Recently I wrote briefly about a history of violence.
Several of my posts have pointed to the diversity of feminisms available in today's discourse and thought leadership, from Radical Feminism, to Global and Transnational Feminisms in general and intersectional feminism in particular, a bit of Corporate Feminism, and also Technocratic Feminism.
Many of the best-known feminisms operate from principles of non-violence, often building on the teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and put into practice by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many other civil rights and social justice movements since their eras. These feminisms work within traditions of Social Justice that call for civil disobedience and that put into practice principles of nonviolent resistance to police, military, and other civil authorities.
I support this effort. I certainly do not agree with terrorism or violent means to the end of equal justice for all. I will not support such violence.
However, I struggle with the idea that all feminism must be pacifistic. Specifically, I struggle with histories that look back to mythical ancient pacifistic matriarchies of the Middle East or Europe. (My non-Western Texts & Images course was only a semester long, way too short to discuss how African, Australian Aborigine, Pacific Islander, or Native and Indigenous American civilizations governed.) I have been influenced by the book Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines
and further reading on the subject.
and further reading on the subject.
