[Spotykach] Manifesto for an international network for the radical critique of masculinities

[Daniel Mang]

Hi Spotykachians

I wanted to let everyone on this list know about this project by Bernhard 
(from Berlin) and me (normally in Berlin, currently in Paris). The web site 
is in the works. If you want to be on the mailing list, you can contact me. 
We are also interested in any feedback regarding the content of the text.

Daniel


Manifesto for an international network for the radical critique of
masculinities

Despite worldwide struggles of the movements of women, gays, lesbians,
queers, transgendered people, intersexuals..., their oppression remains.
Ideologies that legitimise the exploitation and oppression of women abound.
For too many people, the oppression and marginalisation of all those who
don't conform to dominant norms of gender and sexuality is invisible, or
appears natural. The forms of consciousness that enable this blindness are
unchallenged in their global effectiveness. And in many radical and
emancipatory movements the way gender and sexuality are dealt with is
completely insufficient. Worldwide, only very few men are active against
gender-specific violence, oppression and exploitation; for most men in
emancipatory movements, the different kinds of oppression suffered by people
who deviate from the norms of gender and sexuality in force in their society
are only rarely an issue.
This is the background for our initiative. We want more men to become active
against patriarchal gender relations in radical movements (and elsewhere). We
want more heterosexual men to challenge the heterosexism of our societies.
Here and there we see attempts at the kind of activism we would like to see
more of. There is movement, sometimes receding, often contradictory,
regarding the taking over of domestic work and responsibility for children by
men. There are initiatives by men against male violence against women, for
fair wages for women. Some few heterosexual men attempt to challenge the
hatred and violence directed against gays.
One aim of our initiative is to collect dispersed attempts at activism by men
against sexism and heterosexism.
We want to create a platform for debate among different kinds of criticism of
hegemonic masculinities; a platform for various groups and individuals to
communicate, network and coordinate more effective political interventions in
the future.
We also want to be a contact for people who are trying to be active in the
way we envisage, but are isolated in their scenes or their region, and would
like to be in touch and exchange with others.
In our opinion, most radical, emancipatory, subversive movements the world
over still think and act way too much in national frameworks. We believe much
much more needs to be done in the way of international, transnational,
antinational... meetings, debates and organisation.
Racisms, xenophobia, antisemitism, patriarchal gender relations,
heterosexism, capitalism, state and nation exist world-wide â€" therefore the
struggles against them must be global. All the different forms of social
power and domination are inseparably linked. The struggles against them must
therefore also be linked. Our initiative wants to contribute to the
development of an international radical current that is as class-conscious
as it is
profeminist, that is queer and anticapitalist, critical of body norms and
anti-state, for different social relations with nature and against the
nation, as opposed to any type of racism or xenophobia as to antisemitism.
We want everything!
The social construction of sexuality and gender takes different forms not
only in different societies, but also in different scenes and movements.
Accordingly the theoretical and practical critique of gender and sexuality
must take different shapes.
So: What we want is to learn from each other, to inspire each other, to
discuss and argue and develop new ideas and kinds of political action on an
international level.
What we want is a practical and theoretical critique of masculinities. This
is the responsibility of men. But the issue of masculinities and their
critique does not “belong” to men. We invite everyone to the process of
debate, learning and hopefully organizing which we envisage â€" whether they
define themselves as men, as women, transgendered persons or whatever.
We believe men have something to gain from being active against patriarchal
gender relations. But we insist that, in terms of the social relationos of
gender, men have to be viewed, first and foremost, as members of a privileged
group. We insist that our first priority must be to criticise and challenge
these privileges. Men do suffer in the patriarchal relations of gender. But
this is not our political focus and we believe it is false to make this a
focus.
We have other questions. Questions we find interesting and important for the
development of radical politics in general:
What is the role of race, ethnicity and class in the constitution of
masculinities? Can white and non-white men work together against sexism and
heterosexism, and if so, under which conditions? Can heterosexual and
non-heterosexual men work together against sexism and heterosexism, and if
so, under which conditions? What would it mean to abolish masculinity? Is the
attempt to reform masculinity worthwhile? Is that possible at all? What is
subversive appropriation of masculinity by women? Is masculinity a resource
that can be redistributed?
As a first step we want to offer possibilities of virtual networking in the
form of a web site and a mailing list. As a next step, we can imagine
organising meetings, one aim of which could be the preparation of
interventions into existing structures of radical movements.