"The Limitation of Anti-Sexism" by Sissy Doutsiou from Void Network

"The Limitations of Anti-Sexism" 

by Sissy Doutsiou ( a poet, d.j. and 

long run cultural / social activist from

Void Network) is a part of the book

"We Are an Image From The Future

The Greek Revolt of December 2008".

It is an essay investigating the

limits of anti-sexist's theories and pratices. 

The text is infuenced from the feelings 

and understandings of December 2008 

riots in Greece, the social uprising 

that followed the assassination 

of 15 years old boy

Alexis Grigoropoulos by Greek Police. 

A review

made for this essay in digital mag.

The Anvil Review mentioned :

Doutsiou fairly represents the pleasure angle. She positions herself in expansiveness—culturally/internationally, socially, and philosophically. Her discussion about sexism and anti-sexism is in the context of anarchist activity in Greece in December 2008—a time of expanding anarchist action, relevance, and awareness—as well as her experience in various European anarchist circles. To make her points she draws on Judith Butler, Françoise Denevert, Guy Debord, Simone de Beauvoir, etc. And her argument is for sexiness, for sensuality, for contrast, and for people celebrating their own particularities.

We choose to free ourselves from normality to become the most extreme of beings. We want to break through identities established by society, by tradition, and even by anarchist spaces. .

She names anti-sexism as a specific kind of reaction to sexism, one that ends up reifying sexism itself, much in the way that Alfonso argues “Why APOC is a White-Supremacist Organization“, or how sociologist Joshua Gamson (who she quotes) posits that queer identity is necessary for queer liberation /and/ perpetuates the binary that predicates queer oppression. And her primary critiques of anti-sexism have to do with the limitations that they rely on:

Language shapes us, composes us, and forms us. Language is based not on words per se but on the use of this word and the meaning of it at a specific time and place. However, the anti-sexist hysteria [ouch!] with language, with both creating new words and not using certain words, only makes those feel guilty who express themselves using words in a colloquial manner. [...] The meaning of a sentence cannot be captured solely by the definitions of the words that constitute the sentence. Those purporting to be anti-sexist only end up as jailors of semantics and detectives of the prohibited colloquial expressions.

As in the quotation above, this article acknowledges the raw components that anti-sexists work from (language, cultural events, etc) but challenges what anti-sexists make from those ingredients.

Doutsiou contrasts the simple support of the spectacle (those people who are content to take on the gender characteristics that are most simple and proscribed — sex kitten for women, macho man for men), with the anti-sexist specatacle that is the knee-jerk reaction to sexism (“women who express their aggression towards men in order to show tha they are not subjugated… men who avoid an honest aggressive dialogue with women because they must behave gently… even anarchist men and women who locate erroneous behaviors and explain them as sexist…”).

"The Limitations of  

Anti-Sexism" by Sissy Doutsiou

During December 2008 anti-sexists were arguing about the sexist behavior of comrades and youth in the streets who were shouting the slogan “Cops, Cunts, you kill children.” This argument opened a discussion in which a female group of participants of the rebellion of December expressed their opinion, through posters and communiqués, that many anarchists are sexists and the “movement” has a problem with sexism. This brought up a conversation among the members of the Greek anarchist space about what is sexism, what can be called anti-sexism and how you can fight effectively against sexism. This conversation was one more fragmented dialogue that happened in the occupied universities and in the streets behind the barricades in the few moments of calmness while we recovered from the teargas burning our eyes and lungs.

When the clashes ended and the various collectives directed their energies into many different actions and projects I found myself still thinking and trying to better understand this sexist/anti-sexist debate that took place, and envision a possible anarchist standpoint. I found myself trying to bring together my experiences from participating in many different anarchist groups in England over seven years, my thoughts about anti-sexist commrades in international meetings against the G8 or EU summit, and in squats and social centers across Europe during tours and travels. Through rumors spread mainly by anti-sexists and nonviolent demonstrators it seems that many people believe that Greek anarchists are macho, sexist, and lacking in their theoretical understanding of sexism.

My goal in this essay is to use these international reflections in addition to my experiences during the social insurrection of December 2008 to offer some thoughts about an anarchist perspective on sexism and anti-sexism. The differences between societies in terms of culture and norms of behavior make the topic a vast one. The different cultures of resistance, scales of confrontation, targets of disobedience, perspectives, terminologies, and political agendas of this world make it impossible to speak in general about sexism and anti-sexism in the global anarchist movement. Many things I say here express the thoughts of male, female, and homosexual comrades here in Greece, while other comrades are in disagreement. I hope these thoughts can open a creative debate. (...)

We invite you to read, 

forward and debate this essay

read more:

The Limitation of antisexsim 
by Sissy Doutsiou 
from Void Network

Climate Change : Copenhagen 2009 / The voices and the Actions of the people for Climate Change // a short film by Dimitris Meletis

Void Network invites you to see the new video
of video activist Dimitris Meletis about climate change,
the December 2009 Copenhagen United Nations Summit
for the Climate Change (COP15)
and the resistances expressed there by the people.


Copenhagen 2009 - Οι φωνές που δεν ακούμε και οι δράσεις 
που δε βλέπουμε from dimitris meletis on Vimeo.
video in English with Greek subtitles

Copenhagen 2009 - The voices and the actions of the people for climate change from dimitris meletis on Vimeo.

the video in English

Copenhagen 2009 - the extras from dimitris meletis on Vimeo.

the extras of the video / 51':53" duration time

Copenhagen 2009 / The voices and the Actions of the people for Climate Change

For many people, climate change is a propaganda of the media, an obsession of some environmental scientists and some green opportunities for large corporations. Unfortunately, there is also another dimension of the problem. 

In December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark held the Unted Nations summit COP15. So called outstanding personalities of international politics as the governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were featured with statements like "I'll be back". In contrast, 80% of the NGOs involved in the process, were asked to leave the hall due to limited space. 

 Along with the closed session of the COP15 summit, during the same days were organized open procedures, such as «Klimaforum», that seemed a good opportunity to meet scientists, activists, artists, NGOs, journalists and active citizens from around the world. The meeting of all these diversity and the dialogue between them offered information and understandings on matters of vital importance. Even if f the result of this meeting can not be yet noticeable, certainly it sent  the message to the known-unknowns "responsible" for the destruction of this planet. The "Declaration of the people", the text resulting from Klimaforum arrived in the COP15 conference room and had 2 minutes to be spoken. Some of the organizers, said that 2 minutes is better than none. Is it better? 

 On December 16, however, the demonstration for Climate Justice was planned to meet the groups of excluded people to make the "People's assembly". The police kept the two groups away from each other and the assembly was finally made by those, that were still able to breathe after being exposed to the police's teargas.

The relevant documentary, includes recognized personalities of the scientific community, such as Naomi Klein, George Monbiot and Ricardo Navarro as also people who arrived in Copenhagen to speak and act, on issues such as: 

- How much «green» are the climate politics of economic superpowers ?

- What is the relationship of climate change with refugees? 

- What is the contribution of banks in the global climate policy? 

- Who is the actual debtor and who is the creditor on the planet? 

- What can recommend or achieve 100 people connected to through internet? 

- How many people could be detained for a broken glass of a bank and how the European "developed" system deals with the voices that react.

Please forward freely and show where you think 

Thanks

Dimitris Meletis

Copenhagen 2009 - Oι φωνές που δεν ακούμε και οι δράσεις που δε βλέπουμε

Για πολλούς από εμάς, η κλιματική αλλαγή είναι μια προπαγάνδα των media, οικολογικές εμμονές κάποιων επιστημόνων και μια ευκαιρία διαφήμισης για μεγάλες επιχειρήσεις. Δυστυχώς όμως, υπάρχει και άλλη διάσταση του προβλήματος. Tο Δεκέμβρη του 2009 στην Κοπεγχάγη της Δανίας πραγματοποιήθηκε η σύνοδος κορυφής COP15 του ΟΗΕ. «Εξέχουσες προσωπικότητες» της διεθνούς πολιτικής σκηνής, όπως ο κυβερνήτης Arnold Schwarzenegger έδωσαν το παρόν με δηλώσεις του τύπου "I'll be back". Αντίθετα, το 80% των ΜΚΟ που συμμετείχαν στη διαδικασία, κλήθηκαν να αποχωρήσουν, λόγω περιορισμένου χώρου. Παράλληλα με τη κλειστή σύνοδο, πραγματοποιήθηκαν ανοιχτές διαδικασίες, όπως το Klimaforum, που φάνηκε καλή ευκαιρία να συναντηθούν επιστήμονες, ακτιβιστές, καλλιτέχνες, ΜΚΟ, δημοσιογράφοι και ενεργοί πολίτες από κάθε γωνιά του πλανήτη. Η μεταξύ τους ζύμωση απέφερε ενημέρωση για ζητήματα ζωτικής σημασίας και αν το αποτέλεσμα δεν μπορεί να είναι άμεσα αισθητό, σίγουρα το μήνυμα προς τους γνωστούς-αγνώστους "υπευθύνους" έχει παραδοθεί. Η "Διακήρυξη των ανθρώπων", το κείμενο που προέκυψε από το Klimaforum έφτασε στην αίθουσα των συνδιασκέψεων και είχε 2 λεπτά να παρουσιαστεί. Κάποιοι από τους διοργανωτές του, είπαν πως 2 λεπτά είναι καλύτερα από κανένα. Είναι καλύτερα; Στις 16 Δεκεμβρίου πάντως, η πορεία για δικαιοσύνη στην κλιματική πολιτική, θα συναντούσε το γκρουπ των αποκλεισμένων για μια "Συνέλευση των πολιτών". Το πλάνο δεν πραγματοποιήθηκε.    Τα γκρουπ δε συναντήθηκαν ποτέ και όσοι άντεξαν το άρωμα του δακρυγόνου, έμειναν για να κάνουν κάτι σαν αυτό που είχε προγραμματιστεί. Στο σχετικό ντοκιμαντέρ, αναγνωρισμένες προσωπικότητες της επιστημονικής κοινότητας , όπως η Naomi Klein, o George Monbiot και ο Ricardo Navarro, μιλούν και δρουν μαζί με ανθρώπους που έφτασαν ως την Κοπεγχάγη, σχετικά με ζητήματα όπως:

--Πόσο πράσινη είναι η κλιματική πολιτική των οικονομικών υπερδυνάμεων

--Ποια η σχέση της κλιματικής αλλαγής με τους πρόσφυγες

--Ποια η συμβολή των τραπεζών στην παγκόσμια κλιματική πολιτική

--Ποιος είναι ο πραγματικός οφειλέτης και ποιος ο πιστωτής πάνω στον πλανήτη

--Τι μπορούν να προτείνουν ή να πετύχουν 100 άνθρωποι συνδεδεμένοι διαδικτυακά

--Πόσες μπορεί να είναι οι προσαγωγές για ένα σπασμένο τζάμι μιας τράπεζας και ποιο είναι το "ανεπτυγμένο" μοντέλο της Ευρώπης στο να διαχειρίζεται τις φωνές που αντιδρούν

Copenhagen 2009 - Oι φωνές που δεν ακούμε και οι δράσεις που δε βλέπουμε

Παρακαλώ προωθείτε ελεύθερα και προβάλλετε όπου κρίνετε

ευχαριστώ,   

Δημήτρης Μελέτης 

OKUPA ( a Void Art short film dedicated to the Global Squatting Movement)

Void Network 
and 
Free Art Zone 
presents


OKUPA
a short film 
dedicated to the legacy of
Squatting Movement


for more info about the 
Global Squatting Movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting