by Furry Girl
09.01.10
"The membership restrictions of [The Foundation for Personality Expression], and the form and the content of its meetings, demonstrate a familiar pattern in minority identity politics in US history- it is often the most privileged elements of a population affected by a particular civil injustice or social oppression who have the opportunity to organize first. In organizing around the one thing that interferes with or complicates their privilege, their organizations tend to reproduce that very privilege."
-- Susan Stryker, in her book, Transgender History.
I thought it was interesting to see a historian observe this about the trans rights movement - since similar criticism has also been pointed at white middle class sex workers.
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Well stated.
Comment by sexgenderbody — September 1, 2010 @ 11:28 pm
It's so true!
Comment by Dexter — September 5, 2010 @ 9:03 pm
It's *inevitable*, and it's because privilege = power and free time = ability to organize and effect change.
Furthermore, the most pervasive form of privilege is in fact wealth, which confers power and free time far more than any other form.
Even the organizations for *poor people's* activism end up often being organized by wealthier people, because *they have the free time and the money*.
This is frankly inevitable. The best one can do is recognize it and work to avoid the biases and blinkered behavior which it can lead to. Well, and work on economic justice, which will make this less of an issue.
(It's not a coincidence that the very first major progress for women's rights involved the *right to control their own earnings*, the "Married Women's Property Acts" of the mid and late 1800s.)
Comment by Nathanael — September 8, 2010 @ 1:00 am
Nathanael: Yup.
Comment by Furry Girl — September 8, 2010 @ 1:49 am
Comment by Trackbacks — February 13, 2012 @ 1:16 pm