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Puritan Politics Lead to Oppressions

absolutism is only practical for the privileged

Forum: Strap-on.org
Date: 02/04/2002

[ This post is in response to a discussion about whether or not it is okay to invite Le Tigre, the dyke band criticized for not questioning the anti-trans policy at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in which they play, to perform at a "Rock 4 Choice" concert put on by a campus chapter of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Because the original post was deleted by the person who posted it, I chose not to re-produce it here. ]

I wish that the members of Le Tigre had more progressive analysis around trans issues than they apparently do, but I do not oppose inviting Le Tigre to perform at the "Rock 4 Choice" event, especially since they are not going to get paid for it anyway. If you only wanted performers who do not perpetuate in any form of bigotry or oppression, you simply can't have any concert. Personally I wish I did not have to talk to people who think or act in ways that are racist, classist, sexist, heterosexist, etc., but if I insisted that I would only hang out with those who don't I won't have any friends (and I'll probably have to kill myself).

There is something puritan about not wanting Le Tigre to perform in an event like "Rock 4 Choice," and this is the same kind of puritanism lesbian-separatists hold regarding what they allow or do not allow in "women's space." The problem with such puritanical morality is that it is simply impractical or impossible to be equally puritanical around multiple oppressions (i.e. you can't have a concert if you only want performers who are 100% cool about sexism, racism, classism, transphobia, and all other oppressions) at the same time, and thus it *requires* a ranking of oppressions (e.g. "it's more important to address sexism than transphobia"), which privileges people who are marked by only one socially stigmatized or marginalized identity.

Think about it: regardless of what they decide to do with Le Tigre, can you really stand by the patronizingly top-down, anti-youth, imperialist, heterosexist, bourgeois feminism of the Feminist Majority Foundation? If you are going to oppose Le Tigre being invited to the event because of their transphobia, shouldn't you also oppose FMF and "Rock 4 Choice" in the first place? I think it's hypocritical to oppose the former and not oppose the latter (my position, just so you know, is that I do not oppose either of them categorically, but interrogate and confront specific actions that they take that are oppressive). Puritanical politics is bound to be single-issue, and as such it is oppressive to people who face multiple oppressions or who have mixed backgrounds.

And to answer BethX's question, yes, I am prepared to defend a racist performer participating in this event as well, even as I confront her/his racist actions.

Emigrl

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