Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.
- Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography
- Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography
How do those words translate vs patriarchy? Against white patriarchy? Against white heteropatriarchy? Against rich,white men who are in the White House, Congress, Senate, Supreme Court, media, factories, etc? For how long do we wait for men’s “moral sense” to stop them raping us?
I’m a survivor of sexual assault. I’m fucking enraged to see how many other survivors are triggered every time an attempted rapist/predator is elected/confirmed for high office. Everyone reacts differently. My reaction has dialed up to rage.
How much longer do we wait for men’s moral sense to kick in when patriarchy is ubiquitous, quotidian, enabling and protecting? Whatever it is we’ve been waiting for isn’t working. Women share and share pain and trauma of assault and still men’s moral sense does not kick in.
So how do we kickstart that moral sense? By teaching girls to fight? This isn’t to put onus on girls & women. Men must stop assaulting us. But they don’t & they won’t because clearly you can still be president & still be considered for the Supreme Court. So teach girls to fight?
How do you survive rich, white men when you’re not a rich, white man? How do you survive white heteropatriarchy when you’re a woman of colour? A poor woman of colour?A disabled woman of colour? A trans woman of colour? How do you survive when you have no privilege to protect you?
Because here’s the thing, as the Assata Shakur quote makes clear:an oppressor has no moral sense.And patriarchy is oppression. It is universal. It is systemic. It intertwines with other systems of oppression to make it even worse for those of us not rich, white men. It is immoral
