Battling Feminist Burnout

[WilliamPitt]

Battling Feminist Burnout
By Jessica Valenti
The Nation

March 1, 2013

Feminists got two great pieces of news on the violence against women front this week. First, the Violence Against Women Act was passed—and not the watered-down Republican one either! This version of VAWA contained protections for the LGBT community and allows Native American courts to prosecute non-Native perpetrators on tribal land.

Then we learned that Girls Gone Wild—the exploitative porn empire that targets young intoxicated women—filed for bankruptcy. As I said on Twitter, I’m pretty sure a feminist angel got her wings as proprietor Joe Francis signed on the dotted line.

But in the same week we got this great news, a rape survivor at the University of North Carolina was threatened with expulsion for “intimidating” her rapist by becoming an anti-rape activist, there was another attack on Planned Parenthood, a Kansas bill moved forward that would allow doctors to lie to pregnant women in an effort to prevent them for getting abortions and a 9 year old girl of color—a child—was called a “c*nt.” One step forward, twenty steps back.

It reminds me of a question I get asked a lot when I speak to younger feminists: How do you continue to do this work when it’s just so depressing?

The rest: http://www.thenation.com/blog/173150/battling-feminist-burnout

[Capt. Obvious]

1. Girls Gone Wild will still function

the filing was to avoid paying court judgements (at least that's what TPM said).

[Tempest]

4. Their assets will have to be sold to pay for the court judgements

The bankruptcy filing makes it an orderly affair and not a free for all.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

2. The VAWA was a major win for every decent person.

Girls Gone Wild was a loss for siphoning funds from men too stupid to do a Google search for "boobs."

[redqueen]

3. So much good stuff in this.

On top of dealing with the sheer awfulness of the way misogyny operates in the world, those of us who do feminist work—from writers and nonprofit workers to everyday activists—have to deal with the people around us insisting that we’re imagining the whole thing! ...

...

I want to be able to tell younger feminists that it gets better, that you don’t mind the emotional exhaustion, the anger and the sadness that can come from doing this work. But I can’t....

[ismnotwasm]

8. It gets worse actually

The closer you get to sources of sexism, the more the fight threatens entitlement, out comes the threats, the pseudo-science, the hate. Truth to tell, as bad as DU gets, at least it's a modulated website, with certain standards, even if those standards get violated. Some of the reactions young feminists bloggers and activists get are of the 'you need to be raped' variety. I read their blogs and admire their courage.

[redqueen]

5. kick

[Hekate]

6. Kick and Rec, Will

The long haul work takes it toll, without a doubt. I have nothing but admiration for my sisters on the front lines, the ones who are my age (65) and much older who continue to work with vigor and determination for all the social justice issues.

We need the young ones to come forward, to understand that the work is far from done. All you have to do is look at the current SCOTUS actually deliberating whether the Voting Rights Act has outlived its usefulness, or the current House refusing to pass VAWA until just the other day, or state by state eliminating access to birth control and abortion....

[ismnotwasm]

7. Thank you

K&R

[MadrasT]

9. Thanks Will

[demosocialist]

10. K&R nt

[myrna minx]

11. Thank you. K&R

[CrispyQ]

12. Great article. Thanks for posting.

I am tired of being called a shrieking harridan for pointing out inequalities so tangible and blatant that they are regularly codified into law. I am tired of being told to provide documentation of inequality in the comments sections of a website where a staff of smart women documents inequality as fast as our fingers can move. Like, you might as well write me a note on a banana peel demanding that I prove to you that bananas exist. I am tired of being asked to “cite sources” proving that sexism is real (that RAPE is real, even!), because there is no way to concisely cite decades and decades of rigorous academia.

The Staceyann Chin video that's is linked to in this article is great! I had to listen twice to catch it all, as she speaks kind of fast, but worth it!