I read a post a few weeks ago about girls not being able to orgasm from oral sex. The post made me SO relieved…I always felt like it was so weird that oral didn’t do much for me. It would feel good but I’d often just sit there thinking about something else. Anyway, the only ways I’ve been able to get off is actual vaginal sex (generally in missionary) and some kind of weird masturbation I’ve mastered where I cross my legs really tightly. My partner really wants me to get off and, though I’m incredibly appreciative, I don’t really have any ideas. Do any of you have suggestions as to alternative oral/manual stimulation? Or other positions that could stimulate similarly to missionary or intense pressure (though not even sure how crossing legs tightly even stimulates the vaginal area)?

I’m not sure any of that even made sense, so feel free to delete if this is incoherent. And, again, thanks to all of you for your help.

Hi, hoping for a little info... I may be relocating to Baltimore, MD. I have never been there and know very little about it (visiting soon I hope), nor do I have any contacts there.
Can anyone say anything about anarchist/leftist/activist goings-on in Baltimore, Baltimore radical history, present-day Baltimore, its neighborhoods, communities, problems, potential, etc...
(and if you feel like it, things and places to see and do, places to live, transportation, anything general about the city that someone who is posting in this forum might want to know...) 
links, etc. welcome.
Thanks and please forgive the slightly off-topic post..

Has anyone had any experience having sex while using a sea sponge tampon? I read somewhere that it feels "similar to vaginal tissue." Is this true? Is the tampon noticeable to the guy?

Thanks, ladies and gents.

If you do Food Not Bombs in Atlanta or are otherwise involved in radical activism in Atlanta, please e-mail Orlando Food Not Bombs--orlandofnb@orlandofoodnotbombs.org. We will e-mail you back with details of a project we are working on. Thanks in advance.

Ok. Background story:

I've been on HBC for about 10 years now. Never had a problem, never had a very serious break from pills. I've changed brands here and there (namely because of insurance) but I've always been on a triphasic pill.

Ok, so I moved and had a really hard time getting into see my new doctor. So hard a time that I used all of my remaining HBC stash and actually went off the pill. Boo. Last friday I finally went to Planned Parenthood to get myself back on. I peed in the cup... I assume they would have said something if I was pregnant, so I think I'm good on that regard. They gave me my pills and told me that I could start even though I hadn't had a full cycle yet since I'd only been off for 3 weeks.

Over the weekend, my persisting sore throat developed into Strep. yay! So monday I went into my Dr's office and FINALLY got looked at. They gave me penicillin and the H1N1 shot (which I'm not sure I wanted, but what is done is done).

Tuesday i attempt to go into work. I commute on public transit and got about halfway there when I start feeling hot and start peeling off layers of clothes (I work outside). I think I had a panic attack and had to get off the bus. Nothing like that has happened to me before. I spend most of the day sleeping, and crying, and moping about. Today again, i made it to work, but I just feel out of my head. So morose and blase and just... weird. I know its not really easy to understand from this rambling, but I've never had a depression fall on me so suddenly with such physical side effects like hot flashes.

I guess I'm wondering if its from the HBC or the flu shot. Its been so long since I've been off HBC that I don't remember if I felt this way before. And if its something that will go away or if I need to go back to PP and ask for a different brand or something

http://www.all-freemagazines.com/news-2247.html

REMEDY, an award-winning quarterly health magazine. As a member, you will also receive important email health alerts to keep you up to date on the latest news that affects your health and the health of your family.Remedy Life Free Three Year Subscription

From NARAL:

Hi -

I'm pretty angry that the House passed an anti-choice measure that would essentially eliminate insurance coverage for abortion in the new system. Health reform is important, but no one should lose coverage in the new system.

I just signed a petition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to stand strong against a similar attack in the Senate. Will you add your name? The deadline is 12 noon (EST) on Friday, November 13.

http://action.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?id=4013&pagename=homepage

Thanks for standing up for women!
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
https://secure.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?s_oo=69gKKTAtN0Ip7I8GYO_WVQ..&id=4013
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

Hello VPers! First I wanted to thank everyone who commented on my previous post about the effects of Cipro on HBC. You guys brought me much reassurance and I really appreciated it!

So after having completed my last day on Cipro to treat my UTI, I think I might be developing a YI. I have been feeling fine these last couple of days so I'm pretty sure the itchiness I'm feeling is more yeast related then UTI. I also used to be on a pill which practically gave me chronic YIs and although it's been years since I had one, I remember the itchy feeling (I also had a very clumpy, creamy, white discharge this morning). I'm hoping to avoid having going to the doctor's again and treat this YI using home remedies. It feels like it's at the start and I'm afraid Monistat would be too strong (I've actually never used an OTC treatment before) but I read taking it can make a YI worse when you have a light one. I was thinking of trying the overnight tampon soaked in yogurt treatment. I bought plain, organic, probiotic yogurt. I know from having read previous posts that I should use yogurt that doesn't have sugar in it and since the ingredients listed are ultrafiltrated partly skimmed organic milk and bacterial culture I think I'm OK.

I guess more then anything I'm looking for reassurance that what I'm doing is correct since this is the first time I'm trying this and I trust you guys and the excellent advice/knowledge you have here. I also was wondering how soon I should expect to feel the treatment start working? Thank you in advance!

"Seaman Recruit Babalon!"

"Yes, Sir!" I snapped rigid as a board, half training/half fear.

"What the fuck is this?" My CC, a 300 pound bronzed gorilla of a man, addressed the stack of hastily folded uniforms in my locker.

"Sir?" I wasn't sure what it was that had upset him. I had done my best to stay off his radar since arriving at boot camp. However I soon learned that it is the fate of all recruits who attempt invisibility as a coping method to be thrust unwillingly into the spot light of their superior's attention.

"You call this properly stowed away?" he snuck up on my side and barked in my ear. The result sent me jumping involuntarily forward in shock. I watched the guy across the aisle from me, standing at Parade Rest, barely repress a snicker.

"Yes, sir?" I shouted on autopilot stepping back into my stance, face flushed as I could feel all twenty four stares of my company watching me.

"Are you fucking with me?" The CC barked again. This time I willed myself to hold my ground. I barked back on autopilot -

"Yes, Sir!"

- before I realized just what it was I said.

"I mean..." I tried to rectify my error, redeem myself ASAP but it was too late.

"Oh, so you're a funny man? A real buddy-fucker there aren't ya, Babalon?"

"N-n-no, Sir..."

The CC turned around and ordered the company into push-up position. Twenty five clone recruits with matching hair cuts and blank stares hit the floor in harmony. A collective clap echoes down the barracks.

"Not you, Babalon!" I rise up and resume Parade Rest.

"Everyone else --- give me 50!"

Some idiot tries to sneak in a groan of protest.

"Alright ladies, give me a 100 then... all courtesy of buddy-fucker Babalon!"

As I stood there, watching my fellow recruits dry hump the deck with mechanical precision, counting off loud on each lift and growling pissed with each drop. Meanwhile my CC, proceeded to empty out my locker with a swoop of his arm. Next he emptied out my dirty laundry bag hanging off my bunk. Not satisfied, he then proceeded to walk around and drape articles of my clothing across each struggling recruit. Some had my towels over their faces so they resembled Halloween ghosts, some had my dirty socks left under their noses so each push-up came with a whiff of raw PT funk. At one point he slapped my drawers around the Recruit CC's head with my stenciled name on the band so he wouldn't forget who was responsible for this lastest S&M fantasy being conducted in the name of national security. By the last push up everyone was primal groaning and eye ball gang-banging me with a vengence.

"Alright, Babalon... you got fifteen minutes, ya'got that, fifteen, to get your shit squared away before I come back in here and have everyone do another hundred. You got me?"

"Yes, Sir?"

With that he stormed out of the barracks, most likely to sneak in a cigarette and a black cup of Heart Attack Soup. The 'hatch' slammed shut; with it twenty four sweat drenched scowls rose off the deck as one and swarmed in around me.

***

Just shy of twenty years later and I can still fold a towel with mathematical precision. In fact I fold laundry with the instinctual dexterity of a Zen Master giving life to origami tigers and swans. Here, check out the tri corner fold on this old beach towel - zero rat tail, ship shape, 4-0 and squared away. Entire armoirs, dressers and closets have been stuffed into a single duffle bag... with room left over for a shower kit, my boots and a couple of books to read from here to there if need be. Bravo Zulu, bitches!

But now here I am doing Vee's laundry while she's off at work and all my skills drain away in the face of the last load I bought up from the basement.

A black spotted dress openly challenges me with its lack of obvious corners. An unending riddle of bras pass through clumsy fingers. Panties, that would be a death sentence if I was to describe them here, defy me to find a start. Then there's the dresses, I think they go on hangers. At least the t-shirts are simple but the stockings, do they get rolled in balls or rolled up like a strip of carpet? Sweaters go where again? How do you properly stow away a garment that seems to be primarily made of string?

I stand there stupidly with a blouse in my arms, it almost seems as if I am waiting for it to come to life and start dancing with me.

"C'mon, Firecracker... you've lived with her longer than I have. Can't you help me out."

The cat sniffs distastefully at me, turns it back and resumes what seems to be an eighteen hour nap.

"It's not fair." I protest pointing to the giggling pile of undergarments. "I wasn't trained for this!"

Alright time for Plan B. I fake my own death. I get out of town and follow my life long dream (as of five seconds ago) of joining a Nick Cave cover band. The Red Right Hands, maybe or The Lovermen. It'd be fun. I'd wear a pompador wig to work and basically work for drinks. There's worst possibilities for an aging unpublished author...

... Firecracker rolls over on her back, squints at me with cuddly contempt and releases a bird chirp of a meow. Translation - "Don't let me stop you!"

Okay, okay, okay... take it easy. You're talking to the cat again, here.

Deep breath.

Hold it.

Let go.

With thoughts quiet of result, I remember how to fold one corner to the other, as easily I can connect one moment, no matter how distant, to the next.

Hi, so I don't know where this is allowed and where this isn't, and I will be posting it to several communities, so if it isn't alright then feel free to let me know and I'll delete the post.

I created a community called co_morbidity , where people dealing with more than just one specific issue can go to discuss them all in one place, as well as  how these issues may be connected and dealt with instead of focusing on them separately. There is more detailed information at the community about what I hope this place can be, and of course that will change and grow as people join and make it what they need it to be.

Anyways, if people join then they join, and if they don't then they don't. But I really think it could be something great to have in addition to our more specific lj communities.

everytime i have sex or even just get fingered or what not , i get very wet. I understand that the vagina naturally creates the fluid to help things slide in easier and be more comfortable, but I get so wet that literally everything is just slipping and sliding everywhere and its difficult to keep the penis inside of me. Is there anything i can do about this? I mean he hasnt complained or anything and actually likes the feeling i guess..... but i just hate the constant everything just not staying in place.

any help and advice is greatly appreciated.

also , i have a doctors appointment tomorrow and i want to ask for birth control, but im 17 and am a little anxious about asking , ive discussed sex etc with the doctor and gone to a gyno but i always get VERY nervous asking for bc , and im not sure why. so hellpp please !

"I realized just how effective the demonization of welfare has been when I was actually shocked to hear kids, in a show targeted at other kids, being led in a chant that said being poor or on welfare shouldn’t be shameful and did not reduce their worth as human beings. Can you imagine a TV show, even on PBS, putting something like this on the air today? Our public discourse at this point says that being on welfare is shameful, and that those receiving it in fact aren’t “somebody.” They are dependents, lazy loafers, and their kids are just additional burdens on the state; they don’t have the same rights to dignity and respect as other citizens, and they certainly shouldn’t expect to get it."

[Source]

This picked up my mood considerably today. And while it's not specifically advice or a suggestion of some kind, maybe it'll pick up someone's mood too?


------------------------------------------------
// edit: Throughout the course of the night I have been touched by so many of these stories and replies that I just wanted to say thank you. Just imagine.... For someone to reply, I think, there's someone else out there that isn't replying but might have been touched by this video, what you said, or what you're going through. And I think that's powerful. I also think it's evident that this is message has uplifted and made some of you stronger today so for those of you who would like, I have converted the youtube video to an MP3 so you can download it and listen to it when you need it.

Just hold on everyone, it'll get easier. We're not in this alone. (hug)

I didn't start worrying about this until yesterday.
For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been having a weird pain in the uterus area. I'm on Alesse 28. I had sex with my boyfriend from September 29 - Oct 5th while on the pill. On Saturday the 3rd, I took my pill about 4 or 5 hours late, but took it as soon as I remembered. That was my only mistake. On the 3rd, we had sex early morning, before I was due to take my pill at 11:30 (when I usually take it) and didn't have sex until Sunday morning, the 4th, when I took my pill right on time.
Also, I was stacking the pack that month because I wanted to skip my period when he was here. It worked successfully and I didn't get a period.
Right now, I'm on day 20 of my pack - starting my placebo week tomorrow.
I'm just a little worried that I could be pregannt. I didn't even remember the one little mistake of taking the pill 4 or 5 hours late until I started worrying about this pain and now I'm curious. It's not really terrible pain...just kind of twingey, I guess? Anyway, let me know if I should actually be concerned. I'm a university student and don't want to waste any money on a test (we don't have dollartree in Canada!) if I don't need to worry. Let me know your opinions. Thanks!

I'm posting this for a friend who doesn't have livejournal. Also, I couldn't figure out how to make an anonymous post here either. :/

Anyway, my friend had oral sex with someone who may have genital herpes...and didn't find out about it til after the fact. According to what we've read, you can get it through oral whether giving or receiving(both occurred). The person who may have genital herpes had no signs of an outbreak, but it can be given to another person regardless if theres an outbreak at the time of contact?

Its about a week and a half since the oral sex occurred. My friend has a tender sore spot on her vagina...slightly raised as though a few bumps are trying to form. The area hurts only when pressure is applied...and the pain isn't severe. As far as I've heard/read, they only way for health care professionals to test for genital herpes is to take a sample of the the lesions?...Is there a blood test? Heard there is, but its not very reliable?...or hard to determine from a blood test? This is all just based off of what I've read, so if my facts are wrong...please correct me.

So the big question is, does my friend wait til its more clear that there is a lesion, or should they go get tested asap?!

I remember the murder of Marwa El Sherbini being posted about here before.

I thought some people might be interested to learn that her killer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison without possibility of parole, which is the maximum possible penalty for murder in Germany.

Refusing to Wait: Anarchism and Intersectionality

"Without justice there can be no love."--bell hooks

by Deric Shannon (WSA/NEFAC) and J. Rogue (WSA/Common Action)


Anarchism can learn a lot from the feminist movement. In many respects it already has. Anarcha-feminists have developed analyses of patriarchy that link it to the state form. We have learned from the slogan that "the personal is political" (e.g. men who espouse equality between all genders should treat the women in their lives with dignity and respect). We have learned that no revolutionary project can be complete while men systematically dominate and exploit women; that socialism is a rather empty goal--even if it is "stateless"--if men's domination of women is left in tact.

This essay argues that anarchists can likewise learn from the theory of "intersectionality" that emerged from the feminist movement. Indeed, anarchist conceptions of class struggle have widened as a result of the rise of feminist movements, civil rights movements, gay and lesbian liberation movements (and, perhaps more contemporarily, the queer movements), disability rights movements, etc. But how do we position ourselves regarding those struggles? What is their relationship to the class struggle that undergirds the fight for socialism? Do we dismiss them as "mere identity politics" that obscure rather than clarify the historic task of the working class? If not, how might anarchists include their concerns in our political theory and work?

Why Intersectionality? How We Got here

Many people locate the beginning of the feminist movement in the U.S. with the struggle of women to gain the vote. This focus on electoralism was criticized for its narrowness by many turn-of-the-century radical women. After all, what did the vote provide for working class women? How could voting for a new set of rulers put food in their mouths and the mouths of their families? In fact, many radical women of this time period refused to identify as “feminists”, as they viewed feminism as a bourgeois women's movement unconcerned with the class struggle (for an interesting discussion of this in the context of early 1900s Spanish anarcho-syndicalism, see Ackelsberg 2005: 118-119 and 123-124). Indeed, many working class women saw their "feminist" contemporaries as being in alliance "with all the forces that have been the most determined enemies of the working people, of the poor and disinherited"--that is, they saw the early feminist movement as a purely bourgeois women's movement that had no solutions to the pervasive poverty and exploitation inherent in the working class experience in a classed society (Parker 2001: 125).

Anarchists of this time period, on the other hand, at times anticipated some of the arguments to come out of the feminist movement regarding intersectionality. We argued against the class reductionism that often occurred within the broader socialist milieu. Early anarchists were writing about issues such as prostitution and sex trafficking (Goldman 2001), forced sterilizations (Kropotkin 2001), and marriage (de Cleyre 2004 and 2001) to widen the anarchist critique of hierarchy to give critical concern to women's issues in their own right, while also articulating a socialist vision of a future cooperative and classless society. Much of this early work demonstrated connections between the oppression of women and the exploitation of the working class. The refusal of many working class women to join their “feminist” contemporaries likewise demonstrated some of the problems of a universalized identity-based feminism that saw women’s oppression as a hierarchy that can be fought without also fighting capitalism.

This is not to suggest that anarchists weren’t at times reductionist. Unfortunately, many anarchist men were dismissive of women’s concerns. Part of the reason that the Mujeres Libres saw a need for a separate women’s organization around the time of the Spanish Civil War was because "many anarchists treated the issue of women's subordination as, at best, secondary to the emancipation of workers, a problem that would be resolved 'on the morrow of the revolution'" (Ackelsberg 2005: 38). Unfortunately, in some contexts, this attitude isn't just a historical oddity, though it should be. And it was these kinds of assumptions that became an important theoretical backdrop for feminism's "Second Wave".

Competing Visions in the "Second Wave"

During the late 60s through the early 80s, new forms of feminism began to emerge. Many feminists seemed to gravitate to four competing theories with very different explanations for the oppression of women.

Like their historical bourgeois predecessors,liberal feminists saw no need for a revolutionary break with existing society. Rather, their focus was on breaking the "glass ceiling", getting more women into positions of political and economic power. Liberal feminists assumed that the existing institutional arrangements were fundamentally unproblematic. Their task was to see to women's equality accommodated under capitalism.

Another theory, sometimes referred to as radical feminism, argued for abandoning the "male Left", as it was seen as hopelessly reductionist. Indeed, many women coming out of the Civil Rights movement and anti-war movements complained of pervasive sexism within the movements, being relegated to secretarial tasks, philandering male leaders, and a generalized alienation from Left politics. According to many radical feminists of the time, this was due to the primacy of the system of patriarchy--or men's systematic and institutionalized domination of women. To these feminists, the battle against patriarchy was the primary struggle to create a free society, as gender was our most entrenched and oldest hierarchy (see especially Firestone 1970).

Marxist feminists, on the other hand, tended to locate women's oppression within the economic sphere. The fight against capitalism was seen as the "primary" battle, as "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles"--that is, human history could be reduced to class (Marx and Engels 1967). Further, Marxist feminists tended to believe that the economic "base" of society had a determining effect on its cultural "superstructures". Thus, the only way to achieve equality between women and men would be to smash capitalism--as new, egalitarian economic arrangements would give rise to new, egalitarian superstructures. Such was the determining nature of the economic base.

Out of the conversations between Marxist feminism and radical feminism another approach emerged called "dual systems theory" (see e.g. Hartmann 1981; Young 1981). A product of what came to be dubbed socialist feminism, dual systems theory argued that feminists needed to develop "a theoretical account which gives as much weight to the system of patriarchy as to the system of capitalism" (Young 1981: 44). While this approach did much to resolve some of the arguments about which fight should be "primary" (i.e. the struggle against capitalism or the struggle against patriarchy), it still left much to be desired. For example, black feminists argued that this perspective left out a structural analysis of race (Joseph 1981). Further, where was oppression based on sexuality, ability, age, etc. in this analysis? Were all of these things reducible to capitalist patriarchy?

It is within this theoretical backdrop that intersectionality emerged. But it wasn't just abstraction and theory that led to these insights. As mentioned before, part of the reason feminists saw a need for a separate analysis of patriarchy as a systemic form of oppression was due to their experiences with the broader Left. Without an analysis of patriarchy that put it on equal footing with capitalism as an organizing system in our lives, there was no adequate response to male leaders who suggested that we deal with women's oppression after we deal with the "primary" or "more important" class struggle.

But these tensions were not limited to the Left, they also existed within the feminist movement. Perhaps one of the best examples of this on the ground was in the pro-choice movement in the United States. Before Roe vs. Wade in 1973, abortion law was considered an issue to be dealt with on a state-by-state basis. Feminists mobilized around Roe Vs. Wade to see that legal abortion would be guaranteed throughout the country. The ruling eventually did give legal guarantees to abortion through the second trimester, but the "choice" and "legalization" rhetoric left too much unaddressed for many feminists.

And this experience set the stage for re-thinking the idea of a universalized, monolithic experience of "womanhood" as it is often expressed in traditional identity politics. Black feminists and womanists, for example, argued that focusing solely on legalized abortion obscured the ways that black women in the United States underwent forced sterilizations and were often denied the right to have children (see Roberts 1997). Further, working class women argued that legalized "choice" is pretty meaningless without socialism, as having abortion legal, but unaffordable, didn't exactly constitute a "choice". True reproductive freedom meant something more than just legal abortion for working class women. Many wanted to have kids but simply couldn't afford raising them; some wanted a change in the cultural norms and mores of a society that judged the decisions women made about their bodies; others wanted proximity to clinics for reproductive health--in short, a "reproductive freedom" framework would take into account the interests of all women, not just be structured around white, heterosexual, middle-class women's concerns (the seeming default position of the "pro-choice" movement).

Intersections

These experiences within the feminist movement and the broader Left raised many questions for feminists. How do we create a movement that isn't focused around the interests of its most privileged elements? How do we retain our commitment to socialism without being subsumed into a politic that sees women's issues as "secondary"? What might political organization look like based on a common commitment to ending domination rather than an assumed common experience based on some single identity? These questions began to be answered largely by feminists of color, queers, and sex radicals with the theory of intersectionality--a theory that was critical of traditional class and identity politics (see especially e.g. hooks 2000; Collins 2000).

Intersectionality posits that our social locations in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation of origin, ability, age, etc. are not easily parsed out one from the other. To speak of a universal experience as a "woman", for example, is problematic because "womanhood" is experienced quite differently based on race, class, sexuality-- any number of factors. As such, a non-reflective feminist movement centered ostensibly on the concerns of "women" tended to reflect the interests of the most privileged members of that social category.

As well, our various social locations and the hierarchies they inform intersect in complex ways and are not easily separable. People don't exist as "women", "men", "white", "working class", etc. in a vacuum devoid of other patterned social relationships. Further, these systems of exploitation and oppression function in unique ways. To name two rather obvious examples, class is a social relationship based on the exploitation of one's labor. As socialists, we seek the abolition of classes, not the end of class elitism under capitalism. This makes class unique. Similarly, the idea of "sexual orientation" developed in the 1800s with the invention of "the homosexual" as a species of a person. This effectively created an identity out of preferred gender choices in sexual partners, more or less ignoring the myriad other ways that people organize their sexuality (i.e. number of partners, preferred sexual acts, etc.). It also effectively limited sexual identity to three categories: hetero, homo, and bi--as if there could not be a large range of attractions and variety within humanity. Part of liberation based on sexuality is troubling these categories to provide a viable sexual/social existence for everyone. This makes sexuality, likewise, unique.

These structured inequalities and hierarchies inform and support one another. For example, the labor of women in child-bearing and rearing provides new bodies for the larger social factory to allow capitalism to continue. White supremacy and racism allow capitalists control over a segment of the labor market that can serve as stocks of cheap labor. Compulsory heterosexuality allows the policing of the patriarchal family form, strengthening patriarchy and male dominance. And all structured forms of inequality add to the nihilistic belief that institutionalized hierarchy is inevitable and that liberatory movements are based on utopian dreams.

Proponents of intersectionality, then, argue that all struggles against domination are necessary components for the creation of a liberatory society. It is unnecessary to create a totem pole of importance out of social struggles and suggest that some are "primary" while others are "secondary" or "peripheral" because of the complete ways that they intersect and inform one another. Further, history has shown us that this method of ranking oppressions is divisive and unnecessary--and worse, it undermines solidarity. As well, when organizing and developing political practice, we can self-reflexively move the margins to the center of our analyses to avoid the biases of privilege that has historically led to so many divisions in feminism and the Left.

A good contemporary example of intersectionality in the context of social movement practice is Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. Incite! “is a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and our communities through direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing” (Incite! 2009). One reason Incite! stands out against other anti-violence organizations is their systemic analysis. They see women of color who have experienced violence as living in the “dangerous intersections” of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and other oppressive structures and institutions. Rather than simply reducing the experiences to the individual, they recognize the systems that oppress and exploit people and have structured their approach in such a way that calls for the “recentering” of marginalized folks, as opposed to a method of "inclusiveness" based on one single identity or social location. Incite! argues that “inclusiveness” simply adds a multicultural component to individualistic white-dominated organizing so common in the United States. Instead, they call for recentering the framework around the most marginalized peoples. This push is to ensure that their organizing addresses the needs of those historically overlooked by feminism, with the understanding that all people benefit from the liberation of their more marginalized peers--while focusing on the more privileged elements within a given social category leaves others behind (as in the examples we gave in the struggle for the vote and the legalization of abortion). Incite! makes a point to focus on the needs of the working class who have generally been neglected (i.e. sex workers, the incarcerated, trans folks and injection drug users). By centering these people in their organizing, they are focusing on the people standing at more dangerous intersections of oppression and exploitation, therefore tackling the entirety of the system and not just the more visible or advantaged aspects. Additionally, Incite! views the state as a major perpetrator of violence against women of color and seeks to build grassroots organizations independent of and against it. Anarchists could learn a lot from Incite! about the importance of addressing the needs of ALL sections of the working class and their attempt to check the tendency of the Left to ignore or dismiss the concerns, needs, ideas and leadership of people living in the dangerous intersections of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, etc.

And What Can Anarchism Provide the Theory of Intersectionality?

We firmly believe that this learning process is a two-way street. That is, when synthesizing our practice to include these concerns raised by feminists, feminism could stand to benefit from learning from anarchism as well. We see the contributions of anarchists to intersectionality in two major areas. First, anarchism can provide a radical base from which to critique liberal interpretations of intersectionality. Secondly, anarchists can offer a critical analysis of the state.

Too often people using an intersectional analysis ignore the uniqueness of various systems of domination. One way this is done is by articulating a general opposition to classism. While we believe that class elitism exists, often this opposition to "classism" does not recognize the unique qualities of capitalism and can lead to a position that essentially argues for an end to class elitism under capitalism. As anarchists, we do not just oppose class elitism, we oppose class society itself. We do not want the ruling class to treat us nicer under a system based on inequality and exploitation (i.e. capitalism). We want to smash capitalism to pieces and build a new society in which classes no longer exist--that is, we fight for socialism. Anarchists, as part of the socialist movement, are well-placed to critique this liberal interpretation of intersectionality (see especially Schmidt and van der Walt 2009).

Likewise, as anarchists, we are well-placed to put forward our critiques of the state. The state, in addition to being a set of specific institutions (such as the courts, police, political bodies like senates, presidents, etc.), is a social relationship. And the state has an influence over our lives in myriad ways. For example, former prisoners are often unemployable, particularly if they have committed felonies. One only needs to take a cursory glance at the racial and class make-up of US prisons to see how intersectionality can be put to use here. Former prisoners, workers who are targeted for striking or engaging in direct actions and/or civil disobedience, etc. all have specific needs as subjects in a society that assumes political rulers and passive, ruled subjects. And the state tends to target specific sets of workers based on their existence within the dangerous intersections we mentioned above. Anarchists can offer to the theory of intersectionality an analysis of the ways that the state has come to rule our lives just as much as any other institutionalized system of domination. And we can, of course, argue for smashing such a social arrangement and replacing it with non-hierarchical social forms.

Refusing to Wait

In many ways, anarchists have historically anticipated some of the ideas in intersectionality. Further, anarchism as a political philosophy--and as a movement against all forms of structured domination, coercion, and control--seems well-suited for an intersectional practice. Unfortunately, we still have debilitating arguments about what hierarchy is "primary" and should be prioritized above others. Like in times past, this leads to easy division and a lack of solidarity (imagine being told to give up some struggle that directly involves YOU for the "correct" or "primary" fight!). Further, the smashing of any structured hierarchy can have a destabilizing effect on the rest, as the simple existence of any of these social divisions serves to naturalize the existence of all other hierarchies.

We've tried here to explain the rise of the theory of intersectionality within feminism and describe its contours. Perhaps more importantly, we've attempted to relate it throughout this piece to political practice and social movement struggles so as to avoid complete abstraction and theorization apart from practice. We hope that more anarchists become acquainted with intersectionality and put it to positive use in our political work. Finally, it is our hope that more people from marginalized groups refuse to wait, that we recognize the value of all fights against injustice and hierarchy in the here and now--and that we build a reflexive practice based on solidarity and mutual aid instead of divisive prescriptions about what struggles are "primary" and which ones, by extension, are "secondary" or "peripheral". Rather, they are all linked and we have good reason to refuse to wait until after "the revolution" to address them!


Bibliography

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Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.

de Cleyre, Voltairine. 2001. "They Who Marry do Ill". Pp. 103-113 in Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

_____. 2004. "Sex Slavery". Pp. 93-103 in The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader, edited by A.J. Brigati. Oakland: AK Press.

Firestone, Shulamith. 1970. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: Morrow.

Goldman, Emma. 2001. "The White Slave Traffic". Pp. 113-120 in Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

Hartmann, Heidi. 1981. "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union." in Women and Revolution, by Lydia Sargent (ed.). Boston, MA: South End Press.

hooks, bell. 2000. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Incite!. 2009. http://www.incite-national.org/. Last accessed, October 2009.

Joseph, Gloria. 1981. "The Incompatible Menage à Trois: Marxism, Feminism, and Racism." in Women and Revolution, by Lydia Sargent (ed.). Boston, MA: South End Press.

Kropotkin, Peter. 2001. "The Sterilization of the Unfit". Pp. 120-123 in Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1967. The Communist Manifesto. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Parker, Robert Allerton. 2001. "Feminism in America". Pp. 124-126 in Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, edited by Peter Glassgold. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.

Roberts, Dorothy. 1997. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Vintage.

Schmidt, M. & van der Walt, L. 2009. Black Flame: The revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism. Oakland: AK Press.

Young, Iris. 1981. "Beyond the Unhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual Systems Theory." in Women and Revolution, by Lydia Sargent (ed.). Boston, MA: South End Press.

From http://anarkismo.net/article/14923

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