Sunday, May 31, 2020

Because Imperialists Rape: Anarcha-Feminism In the Ashes of the MeToo Era

The MeToo Movement died last month. It bled out slowly as it limped to the barn. It's hard to say who the triggerman was behind the coup de grace, but it wasn't Joe Biden. That derelict beast is anything but a feminist and this wound was clearly self-inflicted. My guess is the artery was severed by Nancy Pelosi during a press conference when she uttered the appalling epitaph, "Joe Biden is Joe Biden.", officially declaring the unspoken hypocrisy that certain rapists are above the law by divine right of political convenience.

Nancy is hardly the reliable feminist herself, but at that moment she appeared to be speaking for a movement that had collectively sacrificed its conscience, in some sick ritual slaughter, to the gods of partisan lesser-evilism. One by one, the majority of this grassroots movement's leadership capitulated to these gods, responding to the testimony of their fellow survivor, Tara Reade, with a shrug at best and outright character assassination at worst. Rose McGowan seemed to stand alone again in her rage and indignation, this time abandoned by her own sisters. I feel her rage. Though this is hardly the first time the movement was ambushed by white cis-gender liberals and it probably wont be the last, I have never been more ashamed to be a feminist.

My feminism is far from orthodox. How could it be? There is nothing orthodox about me. Though my birth certificate reads male, I have long known this to be a lie. I spent the first half of my childhood happily genderless as an oblivious transgender tomboy before spending the second half shell shocked by my difference when it became undeniable during the maelstrom of a very Catholic puberty. The fear of hell chased me so deep into the closet that the splinters and spider bites became infected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Agoraphobia.

I blamed myself for years for these ailments. After all, wasn't I asking for it? But feminism, Marxism and anarchism helped me to realize that I had been the victim of Catholic Patriarchy and led me to reject any authority capable of inflicting that kind of harm on the innocent. My complicated gender identity wasn't the only thing that made me something of an outlier among fellow feminists. My own quirky leftist values were informed by a strange homegrown recipe brewed by the Catholic Worker Movement, the Consistent Life Ethic and the agrarian Anabaptist anarchism of my Amish neighbors. I remain highly critical of abortion and the glass ceiling commercialism of many Second Wave Feminists. I also feel a close bond with my ostracized sisters in the sex industry and could never quite stomach the way elitists like Gloria Steinem patronized any woman who didn't fit their First World mold of the enlightened feminist.

Naturally, these idiosyncrasies have led me to view any mass movement with a heavier dose of skepticism than most, and MeToo was no exception. While I relished the Karma of victims using the democratic hammer of social media to turn the tables on the predators who have long used the corridors of power as camouflage for their recreational violence, I also worried that a nation still inflicted with the cancer of puritanism could use such a movement to justify it's continued sexual repression and I wasn't wrong. Though I have yet to see an obviously innocent man pilloried by this movement, I have observed its malign influence on workplace politics, where any form of sexual expression amongst the proles has been outlawed as taboo. I have also never been entirely comfortable with the trial by Twitter approach to any crime. This bodes the million dollar question of do I believe all women?

Well, I can tell you dearest motherfuckers, without a shadow of a doubt, that I believe Tara Reade for the same reasons I believe Juanita Broaddrick, Christine Blasey Ford, and Donald Trump's bevy of accusers. I believe women who accuse political predators of sexual predation because as an anarcha-feminist I know that hierarchies of any kind, be they religious, corporate, judicial, or governmental, are structures built on an architecture of exploitation. I believe Tara Reade for the same reason I would believe any credible woman who accused Ted Bundy of assaulting her, because anyone capable of murdering 40 women is more than capable of "lesser" acts of brutality. The same goes for anyone capable of 40,000 or 400,000 murders as the Bidens and the Clintons of this world are guilty of, with their casually cruel policies in the Middle East.

Do you really think that's a coincidence? That men capable of ordering drone strikes the way you or I order a fucking pizza might suffer from similar forms of sociopathic depravity in their private lives? Why do you think Jeffrey Epstein was so popular with Democrats and Republicans alike? Why do you think nearly every president from Kennedy to Reagan has nearly as many accusers as they do wars under their belts? Because Imperialists rape, in the Mekong Delta or the country club. They are predators by the very nature of their chosen careers, and you don't just turn that kind of entitled violence off when you head home from the office in the evening.

The MeToo Movement was built on the assumption that this kind of cross-over violence was partisan in nature. That only openly sexist conservatives were capable of such evil. They couldn't handle the stone cold reality that Democrats were just as capable for the same reason people can't seem to handle the reality that Democrats are war mongers too. Because nobody, not even aggressive iconoclasts like me, wants to believe that there are no good guys. But the truth is, that among the powerful, good guys will always be in the minority because power itself is the problem. Women and children and men too (and everything beyond and between) will continue to be viewed from on high as prey until that power is destroyed, not through an election or even an online movement, but through a motherfucking revolution, like the kind brewing in the streets of cities across this fine empire as we speak.

Enough is enough, dearest motherfuckers. Let that fire burn. For all of us living beneath a cruel master's knee. Fight the real enemy. Fight the powers at be.



Peace, Love, & Solidarity- Nicky/CH



Soundtrack; songs that influenced this post

*  Drunken Butterfly by Sonic Youth
*  Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper
*  Asking For It by Hole
*  Rock n Roll Nigger by Patti Smith
*  I Like Fucking by Bikini Kill
*  Your Dog by Soccer Mommy
*  Cornflake Girl by Tori Amos
*  Woman is the Nigger of the World by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
*  Kool Thing by Sonic Youth
*  Fight the Power by Public Enemy

2 comments:

  1. One of your best columns yet. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kudos and hugs from the Green Dog! It could not be said louder or better.

    ReplyDelete