provides a list of Strike Ideas:
▶ IN WHAT WAYS CAN WE STRIKE? It all depends on how you can plug in. Here are a few options:
● total strike - stopping work or housework or part-time strike (1-2 hrs)
● in case you can’t strike from work, you can use black or red elements – black/red clothes, black/red ribbon or any other element decided
● boycott of companies using sexism in their advertisements or approach to workers
● boycott of chosen local misogynists (to be selected by you) OR choosing to shop at women- or minority-owned businesses
● sex strike
● shopping strike
● pickets, demonstrations, organizing road closures for marches
● use an auto-reply "out of office" email message and explain why