• the217
• LGBT
• Position within patriarchy (and other thoughts)

Does it concern anyone that our entire economic structure is founded upon people “trading” things that don’t really exist? Just a thought.

I played a show Sunday night, opening for Spoonboy. If you’ve never heard his music, then I’m sure you can look him up somewhere and you’ll be a better person for it. Try myspace maybe. Or google. Those are two websites if you’ve never heard of them. You need to put “.com” after each of the names. Then get ready for the ride of your life.

Internet lesson over. At one point during Spoonboy’s set, he mentioned that all guys need to check themselves and stay aware of their position within the patriarchy. I am a white guy. And I have a few white guy friends. I have nothing against white guys, but it seems that very rarely do they attempt to stay aware of their position within the patriarchy (let alone the heteropatriarchy, but don’t get me started). And it is always refreshing to find those few guys who can articulate a feminist standpoint, or some standpoint that remains critical of that good old-fashioned male privilege.

For a long time, I thought of feminism in a very individualistic manner. How does feminism influence the way that I act? How should I fuck? Should I watch porn? How should I treat my girlfriend? What are my opinions on…? I was that guy wondering about his position within the patriarchy, which is definitely important. It is important to understand that we all have the capabilities to contribute to hegemony. Any and all acts and speech of racism, heterosexism, misogyny, classism, etc. are violent acts that can be positioned within hegemonic power relations.

But I’m worried about things like liberal feminism (see last week’s post) and privileging the guys that can be so considerate of their privilege. These two things are separate concerns, but they have similar issues probably. It has something to do with considering who is excluded from access to these positions. Like who doesn’t have access to these positions. I don’t know, something like that. I’m having a tough time with this post. Help me out. Spoonboy is on his way back to St. Paul where he has a court date. He participated in protesting the Republican National Convention and is being charged with some stupid fake-ass crime. I hope he does all right. And I really hope I get to see him play again some time soon.

Cool.