A woman finally gets the nerve to leave her abuser.
"Come to shelter, we will help you!"
Except, after her time at the shelter has run out, she is homeless.
We need separate subsidies for victims of domestic violence.
Even six-months to a year of subsidy would help so much.
Why are there not separate subsidies for victims of domestic violence?
Why are the victims put through this housing nightmare, rendered homeless?
Where are the lobbyists, the demonstrators for these women?
Where are the letter writers, the activists for these women?
Where are the non-fun kind of feminists, who claim to care so very much about abused women?
Where are these women, these very same feminists who are so outraged about others "ruining what they started?"
Started back in the days when folks got off their lazy, self-righteous blogging asses and did something.
Protested, got sent to jail, looking for a revolution.
NOW, it appears this "revolution" can take place entirely ONLINE?
You think?
Where are these very serious, very non-fun radical feminists for this homeless woman?
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I was already thinking of trying for this internship at a local multi-pronged social justice organization, btw. Thanks for the reminder.
16 comments:
right on. i was just reading the latest wave and was very strongly reminded of what feminists say to anti-choicers:
"okee, so you say abortion sucks and yay adoption and yay women having babies. are you adopting? what services are you providing to make life better for women who keep their fetuses? are you gone once it's a born child?"
and I'm thinking the same thing could so easily be said to some of the radfemblogosphere:
"so, what happens when Pornstitution goes poof? when all these women, many unskilled at other labor, are all out of jobs: are you going to hire them? when you do, will you exploit their labor or will you take great care not to?"
etc, etc, etc.
Hmm, i'm a little uncomfortable about this. It's too easy to presume that because someone is articulate in their blog, that they are not also out there on the front lines against violence against women.
That said, i agree with frustration about the lack of support for DV survivors. All of society bears the blame for the way these people are treated.
I've worked with a local DV group for two years and sometimes it is just heartbreaking, because the shelter system sucks so, so much. It's degrading, dehumanizing, and pins EVERYTHING on the survivor, while the batterer gets off scot-free. And then every year you have to go to the state and beg for a few table scraps and hope that your program won't be defunded to pay for a highway ramp or a ballpark.
She's mainly ranting in general, which, i understand. Like, okay, let's say the blogs ARE a tool for activism in themselves; what are we doing with them? Having flamewars over pink and high heels? Terrific.
and no, not saying we should never talk about anything else, of course, or even that discussions about pink and blahblee aren't interesting or useful, and of course a lot of people DO do good work offline;
it's just that when it seems like that's ALL there is, online (and in the "regular" media as well, come to that, not coincidentally). when all the heat and passion goes into some small "tastes great! less filling!" manifestation of pop culture, reams and reams of bandwidth and energy, sometimes resulting in people getting utterly fatigued and burned out...
maybe it's at that point that one thinks, mm, maybe time to reprioritize.
Yeah, i see what you're saying -- like, with all this energy being wasted on infighting over stupid crap, think of all the patriarchal balls we could'a busted!
I'm not unsympathetic to that feeling or point of view either, though i do think that we all come from different points of view about what is significant and what isn't. I'm just afraid of divisive minimizing here adding to the problem instead of taking away from it.
well--Kim's been there and done that and got the t-shirt, so i'm content to just hear her rant.
(the pink sparkly unicorn'd t-shirt, that is...)
BD, eerily captures my reaction to the feminste thread.
Belle -- good wake up call. And good luck with the internship.
and there are some good and serious points in there--I think Sally is a thoughtful commenter, for instance--but some people, omg, rip and read right off the ticker, isn't it? blahblahblahPatriarchycakes.
oh, one of the areas that organization deals with is lobbying on behalf of sex workers.
another is domestic violence, both clinical and legal.
so, yeah. i should really get on that.
jesus. meanwhile, i'm still a -month- behind in my online class, and as for more workaday shit that doesn't actually hold my interest--
i don't want to talk about it.
Yes, Sally's okay by me.
"Like, okay, let's say the blogs ARE a tool for activism in themselves; what are we doing with them? Having flamewars over pink and high heels? Terrific."
EXACTLY, Belle. Exactly.
You know, on the "Been there and got the sparkly unicorn PINK T-shirt:" back in my rad fem blogging days, I believed strongly blogging/the internet was indeed an exciting, relatively new tool for activism, feminism, etc. I still feel way, but right, see above.
And don't get me wrong: I love a good, funny, rambling blog or mulling, thoughtful, informative post or what have you. I guess I just ... oh I don't know. Some of these bloggers just seem like they'd do well with a good, non-Internet related, slap of reality.
I love writing. I can understand the enjoyment of spending hours on a post. But when some of these posts work only to further give feminists a bad name (slut-hating zealots, for example), then maybe it's time to step away from the blog and start getting your fingernails dirty, you know.
Or something.
We cheat.
At the DV program I worked at up until last Friday, in order to circumvent the 60-day requirement of our McKinney ESG grant, we often had people in for sixty days, opened up a new file, and readmitted them to the shelter under the grant on the opposite side of the border (we are on the border between two states).
No one had to know that they'd been there the previous sixty days. We are not going to exacerbate transience and cut women off from their communities just because the goddamn government says we have to.
I didn't realize that was a government requirement. I'd assumed that the limit was the shelter's, on account of there was no room for the new people coming in. Wow. And, I don't blame you.
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