Tag Archives: Gender

Böse & Gemein fest #2 – queer & punx celebration

Save the fourth june weekend when for the second time Böse und Gemein fest will take place! We love the hosts and the program, which include concerts, workshops, performance, talks, networking…  CU there!!!

If you need a place to stay or if you can offer one, write to email hidden; JavaScript is required">email hidden; JavaScript is required

22., 23., 24., 25. Juni @ objekt klein a
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“We’re far worse than we thought we are, we’re shocked by ourselves”

Thoughts on feminist militancy

What’s that shit with women* apparently being either peaceful or bitchy? How are femininity and aggression interconnected? How can we overcome – in our political practice – the friendliness/smile we were taught? What does militancy mean to us, what can feminist militancy be? Definitely more than a mixture of feminist slogans and things guys are doing at demonstrations. How should our “our” militancy look, without only taking part in already existing forms? Which examples of feminist militancy existed in the past? And now, where to go to with the anger?
Link to the video

When? 09/03/16 at 6pm (!!! time changed !!!)
Where? kosmotique, Martin-Luther-Str. 16 01099 Dresden
talks is in German

cafém in November: “Goodbye Gender”

For the next cafém on 15/11/15, we invited Steff from the publishing house ‘w_orten und meer’. Steff will bring some of their books and read from ‘Goodbye Gender’.

Is it possible – a life without gender? Stories about trying and failing, cheerful and sad, about connections with people, their irritations and with an approach to a solution that might be new for many: bidding farewell to gender as a categorie. ‘Goodbye Gender’ makes a start.

gg_cover_webI wasn’t born into the wrong body, I was born into the wrong world.“
– Rae Spoon

Whast does it mean to never being in the right gender? – not in the one one was assigned to at birth; not in the notion of sexual identities, that were tried out later in life; not after a transition from ‘woman’ to ‘man’. And is it possible – giving up gender completely?

In short texts, Rae Spoon and Ivan E. Coyote take turns at telling about their journey through different phases of gendered and sexual life – up until they completely give up gender as an identification for themselves and are now ‘retiring on a pension’ of gender. But what is the reaction of friends, colleagues and relatives? How do I act in the pub, at a job interview, at a fuel station at night? Which other form of words do still exist to address me or talk about me/myself? And can I tell someone else’s gender just by looking at them?

Ivan and Rae tell about their childhood and youth, about first loves and growing-up, their lives on stages and behind them. They include reactions and make their readers laugh and cry, make them think and recognise – maybe they make them hear questions about gay identities and the lack of pronouns for the first time. Straightforwardly and closely, the book depicts how the idea of gender as a clear norm falls at a reality, in which looks, appearance and desires aren’t always clear.

Note: The authors won’t be present. The reading will be in German.

This cafém is part of the action days against sexism and homophobia of the student council of TU Dresden.

Coloniality and Gender

On May 22nd the “Transnational Mobitour” for the G7 summit 2015 came to Dresden.
One person of e*vibes prepared a short input about “Coloniality and Gender”.
Here you can read it.

Coloniality and Gender

Coloniality is not equivalent to colonialism. Coloniality is the continuity of colonial forms of domination after the end of colonial administrations, produced by colonial cultures and structures in the modern/colonial capitalist world-system. Since Coloniality has never ended, we still live under the colonial matrix of power, described by Quijano. Within it, all power relationships like for example race, gender, religion, geographic origin and class are related. They organize the world division of labour in a multiple power hierarchic complex. As the same way that social understanding of “gender” was used by capitalist society to unpay women care and reproductive work; the ideas of race and cultural, spiritual and intellectual “inferiority” of the colonized people were also used as justification for their exploitation, servitude and slavery by the colonial structure.

But what has Coloniality to do with Gender?

It is important to remember that not all colonized civilizations were patriarchal and, when they were, their patriarchal forms of dealing with gender were not the same as the Judeo-Christian Patriarchy introduced by european colonization. Those societies had to adapt to a new form of hierarchy of gender coming from the oppressors and they were then ruled by it. The colonized people and cultures are usually described by traits historically related to “femininity” as naive, not intelligent, illogical, sentimental, natural, incapable and passive, while the colonizers are described by features historically related to “masculinity”, until today. That prejudices leads to the infantilization and inferiozation of people from colonial regions to be a common situation until today.

In Latin America, per example, the ethnical formation of the actual Latin American people was based on rape and forced marriage, as well as religious conversion of millions of native women since white European women were not available at the first phases of colonization process. These women were forced to deal with a complete different form of gender relationship and concepts of families. The miscegenation of Latin American people is also a result of the rape of millions of black enslaved women. Those native and black women were also seen as inferior to white European women and were hypersexualized, objectified and then completely excluded from history. Contrary to pre-European patriarchies, where all women were inferior to all men, in the new colonial power matrix some women (of European origin) have a higher status and access to resources than some men (of non-European origin), while the colored women occupied the most inferior level in society. And this situation has not changed until today. Gender issues were also used as an excuse for colonial projects. Spivak described this as “white men saving colored women from colored men”. It is until today that gender issues are used as an excuse for military and colonial, occidental projects.

Decolonization is still needed and an inseparable part of the struggle against capitalism and patriarchy. Paraphrasing Grossfoegel: The mythology of the “decolonization of the world” obscures the continuities between the colonial past and current global colonial/racial hierarchies and contributes to the invisibility of “coloniality” today as well as its relationship to other forms of hierarchies as patriarchy and capitalism inside the world matrix of power.

Transnational Infotour

This Friday the “Transnational Mobilisation-Tour for freedom of movement, autonomy and good living instead of G7” will visit Dresden.
You will find the program here.

One of our members will take part at the input session on Jorge-Gomondai-Platz. She will give a short input about coloniality and gender. The input will be held in English.