A Time to Look Back...

This blog only began a few months ago, and I am so amazed to how far it has come. Sandra, Ashley and I began this blog with the single intention that we wanted to create a space for Chaldean women to discuss issues that were relevant to them. We also began this blog as it was a peice of our Voice Project for our final Women's Studies Seminar class.
Before this blog began, I really felt that I was able to start something new online that can enhance the community around me, and my online community. I feel that because of the issues that we have explored, that we have finally been able to fufill what needed to be done to create an active force of feminism that crosses different spaces, and different times. I can only look at the statistics for this blog to see that in such a short spam of time, we were able to gain so many more readers.
I think that with this blog, we have created something that is so expendable, that can grow into new shapes and forms more differently than before. I feel that because we have expanded this community so much, that there are even more opportunities to share our feminist voices with others.
With this blog, I feel that my feminist voice has taken a new level, where I have learned to develop and apperciate the enxtent of the topics that have been discussed. I truly believe that the development of this blog will continue to thrive and create new areas for feminist activism.

What Was Your "Click" Moment?

After attempting to figure out how to follow different feminist groups on Twitter, I stumbled upon this website (Bitch) and thought that we should also do the same on our blog!

I would have to say that my "click" moment was when I completed a social justice project in my final year of high school. By researching the different ways in which women's rights were progressing in different countries made me think about my own limitations as a young woman living in North America. As I read different academic literature in Women's Studies, I began to see that my oppression lies even deeper than what I thought I saw on the surface. I was racially and ethnically oppressed because my own views were not being acknowledged in the literature I read, and the ways that I could talk about my own oppression were limited. At that moment, I fully realized that my feminism could grow and change in a way that could not only be empowering to me, but to other women who may share similar experiences as me. So how did I go about this? With the help of my friends, I created a blog that could hopefully work through the issues that I found to be so important to me. By creating this online space, I finally realized that there is the full potential to create a new space that seeks to understand the different conceptual forms of my own feminism, and the feminism of others.

So, we would love to hear what your own "click" moment was!

The Suits vs. the Sluts

I came across this article called, “The Queer/Gay Assimilationist Split: The Suits vs. the Sluts” and it got me thinking about gay and lesbians and how society views them. The most crucial point of the reading is that the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) movement is now split into two halves; the queer activists and the gay assimilationists. The split was due to the interests of each subgroup within the movement. For example, The Gay Liberation Front (GLF), namely gay liberationists, aimed towards tackling an “oppressive social structure” (Shepard, 2001). The Gay Activists Alliance’s (gay assimilationists) focus was more political and aimed for legislative reform, and social acceptance (Shepard, 2001). This divide has created a ‘right wing/left wing’ political spectrum within the movement, and has contextualized identity politics. The queer activists force themselves away from mainstream society and do not care about societal acceptance, whereas the assimilationists are trying to incorporate the gay movement into social acceptance, instead of tackling societal inequalities. The gay movement in general is seeking rights and freedoms regular citizens enjoy, however the approach to gain these rights has been split into tackling society, and tackling the government.

The author quotes in the conclusion that “class division within the gay movement” (Shepard, 2001). It is ironic to think a social movement that fights for equality and aims toward social change can experience similar turmoil within itself. Identity plays an evident role within the movement and in social issues overall, however it seems impractical to allow an identity crisis and division in status among a population, fighting for the same rights. I found the alliance of labour and queer activists very refreshing and a clever tactic to pursue the gay movement’s interests. Labour and money are an ongoing issue within society, therefore having the gay movement enter into that realm; it will gain great support and attention for their cause. The queer/gay assimilationist split is an unfortunate development within the gay movement; however it has also created opportunities to allow gay activists to coincide with other social movements. Therefore it raises social activism for two separate causes simultaneously, and creates a support system for both movements.

Although homosexuality is decriminalized in Iraq, it is still frowned upon by the majority of the people who reside there. It is evident that many gay men choose to be queer activists and not gay assimilates because there is still an increasing fear that they will not be accepted by the rest of society. Therefore, for now, merging into their own queer communities is ideally safer. In conclusion, I find interesting that Chaldean and Middle Eastern cultures choose to negatively criticize homosexuality while ignoring important issues such as rape and honor killings. It is clear that in Iraq, homosexuality is negatively viewed because it is looked as destroying patriarchy and what men symbolize-power, masculinity and strength. When this is destroyed, then it will appear as though society is being harmed.