Affinity issue #4: patriarchy
Published:
September 21, 2011 09:47
by Black Iris Press |
Neighbourhoods:
This is the fourth issue of Affinity, exploring the importance of challenging patriarchy in our struggle against the dominant culture.
* Please be warned, this zine includes descriptions of physical and sexual abuse *
Affinity is an irregular zine providing space for critical analysis and discussion of strategies for resisting domination and struggling against the current system. Previous issues on privilege, violence, and mental health can all be found at blackirispress.wordpress.com.
Comments, contributions and ideas are always welcome. Please email blackirispress{at}riseup{dot}net.
Contact email: blackirispress{at}riseup{dot}net
Comments
Introspective
Published: October 03, 2011 17:53
by
Black Iris Press
Thanks for your comment and interesting insights. We appreciate your point about the zine being introspective. This is a result of us encouraging contributors to all of our different issues to write from a personal perspective and based on their own experience, because we feel that this is often overlooked in writing about these kind of topics.
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Good stuff, but very introspective
Well done for an interesting zine. I enjoyed some of your thoughts, was suitably disturbed by others, and salute your zeal and integrity.
However I did find this overwhelmingly inward looking.
In an era where David Willets, Universities minister, says feminism is to blame for the lack of social mobility in Britain. When working class women in particular experience a big differential in earnings (widening in some areas), the massive burden of domestic labour, and childcare, as a fact of social organisation. When Michael Gove is attacking funding for Surestart, teenage pregnancy support, and the drawbridge is being pulled up from what remains of an equitable education system (which many of your writers have enjoyed it seems)..... Surely we have a big fight on our hands in the 'outside world'?
(Please don't criticise me for using such a 'male' word as fight - I think we should be very careful before ascribing characteristics like this to genders or sexes, as One Woman Confronting Patriarchy tentatively does, but admittedly that's a very different argument and I respect your view).
According to the Fawcet Society, the biggest brunt of the government's cuts will hit women, particularly single parents. That doesn't get a mention in your zine.
"I think it's radical in our culture to seek perspective, introspectively". Perhaps it is, but not that radical. Attacking patriarchy, privilige, and power may begin at home, and in our small circles of confidants and zine readers, but it doesn't end there.