THE KILLING OF DEI AND THE MYTH OF MERITOCRACY

By Ann Menasche

This article is the opinion of the author and doesn’t necessarily represent the opinions of FIST as an organization.

Many feminists breathed a big sigh of relief when President Trump issued his Executive Order on gender ideology, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/, recognizing two immutable sexes and restoring the definition of women to adult human female, without which any women’s rights, even the ERA, lose all meaning.  This has the immediate benefit of women’s bathrooms and changing rooms, prison cells and sports teams at least on the federal level being reserved once again for us alone apart from males, regardless of their gender identity.

At the same time, Trump revealed through another EO that what he had in mind for the sex class of women wasn’t exactly what we feminists have struggled for over the past century.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ Instead, he sought to undermine women’s right to equal job opportunities alongside men and to return to the mythical past of a “meritocracy” where white males somehow were always the ones who managed to get ahead not of course because of the “old boys” network providing a leg up, but because they were simply the smartest and most qualified around.

Trump’s direct target was to destroy DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs, which he labelled “radical and wasteful”, both in the federal government and in private companies that contract with the government. DEI is the corporatized watered-down version of the robust affirmative action programs of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s that helped even the playing field and advance women and African Americans in all sectors of society where they had previously been excluded.  Those affirmative action programs were eroded by successful court challenges and Proposition 209 in California in 1996.

DEI, reduced to a shadow of its formal self, at times even became a caricature -removing sex as a protected class in favor of gender identity, targeting gender critical feminists and lesbians as “bigots”, and emphasizing “politically correct” language (the rules of which changed frequently), virtue signaling, avoiding micro-aggressions, and urging brow-beating and confessions of guilt, as a substitute for real meaningful measures that would provide equal opportunity to women and people of color in the workplace.  Yet DEI was the only way the white males that still dominate the workplace were forced to pay a little attention to whether they were truly the only ones capable of exercising leadership and doing a job well or whether a few Blacks, Latinos or women should be allowed that opportunity.

As anyone  knows who has looked at the research or who has opened their eyes to the dynamics in the workplace, sex and race discrimination are still widespread though difficult to prove on an individual basis.  (Employers and managers frankly don’t always tell the truth.) See https://hbr.org/2017/10/hiring-discrimination-against-black-americans-hasnt-declined-in-25-years. See also https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/12/14/gender-discrimination-comes-in-many-forms-for-todays-working-women/.  And it is not white males that are experiencing the brunt of the discrimination.

Yet the Trump administration is making the preposterous claim – rooted in white supremacy and male supremacy – that without DEI, there will be a meritocracy that will return us to the time where our “betters” – white males like himself- the only or best qualified, will regain their rightful place in society. He is being cheered on by people who are claiming all over social media that the problem with the Los Angeles fires arose because the Mayor and Police Chief are two “unqualified” women (one, also a person of color) rather than due to policies of austerity and the failure to maintain the fire hydrants which have nothing to do with sex or race.

The most frightening part of Trump’s actions against DEI is his mandating that people report their co-workers who violate his new DEI policy, launching a witch-hunt against anyone who is suspected of utilizing DEI. Of course, the best way to prove one’s innocence is to never hire or promote women or people of color in the first place.

It is essential for women’s existence as a sex to be recognized, but obviously, it is not the whole enchilada.  WE WANT EQUALITY! And affirmative action is a necessary part of getting us there.

 

 

ON DARKNESS, BETRAYAL, AND THE POWER OF SISTERHOOD

By Ann Menasche

This piece contains the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the collective views of Feminists in Struggle.

Many spiritual and religious traditions celebrate the dark, cold time of the year – winter solstice – by lighting candles, stoking a fire, and gathering close with loved ones.  We do so to help us survive this dark time and to remind us that after darkness comes the light.

The sadness for me this year is palpable.  We lost our beloved dog, Jaz, on December 9th.  And I can’t forget the state of the world that haunts me and disturbs my sleep: the relentless slaughter of the women and children in Gaza; the women in Afghanistan prisoners in their homes, denied work or study.  And closer to home, my homeless neighbors including a growing number of women – virtually all survivors of male violence -subsist crammed into government-sanctioned rat-infested camps, tents three feet apart, with no way to stay warm or dry.

And the state of our rights as women in the U.S. is abysmal.  Over 100 years after Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution, we are still considered second class citizens, as first Trump, then Biden refused to register the duly ratified Amendment into the Constitution. This weakens our ability to fight to regain reproductive rights, to end violence against women, and to achieve equal pay and opportunity in the workplace for women. Meanwhile, trans activists are attempting to erase our sex class from existence in law and public policy so it will be impossible to name, measure, or remedy ongoing sexism.

Is it any wonder that so many young girls are attempting to “identify” out of their womanhood?

Then there is the bitterness of betrayal. Over the last several months, FIST joined with Equal Means Equal and became part of a broad coalition of organizations demanding that the Biden administration instruct the archivist to publish the ERA.  We recently learned that behind our backs, leaders of mainstream feminist organizations such as NOW and the Feminist Majority, supposed feminists and ERA supporters, were urging Biden not to publish the ERA.

How do we explain this treachery?  Is it their loyalty to the corporate dominated Democratic Party that while using women’s rights as a campaign slogan to win votes and donations, never had women’s best interests at heart?  Or do they really believe that the best way to fight for our rights is to be “ladylike” and polite, to not rock the boat?

I’m with Frederick Douglass who said in 1857, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, the want the ocean without the roar of its many waters…Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.”

I learned a lesson in courage and tenacity watching my sick dog with her back legs failing her, forcing herself up again and again and walking through the house, and up and down stairs.  No matter how many times she fell, she persisted, until she could no longer move at all.

Building movements takes that level of persistence, along with a recognition that when women unite, collectively we have the power to bring in the light, to change everything.  We have that power regardless of who is in the White House.

Like the women in Iran who against incredible odds, led (and will continue to lead) their people in a movement against theocracy proclaiming, “Women, Life, Freedom.”

Like our foremothers, the suffragists.  Women like Alice Paul and the Women’s Party that declared their independence from the patriarchy and its two political parties and were relentless in carrying out their struggle.

It took 100 years to win the vote, but we were not defeated.

 

 

 

 

 

Report on the Nov 1 Solidarity action with German Women—by Butch Barbie

On November 1, 2024 Germany’s new “Self-ID Law” went into effect.  Under this law, any man can declare himself a woman without any verification. They can do this once per year.  Parents can determine the gender of their babies; from age 5, children can agree to this. Children age 14 and up can determine their own gender with parental consent.

There is a ban on disclosing the former name and sex of a person; any violation can incur a fine of 10,000 Euro. Any quotas German law had for women are cancelled; gender identity, not sex is the determining factor for quotas for women. German feminists asked for a solidarity action around the world and women responded. In addition to holding demonstrations on November 1, they asked for letters of support to be sent to the German embassies and consulates.

I and other FIST members participated in some of these demonstrations. I attended a zoom following the day of action which was attended by 25 women around the world.

Here is a summary of the reports:

Berlin turned out 250 people and had a tent labeled “Ministry of Truth”. There was an opening in the tent made to look like a jail, where people’s faces peered out. The German media didn’t respond, but the press in Italy and France did report on it. Activists felt they broke through the “wall of silence.” Trans activists who attended claimed the feminists were paid by Russian and Mexican evangelicals. The media portrayed the TIMs as ugly old men, instead of pretty young boys as usual.

London’s demo had 300 women.  Maya Forstater made an appearance.  Other UK actions included Ireland.

Other demos in Europe were held in Spain and Portugal.  Brazil had demos in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo; women showed up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Women in Columbia and Chile delivered letters to their German embassies.

Canadian women held protests in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

In the US, women gathered to protest in Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Oregon.  The German women expressed heartfelt gratitude that their American sisters showed so much support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_slN_HKObc

YouTube post from Rona.

For more information on the law, see Rona Duwe’s Substack Ronalyze.

 

AFTER THE ELECTION: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

By Ann E. Menasche

This is the opinion of the author alone and does not represent the official views of Feminists in Struggle (FIST).  FIST is a non-partisan organization and takes no position on the Presidential elections.  

It should go without saying that whoever wins the 2024 Presidential election, women will not be free, and we feminists will have a long struggle ahead of us. I would go further and predict that the nature and extent of the struggle that we will need to engage in after November 3rd will not substantially change regardless of which of the two leading candidates, Harris or Trump, wins.

The U.S. has one of the least democratic systems among the so-called democracies.  Our big money-soaked winner-take-all corporate duopoly with its undemocratic Senate and electoral college (both violate one person one vote principles) and its denial of ballot access and media attention to third parties, has never represented ordinary working people.  It certainly has never championed the rights of women.

Every victory women have won, without exception, was wrested out of the hands of the ruling elite, through our own determined mass struggle. That’s true whether it was Alice Paul leading the suffragists against Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, or the radical feminists of the Second Wave who won abortion rights starting at a time when every state and both parties made abortion a crime.

Some feminists, me included, have rejected lesser evil politics for a long time. I have seen the evils get greater and greater each election cycle while a genuine independent Left, along with an independent feminist movement become weaker and weaker to the point of disappearing entirely.  As a strategy for change, even for winning modest reforms, it has proven time and again its utter bankruptcy.  Besides, some evils are just too darn evil to be deemed “lesser.”  Even when the face of one of these evils is a woman of color who could possibly become our first woman President.

So, horrified at the unfolding genocide in Gaza carried out with U.S. bombs and taking the lives of tens of thousands of women and children with the support of both Harris and Trump, and cognizant of the imminent existential threats of nuclear war (90 seconds to midnight according to the Union of Atomic Scientists) and climate catastrophe (devastating storms and rising temperatures), I voted for the only viable peace candidate, Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein. It was important to me to register my dissent at the ballot box to the unfathomable violence being perpetrated in our name and to work toward creating a real alternative to the twin parties of war, empire and patriarchy, an urgent task that we cannot afford to put off any longer.

I voted for Stein despite the major flaw of the Green Party and her campaign in fully embracing gender identity ideology, following blindly in the footsteps of the Democratic Party. Indeed, there is no daylight between the positions of the two parties on this issue, in contrast to most of Stein’s platform in which the differences are stark and Stein’s planks far stronger.  There can be no substantive social change that leaves behind the sex based rights of half of humanity born female.

At the same time, when it comes to women’s rights as a whole,  the Democratic Party leadership has failed women miserably.   Though they all talk a good game during election time, as Harris is doing during her campaign, the Democratic Party has missed every opportunity to secure abortion rights nationally, both before and after Dobbs. Most recently, the Biden/Harris administration did nothing to even attempt to fix the Supreme Court or open up abortion clinics on federal land.  The administration has also done nothing and actually worked against the Equal Rights Amendment arguing in court against it, and refusing to instruct the archivist to register the ERA into the Constitution.  In terms of actions, not rhetoric regarding the ERA, the current administration is indistinguishable from the Trump administration before it.  Despite Stein’s faults, she has made the pledge to register the ERA into the Constitution. The ERA is a central issue because with sex in the Constitution, women are on far stronger legal ground to fight for everything else including abortion rights. (Of course, we must continue to fight for sex to mean sex, and not be conflated with, “inclusive of”, or overridden by gender identity, so the potentially powerful impact of the ERA on the status of women will not be undermined.)

Should Trump prevail on election day, there will be those inclined to blame Stein for this victory.  But it doesn’t work that way.  If I had no option to vote for Stein or another anti-war, anti-genocide candidate for President, I would leave that ballot line blank.  (Or else write-in Alice Paul.) That’s the case for the vast majority of Stein’s voters including the many Arab and Muslim voters who are  voting third party for the first time.  With their families being killed in Gaza or Lebanon, they are refusing to vote for perpetrators of genocide, no matter what.  Can you blame them? Harris could have taken a stand against arming Israel at least during this ongoing massacre of civilians in Gaza and won back much of that support. She didn’t.  Instead, she has emphasized her uncritical loyalty to Israel, and to United States imperial dominance and its forever wars.   Reinforcing her pro-war message, she has travelled around the country with neo- con war criminals including Dick Cheney.

I respect that many feminists have made or are making different choices than I have this election. Some feminists have argued that Harris is far better than Trump on reproductive rights, and other issues of concern to women and that she is at least not Trump, who some label a “fascist” and whose circle of supporters are promoting Project 2025, a truly frightening agenda, that if implemented could set women back a century.  Other feminists, many life-long Democrats and liberals, argue that Trump is the lesser evil because of his opposition to gender identity and the transitioning of children. They believe that Trump will save women’s sports and spaces, get convicted rapists with women gender identities out of women’s prisons, and stop this horrendous medical experimentation on children’s healthy bodies (mostly same sex attracted girls) that is tearing apart so many families.

In my view, it is a mistake to believe any one of the promises from Harris or Trump that would help women.  None of our issues are likely to disappear regardless of who is elected. Women’s rights will be defended and secured, as always, by the relationship of forces on the ground, by the women’s liberation movement that we build that addresses the full panoply of women’s rights.  This is the case whether we are talking about winning back abortion rights, fighting against male violence in all its myriad forms,  getting the ERA at long last into the Constitution, or putting a stop to the sex-denying gender ideologues and the transition industry that have done such harm to women and children.

My hope is that we feminists put aside these differences post-election without recriminations and join hands together.  We have a lot of work ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LESBIAN DEVIL: A BOOK REVIEW

By Ann Menasche

“Lesbian Devil to Straight Man Saint: a trip through trans hell and back” by Scott Newgent (2024)

Lesbian Devil is a gripping, no-holds-barred, finely crafted page turner that exposes the significant role of homophobia in “transing away the lesbian.” It chronicles Scott Nugent/Kellie King’s life including the myriad influences that conspired to convince a 42-year-old lesbian, successful career woman, and mother that she was born in the “wrong” body and needed to pursue medical transition.  After ingesting cross sex hormones and obtaining multiple drastic surgeries, Kellie emerged with a male appearance – though still a woman – and with her health severely compromised by constant pain and frequent life-threatening infections.  Tellingly, the acceptance and self-acceptance that she sought in a sexist and homophobic world through medical transition continued to elude her.

Kellie also emerged soon afterwards with a profound commitment to save gender non-conforming and lesbian/gay children and teens from a similar fate.

Kellie was a spirited and athletic child who grew into a woman who excelled in business, obtaining an executive position in sales.  Like many other women, including many lesbians, Kellie’s outspoken and competitive personality did not conform to the narrow sexist stereotypes of “femininity”, and she often felt it would have been easier being a man.  Yet, she dressed the part of a professional woman, wore make-up and heels, and did not appear “butch.”  This did not stop the first gender counselor she met with, a trans-identified male, from asking her, “how long have you been dressing as a man, Kellie?”

Though Kellie was not unloved as a child, she experienced significant trauma.  Her father was physically abusive, and her mother struggled with addiction.  As a teen, she was raped. A few years later, Kellie attempted suicide. But to the gender industry, this was irrelevant. All the counselors and doctors Kellie spoke to about transitioning “affirmed” her, led her down the conveyor belt of medical transition without ever asking any questions about her mental health history or even why she wanted to transition.

“Each medical professional I came across guaranteed a utopian paradise on the other side of the transition. I wanted finally to be accepted, loved and seen as straight in this fantasy land.”

The most compelling promise for Kellie was that once transitioned she would escape the stigma of being a lesbian. When Kellie first came out as a lesbian, her grandfather, the greatest source of emotional support in her life, her “guiding light” as she called him, disowned her for being a lesbian.   This was a major blow.

Then some years later, Kelli fell passionately in love with a co-worker, Jacqueline. Jacqueline came from a close knit religious Catholic family and was in a loveless marriage to a man.  What followed was a tumultuous on again, off again relationship where Jacqueline went back and forth with her abusive husband as she struggled to accept herself, and by extension, Kellie, as a lesbian.  Needless to say, Jacqueline’s parents did not accept Kellie and encouraged their daughter to return to her husband.

As Kellie explained, “The vitriol that Jacqueline’s family directed at her was unbearable to my ears.  Their pleas for her to be purified and cast out the so-called demons were incessant.  The yearning for acceptance and sense of belonging and an unconditional love devoid of violence was all I ever sought.  Yet (Jacqueline’s) family painted me as a pariah, undeserving of love from even God himself.”

Jacqueline was quick to embrace the idea that Kellie was really a man and encouraged her transition.

Later, in her transman “disguise,” Kellie got to know and became very close to Jacqueline’s family.  Except for their rabid homophobia, they turned out to be very fine, caring people. As a “man”, Kellie was totally accepted and welcomed into the family circle.  But this acceptance was based on a lie, and she found herself deeply troubled by this deception.  Kellie was still female, still a lesbian.

Much of the book describes Kellie’s struggles with severe medical complications from her surgery, complications that brought her close to death.  She worried about not living long enough to meet her grandchildren.

Finally, breaking it off with Jacqueline, she began to regret the path she had taken.

Yet, there was no going back for Kellie.  The physical changes carved onto her body are permanent.  Kellie graciously forgave Jacqueline and others who had hurt her.  She could forgive everyone but herself.  She writes, “…a more profound forgiveness still eludes me – self-forgiveness.  The mirror reflects a face I do not recognize, physically or spiritually and fills me with hate for myself that I fight daily; it’s my face.  Yet there might be a day when I look into my eyes and find redemption…Still after all these years, I miss Kellie horribly.”

I wish Scott/Kellie healing as she continues her essential work of saving future generations of gender non-conforming children, future generations of lesbians from the false promises and permanent harms of medicalization.

As she frequently proclaims in urging opposition to gender medicalization of children, “Scream louder.”

“Lesbian Devil to Straight Man Saint” can be purchased through Amazon or Barnes and Nobel.  Please purchase  a copy and support Kellie/Scott’s important work. https://www.scottnewgent.com/

NOTES FROM THE WDI CONFERENCE

by Christy Hammer

FIST’s inaugural conference last July was my first conference on gender critical/sex realist issues, and WDI in Atlanta this last weekend was my second.  Both had fascinating presentations, deep dialogue , and networking on important issues of sex and gender in our culture, social institutions, and political economy.  Provocative and deeply political issues were bravely shared, including historical perspectives and future collective actions.  I was delighted to meet the incomparable Kara Dansky, who along with Ann Menasche both supported me when I was canceled and punished by a few trans activists and current DEI madness for not admitting to more than two sexes and for accidental misgendering.

Protecting sex-based rights politically as Democrats was the first plenary session that including analysis of gender identity in schools that led one to admit she was going to vote for Trump.  I learned histories of both the poor definitions of gender dysphoria in the DSM by Amy Sousa and the increasing anti-female sentiment in fetal personhood laws by Marylou Singleton.  I appreciated analysis of transgender ideology in cartoon fanfiction popular among current youth, and Karla Mantilla on the some of the flashpoints between the LGBT movement and transgender ideology.  Of note, several sessions were fashioned specifically with a cross-generational focus.  Especially with desisted and detransitioned women participating and in the context of what is happening to butch lesbianism it was powerful for younger women to hear from older ones how they would likely be encouraged to transition to males when they were that age with the rush to trans young females adding to the persistent misogyny and sex-role stereotypes.

Learning more from FIST members Suzanne Forbes-Veiling and Denice Traina at WDI was wonderful, as it was to see the remarkable leader of LGB Alliance, Arianne Gieringer, again.

I’m  grateful for my involvement in both FIST and WDI, and look forward to future conferences, especially as my book develops.  If you’re interested in responding to a 10-item interview with your anonymous reflections on critical issues for Canceling sex: Gender ideology, Title IX, and DEI in schools and society please email me ASAP at chammer@maine.edu.

ZOMBIE LAWS AND ZOMBIE STRATEGIES

by Ann Menasche

The opinion below is that of the author and does not necessarily represent those of Feminists in Struggle.

The contemporary anti-feminist backlash is reaching far back into our nation’s history – the mid to late 19th century – to revive horrible misogynist laws that should have been long dead and buried.  These laws arose during an earlier backlash against the First Wave of Feminism, in response to women organizing against our oppression.  That was a time when women still didn’t have the vote, and could not own property.  However, the birthrate for white women had fallen to 3.5 child per couple from seven in 1800, with abortion commonplace and performed by women.  This was of great concern to the white fathers running the country including those of the medical establishment just consolidating their power.

One such “zombie law” is Arizona’s draconian anti-abortion law which outlaws virtually all abortions, recently upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court.   Under this law passed in 1864 anyone who provides supplies or administers an abortion or abortion drugs can be charged with a crime and if convicted, receive between 2 and 5 years in prison.  The only exception is when the abortion is necessary to save the life of the woman.

Another “zombie law” is the 1873 Comstock Act against obscenity, a law that bans the use of mail to transport “lewd” materials.  This law was used to imprison and deport lesbian Jewish radical leftist Eve Adams in the early twentieth Century for authoring a book containing lesbian love stories. She ended up dying in the Holocaust. The Comstock Act’s anti-abortion provisions are being resurrected by the Christian Right in the case against the FDA currently pending before the Supreme Court aimed at stopping the distribution of the abortion drug, mifepristone.

But it gets worse.  The current backlash is impeding the ability to fight back effectively against this attack.  The strongest argument for abortion rights especially post-Dobbs is the equality argument, i.e., that abortion bans and restrictions discriminate against women as a sex.  This was recognized by Justice Ginsberg decades ago when she wrote, “Legal challenges to undue restrictions on abortion procedures do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather they center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.”  It has been successfully argued in states that have state ERAs such as Pennsylvania where that state’s Supreme Court opined that pregnancy is a sex based condition and abortion restrictions impact women’s status.  The sex equality approach to abortion rights would be even stronger if abortion advocates argued that the fully ratified national ERA should be treated as the law of the land and a strict scrutiny test utilized to challenge anti abortion laws as discriminatory against women.

Yet, abortion rights groups like Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation and Trust Women are helping the enemy by disappearing women from the picture, talking about “pregnant people” and “birthing bodies.”  To make matters worse, Trust Women recently force- teamed abortion rights with access to so-called “gender affirming care” the euphemism for the sterilization and mutilation of lesbian/gay and gender non-conforming adolescents and young people  through puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, double mastectomies, and genital surgeries.   This is a kiss of death to the abortion rights struggle.  As the Cass Report issued by the National Health Service in the UK documented, child transition is without a basis in scientific evidence and is far more harmful than helpful.  It is causing untold harm to a generation of mostly lesbian and gay youth who have been indoctrinated to believe their body is “wrong” and in need of these drastic medical interventions to be themselves. “Gender affirming care” has nothing to do with the right to safe legal abortion which is essential for women’s freedom and is shown to save women’s lives.

Abortion is about the fundamental right of WOMEN to decide if and when they will bear a child.  A feminist struggle is what won abortion rights to begin with and it is the only force that can win it back.

FEMINIST FORUM 3/30 – CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT – MEN IN WOMEN’s PRISON

Please join us for this fascinating and controversial topic on Saturday March 30 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time!

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 

FEMINIST FORUM : CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT – MEN IN WOMEN’S PRISONS Tickets, Sat, Mar 30, 2024 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

 

Women prisoners are among the most vulnerable women in our society. They are often poor and disproportionately women of color. Many have experienced sexual and physical violence and abuse often at the hands of men. Women in prison are frequently raped and sexually abused by male prison guards. Now, under a new California law, they are being placed in even greater jeopardy: male prisoners who self-identify as women are being placed into women’s prisons. Many of these males have been convicted of raping, abusing and/or murdering women and girls.

Hear two speakers who represent the perspectives of the incarcerated women who have had this law imposed on them:

1) AMIE ICHKAWA is formerly incarcerated and a founding member and executive director of Woman II Woman. She works directly with women in prisons nationwide with a large focus on California. Woman II Woman champions the rights and welfare of sisters through advocacy and education, along with providing services for parole suitability hearings, commutation preparation, and one-on-one re-entry support, welcoming women back into the community with dignity and respect through a team who have lived the experience.

2) DR. SUZANNE VIERLING has extensive experience in higher education, mental health administration and international consultation. She is a global leader with proven capabilities for driving initiatives and programs across all organizational levels. Dr. Vierling’s expertise includes assessment and accreditation, online learning, compliance, as well as poverty, child welfare, community psychology, foster care, women & bioethics, human trafficking, mental health and juvenile detention. She is a member of Feminists in Struggle.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape by Sohaila Abdulali: A Book Review 

Jocelyn Crawley is a FIST member who authored this review on the important topic of rape. The opinions are that of the author and do not necessarily represent the positions of FIST.

Rape remains central to the way patriarchy operates. In her important book What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, Sohaila Abdulali discusses how the ongoing reality of sexual assault impacts survivors and the communities in which they live. Reading this work provides radical feminists with fresh insights regarding why rape is still prevalent and what we should be doing about it.

The introduction of What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is meaningful for many reasons, including the presence of an important question: “How have we managed to evolve as a species that is riddled with rape? When did we give ourselves permission to become this way?” (2) These interrogations are important because they prevent us from falling into the normal mental pattern of perceiving rape as an inevitable part of life and cause us to think of sexual assault as the horrific, dehumanizing reality that it is.

One of the most compelling sections of the text unfolds in Chapter Two, where the author recounts public response to the brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in New Delhi. People protested by raising signs which read “Don’t tell your daughter not to go out. Tell your son to behave properly” (8). However, negative messaging and response to the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh coincided with the protests. Specifically, one of the rapists stated on film that “only about twenty percent of girls are “good.” If they go out at night with boys, they are asking for trouble. If they don’t want to be killed, they should just lie back and submit. He and his friends were teaching Jyoti a lesson, he said, and her death was an accident. (8). Here, feminists can see that misogyny is still a prevalent element of male socialization such that rape is permissible because men identify traits in women which make them worthy of their wrath.

For many years, many radical feminists have pointed out that while many aspects of rape are problematic, one of the most disquieting, discouraging realities of sexual assault is the lack of concern for the victim. The term “victim-blaming” was coined to reflect the lack of empathy and positive attention given to survivors, and Abdulali speaks to this reality by noting that “the victim remains the least important factor” (33). To recognize how this abstract impression works on the concrete level, consider Abdulali’s assertion that “Sometimes women tell but everyone acts as if they said nothing at all. One woman emailed me: “I told my parents about it and they did nothing. Absolutely nothing. I felt so betrayed. Everyone in my family knew but still he was there at each and every family function. He even works at my uncle’s shop” (18,19). Here, women who are committed to global female liberation can see the need to recentralize the holistic recovery of rape survivors when strategic acts of resistance to patriarchy are being developed.

As 2024 continues to unfold, rape must remain an integral element of radical feminist discourse and strategic work towards the liberation of women and girls from the sexual tyranny of men. Women-centered women can refer to Sohaila Abdulali’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape to obtain more information regarding how discourse regarding sexual assault unfolds and what strategies feminists can develop to resist the minimization of female experiences under patriarchy.

 

JOIN US FOR A ZOOM FORUM: WOMEN, WAR, AND THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT ON FEBRUARY 10th

FEMINIST FORUM: WOMEN, WAR, AND THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT

Feminists in Struggle presents a diverse group of feminists from the United States and Israel who all share a pro-peace perspective for a panel discussion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and issues of war, peace and occupation as they impact women and girls.

Saturday, February 10th, 11:00 a.m. Pacific time, 2:00 p.m. Eastern.  

Tickets on sale now for only $5.00 plus service charge.

FEMINIST FORUM: WOMEN, WAR, AND THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT Tickets, Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite

SPEAKERS:

1) CINDY SHEEHAN – is an American anti-war activist, mother and grandmother, whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed during the Iraq War . She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended antiwar protest outside President George W. Bush’s Texas Ranch. Her memoir, Peace Mom: A Mother’s Journey through Heartache to Activism, was published in 2006. Sheehan was the 2012 vice-presidential nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party and ran for California Governor in 2014. She runs a substack podcast called “Cindy Sheehan’s soapbox” and continues to speak out against war and imperialism, including against the genocide in Gaza.

2) DORIS BITTAR – Artist, writer, educator and civil rights organizer, Doris Bittar has lived in California since 1986. She was the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee West Coast Coordinator for three years, San Diego Chapter President for seven years. Bittar was born in Baghdad, Iraq of Lebanese and Palestinian parents. She is nationally and internationally exhibiting artist whose works are in collections in the US, the Arab World and Europe. She was a professor of art for 25 years at UCSD, Cal State San Marcos. the American University of Beirut, and was visiting scholar at NYU in 2017. Her current project, Colonial Colonnade premiered at the Arab American National Museum in November 2023.

3) HANNAH SAFRAN – Feminist, lesbian, peace activist and veteran of Women in Black in Haifa, Israel. She was one of the women who started the vigil with the slogan “An End to the Occupation” in March 1988, close to the beginning of the first intifada. She has been active at Isha L-lsha the Haifa feminist center and is currently involved in its feminist archive and library.  She has done research and taught in Women’s Studies in academic institutions. Her work on the history of the Jewish suffrage movement in Palestine in the 1920’s and the beginnings of the feminist movement of the 70’s was published in a book. She has also published articles on the history of the feminist-lesbian movement and the women’s peace movement. She has been actively involved in the protest movement against the war on Gaza and for the return of the kidnapped people

4) ROMI ELNAGAR – is a retired teacher-librarian with long-standing personal ties to the Middle East. She majored in Third World colonial history (modern Asian, African and Latin American histor), and has lived and travelled in the Middle East. She converted (“reverted”) to Islam more than forty years ago, has made the hajj to Mecca, and has studied the Koran extensively in English translations. For many years, she has helped families in Gaza with their basic needs. As a teacher, mother and grandmother, she is especially concerned with the struggle of Palestinian women under the Occupation, and the special challenges women face in that struggle. She is a proud member of Feminist in Struggle.

5) ANN MENASCHE is a life-long radical lesbian feminist, socialist and anti-war activist proud of her Sephardic Jewish heritage. Members of her family lived in Turkey and Greece under Ottoman rule and some were murdered in the Holocaust. While in college, she rejected the Zionism she grew up with and came to advocate peace, justice and equality between the two peoples living in the holy land and an end to occupation, discrimination, and apartheid. She is horrified at the genocide going on against Palestinians in Gaza and believes “never again” means for everybody. She works as a Civil rights attorney for low income tenants and unhoused clients. Ann is a founding member and member of the Coordinating Committee of Feminists in Struggle.

THIS IS A WOMEN-ONLY EVENT. Male allies are welcome to watch our zoom videos on Youtube.