1. Directive: The Personal is Political
Central to the United States’ Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the 1960s and 1970s, and prompted by urgency for collectivity; protests, advocacies, and feminist theory spurred the progressive unshackling of women from “male supremacy” and systemic oppression. “The personal is political” has since etched itself into a slogan, an outcry and a representation for women against the backdrop of systematically-indoctrinated patriarchal society.
As appendage to Carol Hanisch’s (1970) paper published in Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation – the personal is political was initialized as an assertive rebuttal against dissenters of women’s conscious-raising groups, downplaying their political merits. The message encapsulated the importance of unlocking and voicing issues of oppression ensuing behind closed doors, involving: sex, abortion, housework, childcare and beauty misconceived as individually-personal problems not needing incorporation into the WLM. The term political fills the extensions of “power relationships” appropriated along social-institutional intersectionality.
2. Prelude: Intimidation – Personal, Political, or Both?
Receiving the instructions for this assignment, intending involvement in a public women-centered event in order to complete this analytical-review, overwhelmed me with intimidation. I was perplexed by the realization that, for a woman in my thirties, this was the first time I would find myself in the enclave of true womanhood…and it terrified me. The closest I had ever come to a ‘women-centered’ event was in my twenties, involving a bunch of girls and two hired male exotic dancers. I realized that, despite being a woman, I have always found women intimidating. Nonetheless, I set out to make an appearance and to uproot my womanly quandary. Armed with Pepto-Bismol; I attended three events: Grand Mamas: Artists and Activists Talk , Eve Zaremba’s Memoir , and the Women’s Memorial March (WMM). Albeit apparent distinctions between these events; they share one underlying exertion which hinges onto the experiences of the vast majority of women – the personal is political. It is what propelled the nonconformists representing feminist expression at the Grand Mamas event; and, it is what drove Eve Zaremba to reflect on her life as an identifiable lesbian-feminist-activist. It is also the compelling force behind: women, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, young and old, abled and (dis)abled, and men – to annually march and resurrect the spirits of other annihilated women. Women annihilated: in the Downtown Eastside (DTES); nationally and across borders; to colonialism and patriarchy; and, to violence. Through the lens of the personal is political; I set out to delve and circumscribe the experience of the February 14th Women’s Memorial March. …show more content…
Despite desperately wanting to stay true to its symbolic intentions; I find myself entangled in a Catch-22 rooted within, serving as a mechanism of both oppressive-isolation and collective-solidarity simultaneously. To flesh out my stance; I will address foundations upholding the WMM while making connections to issues representing: power relations, culture, and solidarity within the binding framework of cultural violence. All in the hope of enlightening an alternate inclusion to holistic solidarity. 3. Objectivity: Women’s Memorial March The WMM committee was founded from outrage in 1991 following the brutal discovery of a slain Coast Salish woman on Powell Street. Juxtaposed, came the unraveling that DTES women not only disproportionately face “physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis” , but go missing and murdered at an alarming rate without scrutiny. Fay Blaney (co-chair), Carol Martin (organizer), Myrna Cranmer, amongst other others oversee the vindicating commemoration of the murdered and missing DTES women and sisters. They have also become the waring voice contrasting the lack of justifiable action on the part of the Canadian government involving holistic inquest and closure . Speaking out about the systemic-intersectionality of gendered violence; their efforts have spurred the Women’s Memorial March into an affiliative national and internationally-recognized movement. 4. Epoch of (Muted and Erased) Inquiries: From Pickton to Present Between 1997 and 2002, countless women were swallowed by the cloak of the DTES leaving their names unanswered, loved ones searching, and their beings overlooked on the grounds of location and occupation. Profiled based on labels of: poverty, drug-dependency/addiction, and sex-trade work – Canadian law enforcement and government were apathetic towards a pattern of targeted women, let alone providing directive-action. Consequently, as the
Central to the United States’ Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) of the 1960s and 1970s, and prompted by urgency for collectivity; protests, advocacies, and feminist theory spurred the progressive unshackling of women from “male supremacy” and systemic oppression. “The personal is political” has since etched itself into a slogan, an outcry and a representation for women against the backdrop of systematically-indoctrinated patriarchal society.
As appendage to Carol Hanisch’s (1970) paper published in Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation – the personal is political was initialized as an assertive rebuttal against dissenters of women’s conscious-raising groups, downplaying their political merits. The message encapsulated the importance of unlocking and voicing issues of oppression ensuing behind closed doors, involving: sex, abortion, housework, childcare and beauty misconceived as individually-personal problems not needing incorporation into the WLM. The term political fills the extensions of “power relationships” appropriated along social-institutional intersectionality.
2. Prelude: Intimidation – Personal, Political, or Both?
Receiving the instructions for this assignment, intending involvement in a public women-centered event in order to complete this analytical-review, overwhelmed me with intimidation. I was perplexed by the realization that, for a woman in my thirties, this was the first time I would find myself in the enclave of true womanhood…and it terrified me. The closest I had ever come to a ‘women-centered’ event was in my twenties, involving a bunch of girls and two hired male exotic dancers. I realized that, despite being a woman, I have always found women intimidating. Nonetheless, I set out to make an appearance and to uproot my womanly quandary. Armed with Pepto-Bismol; I attended three events: Grand Mamas: Artists and Activists Talk , Eve Zaremba’s Memoir , and the Women’s Memorial March (WMM). Albeit apparent distinctions between these events; they share one underlying exertion which hinges onto the experiences of the vast majority of women – the personal is political. It is what propelled the nonconformists representing feminist expression at the Grand Mamas event; and, it is what drove Eve Zaremba to reflect on her life as an identifiable lesbian-feminist-activist. It is also the compelling force behind: women, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, young and old, abled and (dis)abled, and men – to annually march and resurrect the spirits of other annihilated women. Women annihilated: in the Downtown Eastside (DTES); nationally and across borders; to colonialism and patriarchy; and, to violence. Through the lens of the personal is political; I set out to delve and circumscribe the experience of the February 14th Women’s Memorial March. …show more content…
Despite desperately wanting to stay true to its symbolic intentions; I find myself entangled in a Catch-22 rooted within, serving as a mechanism of both oppressive-isolation and collective-solidarity simultaneously. To flesh out my stance; I will address foundations upholding the WMM while making connections to issues representing: power relations, culture, and solidarity within the binding framework of cultural violence. All in the hope of enlightening an alternate inclusion to holistic solidarity. 3. Objectivity: Women’s Memorial March The WMM committee was founded from outrage in 1991 following the brutal discovery of a slain Coast Salish woman on Powell Street. Juxtaposed, came the unraveling that DTES women not only disproportionately face “physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis” , but go missing and murdered at an alarming rate without scrutiny. Fay Blaney (co-chair), Carol Martin (organizer), Myrna Cranmer, amongst other others oversee the vindicating commemoration of the murdered and missing DTES women and sisters. They have also become the waring voice contrasting the lack of justifiable action on the part of the Canadian government involving holistic inquest and closure . Speaking out about the systemic-intersectionality of gendered violence; their efforts have spurred the Women’s Memorial March into an affiliative national and internationally-recognized movement. 4. Epoch of (Muted and Erased) Inquiries: From Pickton to Present Between 1997 and 2002, countless women were swallowed by the cloak of the DTES leaving their names unanswered, loved ones searching, and their beings overlooked on the grounds of location and occupation. Profiled based on labels of: poverty, drug-dependency/addiction, and sex-trade work – Canadian law enforcement and government were apathetic towards a pattern of targeted women, let alone providing directive-action. Consequently, as the