Anarchafeminism, Brighton, 30 January 2010

On Saturday, 30th January I arrived in Brighton for a day of anarchafeminism – "a completely free day of super feminism for all ages and genders, with workshops, discussions, skill shares, food, distros, creche, films…". I was very excited.

There was a brilliant programme and I found it really difficult to choose what not to go to!

Self-defence for women, assertiveness and confidence

I really wanted to go to Challenging privilege, but I didn't. I opted for Introduction to self-defence because I've never done it. The more I read and talk about violence against women, the more I've been wanting to know self-defence. Last time I looked at courses they were really expensive, so I wasn't going to pass up the chance to do it for free!

It was amazing for me to be in a (self-identified) women only self-defence class; I found the experience really empowering. Not all of my self-consciousness left me – especially as we could be observed by those in the rest of the venue – but some of it did! I could see how I could use the actions I'd learnt to give me enough time to get away from violent situations. In 26 years I hadn't been in a fight of any kind and it's been very rare in general for me to push myself to the limits of my physical ability, so this really required unlearning some of the habits and expectations I have.

I still feel a lot of fear in some situations, for example when I'm out late, but it's less than I used to feel. I'm better equipped to get away now, so I have found myself walking taller and taking up more space. Really positive.

What I learnt about defending myself

The main things I took away are quite difficult to articulate in words, especially written words, but one thing I learnt is about how to be more assertive when challenging behaviour I dislike:

1. Name behaviour
2. Articulate how to makes me feel
3. State what I want them do

e.g. "You're invading my personal space. I feel claustrophobic. Stand over there." Being as clear, specific and explicit as possible. I find it pretty hard to do; I need to practise.

Lots of confidence.

Strength.

Next steps…

Keep looking for free / cheap self-defence classes – especially when they're oriented towards self-identified women.

So far, so great!

Introduction: What is anarchafeminism?

I considered going to Feminist childrearing, as childcare is a really important feminist issue – even for childfree women, like myself. However, I'm pretty new to anarchafeminism, so I thought I'd better sit in on the intro and hear what people had to say at What is anarchafeminism? It was pretty basic and there weren't any surprises; I hadn't accidentally wandered into the wrong conference…! We had some really interesting discissions about what we could do to be better anarcha-feminists.

What I learnt about being a better anarcha-feminist

It's important to be open and re-invent anarchafeminism; the name is important – using it helps to highlight problems with the anarchist movement. Challenging male supremacy is automatically challenging violence, aggression, war… therefore it's anarchist to be feminist! (We did talk about other kinds of feminism as well; this seemed to be a common feeling though and I can relate to it). Feminism and feminist theory as a tool for understanding oppression and patriarchy as experienced differently for / by different genders cam up, as did the public being private and the private being public. There was a feeling of there being a problem with male feminists not listening to female feminists. We recognised that support networks are really important.

Next steps…

Read the recommendations: "Quiet Rumours" and "Radical Roots".

Squatting; issues and challenges, female experiences

I so badly wanted to go to Machismo, sexism and emotional support, but I know next to nothing about squatting and I relished the opportunity to be in a female space for this topic, as nearly all my knowledge about it has come from men. So, I went Practical squatting. We mainly talked about the specific issues women might have when it comes to squatting – for example, men taking over to do the difficult / interesting / risky jobs, feeling pressure to be representative of one's gender when it comes to doing things, lacking confidence etc. We talked about some female-identified-people-only squats that have existed – something I'd never considered. It wasn't a very practical workshop in the end, but it was really useful and interesting.

What I learnt about non-male squatting

Since the workshop I've asked more questions about gender in relation to squatting, which has been really interesting and useful. There's also some talk about a regular practical squatting workshop starting up (for female-identified people).

Next steps…

Get to some of the regular (non-gender-specific) squatting workshops that take place.

Men and feminism

I was interested in Herstory of squatted spaces – especially as I know so little about squatting and herstory is always of interest to me (it's a bit like alternative media). However, I went to Men and anarchafeminism. I'm really glad I did. I was so pleased to see so many men at a day about feminism. It's the first time I've seen so many men taking an active interest in feminism. I found it really encouraging and inspiring; a feeling of "phew, I don't have to do this on my own!"

We split into pairs to talk and listen to each other on ways in which we've benefited from patriarchy and ways in which we've been oppressed by patriarchy; we could then feedback to the group if we wished. Some people were really open and vulnerable about their experiences. It was really good to hear people being brave in this way – there was a lot of sharing from male-shaped people, which was refreshing and an unusual experience for me in such a big group. On the other hand, at times it was a bit difficult to listen lots of people saying "these are all the ways in which the status quo makes my life better than yours".

Discussion evolved to people talking about our experiences of the world leaving more physical space for men than for women, for example, when I'm on public transport and a male-bodied person sits very close to me or otherwise invades my personal space. One person talked about the contrast between his experiences when he was living as a female and his experiences now. A masculine-looking female-identified person talked about their experiences when they're looking more butch compared with looking less butch. One male-identified person asked for responses to how they and other male-identified and/or male-bodied people might "offset their carbon footprint of taking up space". Some asked how they could do things to reduce the likelihood that women would find them threatening and some shared things they do, for example, one male-bodied person said that when they found themselves walking behind female-bodied people, they slow down and cross to the other side of the road. Others mentioned other ways of giving female-bodied people physical space. (NB: Often people talked about "giving women space", but it's more accurate to say female-bodied people – anything more than that is an assumption if one hasn't been told by them).

What I learnt about men being feminists / pro-feminists

It was a really amazing workshop. I've learnt a lot about how to run workshops to facilitate more intimate sharing; some of the things I noticed: Starting off with some general blurb, emulating warmth and acceptance, splitting the group into pairs for each person to take it in turns to answer specific questions before inviting sharing with everyone and sharing something personal yourself, being assertive if/when people talk too much etc.

Lots of relief that there are men – and quite a few of them – out there who care about feminism and who are actively challenging sexism in themselves and others.

Hope.

Next steps…

Join an all-genders-welcome feminist group.

Going forward

What's next? Organisational discussion was a chance to hear summaries of people's experiences of all the workshops

What I learnt about self-organising

Somehow, from somewhere, I'd become confident about speaking in front of lots of strangers. I gave the first workshop summary and generally contributed enough that I felt like I had to make an effort not to slide into dominating the discussion. Amazing!

Quite a few events and groups going on; lots to do.

I even promoted the London Free School weekender, which happened from Friday, 5th March to Sunday 7th March (write-up to follow), and hung around to chat with people about it. Bounce!

Next steps…

Keep hanging out with anarchists.

Keep hanging out with feminists.

Celebrate when I find the two overlap.

Oh, and get to Brighton more often!

In brief: What was on (programme)

11:00 – 13:00
Challenging privilege – not suitable for kids
Introduction to self-defence – women/female-identified only

13:00 – 14:00
Lunch

14:00 – 15:00
Feminist childrearing – open to all, not just parents, kids welcome
What is anarchafeminism? – kids welcome

15:00 – 16:00
Machismo, sexism and emotional support
Practical squatting – women/female-identified only, kids over 11 years welcome

16:00 – 17:00
Men and anarchafeminism – aimed at men/male-identified people, but everyone welcome
Herstory of squatted spaces

17:00 – 18:00
Latitude safe space organising – open to all

17:30 – 19:00
What's next? Organisational discussion – open to all

Kids' space

11:00 – 11:30
Zine-making (kids's space)

14:00 – 14:30
Anarcha-feminist storytelling

All day
Face-painting, games, play-doh, drawing, crafts…

Craft space
All day
Stenciling, subvertising, knitting, sewing…

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