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Feminism
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Writing a feminist manifesto
This summer, in addition to conducting their own gender research, our Susan Heck Summer Interns participated in a weekly class called Gender 101, led by Clayman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Lin Li. As one of their exercises in class earlier in the summer, the participants discussed some well-known feminist/queer manifestos. In addition, each intern wrote a feminist/queer manifesto in which they responded to a gender and/or sexuality related issue of concern to them. We were really impressed and touched by their manifestos and asked to share them. Please enjoy the selections below.
On ‘Do not come’ and family separations
by Gina Sanchez
In the wake of the 2020 election, President-elect Joseph Biden promised a reversal of Trump-era immigration policies. Among the most compelling was an end to family separations. And yet, this administration has failed in its objectives in favor of a preservation of status quo sentiment. Today, many children and families are still separated. Three weeks ago, Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed in response to a surge in migration from Guatemala, “Do not come.” Such a response negates the immediate necessity for a feminist framework on the issue of migration.
First, the process of familial separation has intergenerational effects on group preservation and individual well-being. By radically altering individual pre-existing family units, men’s and women’s autonomy are threatened by the patriarchal structures of border patrol.
Second, the militarization of the border has unique and adverse effects on migrant women. Subject to the threat of sexual violence and exploitation, and limited to non-existent access to legal services, migration across borders proves to be perilous.
Increased militarization in response to gang violence has increased women’s vulnerability and sexual assault cases from all angles. U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment negates these compelling reasons for asylum and migration.
Third, current U.S. positions negate past involvement in countries such as Guatemala operating under colonialist, hegemonic, masculine, capitalist tendencies which further destabilized pre-existing market economies. U.S. immigration policies, historically and currently, are characterized by preserving U.S. domestic and foreign interests; civilian men and women have suffered greatly as a result of such actions.
Fourth, women are among the greatest sufferers of gang violence and armed forces’ response to the Narco-state. Increased militarization in response to gang violence has increased women’s vulnerability and sexual assault cases from all angles. U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment negates these compelling reasons for asylum and migration.
Fifth, gender nonconforming individuals are subject to similar violence in traditional patriarchal societies that prioritize the preservation of gender norms. Those seeking asylum ought not be turned away by a society such as the U.S. that is a supposed champion of LGBTQIA+ rights.
Anti-immigrant sentiment and historical and current U.S. policy must adopt a feminist lens for the prevention of further violence, the prevention of further regress, and the prevention of further death.
Refuse to grow up!
by Mikah Sanchez
What does it mean to grow up?
I often think about the ways that we are taught to kill our children. We extinguish the vibrancy of the child’s imagination and convince them and ourselves that there is limited space in our world, and that they must shrink themselves to fit in it. We revoke their natural freedom and wholeness, replacing it with fear and shame.
Children enter this world as truth. They enter willing to give love, be loved, they enter simultaneously as our ancestors and projections of who we can be.
A child dies when we tell them what their name is.
When we tell them what clothes they can’t wear.
When we don’t answer their questions.
When we don’t listen to their needs.
When we don't let them define their own successes.
A child dies when we tell them who they are.
We are in a constant process of colonizing the child’s mind.
We corrupt the wholeness of the child in the same way that colonizers invade our lands. In attempts to eradicate our ways of life, colonizers shame and violate our truths, but the child is proof of resilience. Children enter this world as truth. They enter willing to give love, be loved, they enter simultaneously as our ancestors and projections of who we can be.
We refuse to consider the possibility that children can be our teachers too, because often we are too loud to listen. We violate their trust and teach them fear and shame. They learn to fear those of different races and ethnicities, to be ashamed of their own sexuality and bodies, to fear healing. We force children to aspire to an individual existence instead of a collective one, where they have no choice but to reproduce the same harm done to them.
I like to imagine a future where the minds and souls of children are nurtured instead of erased. Where growing up doesn’t exist. Where the lens through which we navigate life is vibrant and not colored by shame and fear. In this world, we are taught to celebrate our differences instead of pretending that they do not exist because “it is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
Let kids color pictures of apples purple.
Let kids abandon gender.
Let kids be whatever they want for Halloween.
Let kids choose their own names.
Let kids ask questions and let us answer them honestly.
Let them know about the world that they belong to so that they can create the realities that they want to be a part of.
