[sudo-discuss] Seattle's Feminist / Trans-positive Hackerspace
GtwoG PublicOhOne
g2g-public01 at att.net
Wed May 15 14:49:18 PDT 2013
YOs-
There are subtle shades of meaning in play here, and they aren't all the
same for everyone who uses the same language. The following is my
personal take on it only:
Feminism is a wide range of philosophy and ideology that asserts the
absolute equality of rights and self-determination between genders,
including in situations where each gender's circumstances may differ
(the obvious one being that women can get pregnant, therefore certain
implications for reproductive rights, such as the right to safe, legal,
and affordable abortion).
One of the implications that has arisen from the intersection of
feminism and gay/trans rights, is the right of each person to choose the
elements of their own gender identity for themselves, and retain full
equality of rights and self-determination.
The word "inclusive" when attached to a specific noun or adjective, as
in "X-inclusive," means that a given organization is making the
statement that it is friendly to the needs, wants, and concerns of the
individuals in question.
Examples of ways this is implemented for gay/trans/gender issues include
the provision of private non-gendered bathrooms, equal membership
considerations for persons in any relationship status (e.g. no
"married/couple discounts" for membership charges), and membership rules
that treat gay/trans/gender issues in the same manner as
racial/ethnic/religious issues (e.g. homophobic language treated in the
same manner as racist language).
The word "centered" when attached to a specific noun or adjective, as in
"X-centered" or "Y-centric," means that an organization is making the
statement that it exists primarily to serve the needs, wants, and
concerns, of the individuals identified by the X- or Y-, but that others
are welcome to attend.
The example that comes to mind for "-centered/-centric" has to do with
language: an organization might say that it is "-centric" to a specific
language-related cultural group, and use that language as its primary
language for its published output, mailing lists, and spoken
communication at meetings. Persons who don't speak that language are
welcome to attend, and some efforts may optionally be made to provide
materials in their languages, but the primary purpose of the group is to
serve the constituency that speaks the identified language of the group.
Though, there is a risk that "centered/centric" can be used to establish
cultural hierarchies: if X is at the "center", then Y and Z are at the
periphery. For example the phrase "family-centered" has been used to
effectively imply "gay folks need not apply."
Often these kinds of language are used to signal to various communities
of interest, and attract membership from those communities.
And lest we forget, living in the Bay Area where certain kinds of
discriminatory attitudes are uniformly unacceptable, the various forms
of discrimination, meanness-in-action, and overt violence up to and
including torture and murder, really are still with us today:
The US Secret Service reports that threats against the president
increased 400% for Obama compared to earlier presidents: it's clear that
much of this is overt racism. Worse, it has coincided with a shift in
the media whereby the use of racist language that even 30 years ago
would be universally condemned, is now promoted as "free speech."
(Compare the incident that got sportscaster Howard Cosell fired, with
the kind of hate-spew that gets Rush Limbaugh a multi-million-dollar
contract.)
Nazi movements that include overt statements of policy against Jews and
immigrants are on the rise in Europe, with Greece and Hungary being two
examples frequently in the news. Nazi hate groups exist in the US and
are a real terrorist threat (as in hate-crimes) to those they target for
their spew. The KKK has lately re-appeared in certain states: America's
original domestic terrorist group.
A number of states in the US still have state constitutional amendments
against marriage equality, even as the tide has begun to turn toward
equality (Minnesota and Maryland most recently enacting equal marriage
laws). (Credit to President Obama here: his way of handling this issue,
starting with equality in the military, has made all the difference.)
A number of states have passed draconian laws against abortion, and many
other states use regulatory red-tape to effectively limit access to
abortion as far as possible. In many parts of the US it is effectively
impossible for poor women and abused teens to terminate a pregnancy,
even if it occurred through rape.
Undocumented immigrants, AND immigrants on certain types of work visas
in the US, are still used as a form of un-free labor, discriminated
against in the law in numerous ways from family-shredding deportation to
effective indenture to their employers, and providing the excuse for
exploitative employers to refuse to raise wage rates to true market
levels.
A number of states' public education systems are still dominated by the
extreme religious right, including teaching creationism in the public
schools, watering-down all science curricula that differ with their
particular religious dogma, and banning any discussion of homosexuality
such as to effectively isolate gay youth. (The suicide rate for gay
youth is 300% of that for heterosexual youth: the no-talk policies
contribute to this in a provably causal manner.)
And in a number of countries including Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan,
women are effectively PROPERTY, having zero to minimal rights as
individual persons, and being subject to the absolute will of their male
family members. Keyword search "child brides" and "honor killings" for
examples. IMHO this is a human rights atrocity comparable to slavery,
that demands the strongest possible international sanctions.
So when a group in the US or elsewhere uses language that they're
feminist, inclusive, and whatever-centric, this is more than a
philosophical statement: it reflects the reality that in the "world of
tomorrow" that is the 21st century, we are still fighting cultural wars
that date back at least to the Middle Ages.
-G.
======
On 13-05-15-Wed 1:15 PM, Andrew wrote:
> I really want to know more about what makes this space more
> "feminist, woman-centered, and trans- and queer-inclusive" then any
> other space specifically.
>
> I know that most hacker spaces would love to be more inclusive in
> those ways, but most of us know first hand that just declaring
> something an inclusive or safe space doesn't make it one. I'd be
> curious to know how specifically they are going about organizing
> around the idea of gender and sexuality inclusiveness.
>
> --Andrew
>
>
> On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 11:12 AM, John Love <john at curiousjohn.com
> <mailto:john at curiousjohn.com>> wrote:
>
> As a queer hacker desiring more queer/fem/trans/POC friendly
> spaces this excites me! Thanks for sharing! :)
>
>
> On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 10:14 PM, Rabbit <rabbitface at gmail.com
> <mailto:rabbitface at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Awesome!
>
> I would love to brainstorm about how to make Sudo Room as
> welcoming as possible to queer/trans/fem/etc people.
> I'm genderqueer and if anyone has questions about how to be
> kind to genderqueer and trans people I would really love to
> have a friendly conversation about it.
>
> Relatedly, there's a women/trans/non-male group at Noisebridge
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Anarchafeminist_Hackerhive
> http://bookmaniac.org/feminist-hackerhive-meetups/
>
> Also BTW there's a free programming boot camp for trans people
> in SF:
> http://transcodesf.org/en/
>
>
> -- Rabbit
> who prefers "them/they" pronouns
>
>
> P.S. Also of course there are many kinds of inclusivity to
> strive for in addition to this
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 8:18 PM, Romy Snowyla
> <romy at snowyla.com <mailto:romy at snowyla.com>> wrote:
>
> Rad!!
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 14, 2013, at 6:12 PM, Matthew Senate
> <mattsenate at gmail.com <mailto:mattsenate at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> Sounds excellent!
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 4:52 PM, William Budington
>> <bill at inputoutput.io <mailto:bill at inputoutput.io>> wrote:
>>
>> This just came across the wire. A fem/queer/trans
>> positive hackerspace
>> just opened in Seattle called the Seattle Attic!
>> Check it out:
>> http://www.seattleattic.com/
>>
>> Perhaps we should open up some lines of west-coast
>> communication and
>> dialogue and invite them to visit our space. Sounds
>> like an awesome
>> place and somewhere I'd like to check out some day.
>>
>> Bill
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> --
> -------
> Andrew Lowe
> Cell: 831-332-2507
> http://roshambomedia.com
>
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