Thread by @monaeltahawy

I begin every lecture I give “My name is Mona Eltahawy and this is my declaration of faith: fuck the patriarchy. I end each lecture by asking the audience to stand & chant “Fuck the patriarchy.” And I wrote a whole chapter on the importance of profanity 👇🏽lithub.com/mona-eltahawy-…

-Profanity is essential tool in disrupting patriarchy & its rules
-It’s the verbal equivalent of civil
disobedience
-I refuse to be civil w/ someone who doesn’t recognize my humanity fully
-It’s imperative to understand how civility,decorum,manners are used to uphold authority

it is imperative to understand how civility, decorum, manners, and the like are used to uphold authority—patriarchy, whiteness, other forms of privilege, other forms of oppression—and that we are urged to acquiesce as a form of maintaining that authority.

Whether we are urged to be civil to racists or polite to patriarchy, the goal is the same: to maintain the power of the racist, to maintain the power of patriarchy.

Fuck that.

Saturday was 1st time I’d been in front of the White House in years. My video embodied what I’ve written in the chapter on Profanity in The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls. Obviously, there is more outrage at my saying “Fuck” than at the oppressions I use it against.

I am not here for polite protest because patriarchy and its hierarchy of oppressions are not polite.

I am not here for quiet protest because patriarchy and its oppressions are not quiet.

🎥 @rerutled