On Abuse Within Community/Subcultures

[ravan]

In another post on someone else's journal, mac posted this link: The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. It mentions a book that I currently can't afford to order, but also has a link to an excellent PDF of the zine version.

It is an intense read, but very valuable, IMO. So far I'm only a third of the way through it. One takeaway I have is something I knew at a gut level, but didn't really follow all the way through: Just because a person is an activist doesn't mean they automatically are not capable of being an abuser.

I know, peripherally, of incidents in various subcultures/communities I'm involved in that are not pretty. What I hadn't really internalized is how much it happens, but is ignored *within the community*. Sure, the outside will take a hint and make it a federal case, but ignoring it within isn't the solution either.

BTW, for those who wonder why I am bothering with any of this, since it's not my fight? Because I can. Because if someone hates me because of what I say on the net, it wouldn't be the first time. Because I have this obnoxious tendency to ask "Oh, really?" and be a bit sparing with my trust and credence. Not everyone whose journal I follow do I like or trust, either.

I'm sorry if I don't conform to your idea of what a pagan/feminist/queer/gimp/fan should be like. I'm not trying to please you or conform, and pushing me to do so just gets my back up and me being contrary. Call it crazy if you like.

But if I can inspire someone to think past their knee-jerk, then it's worth it.

That's why I've chosen to highlight this link/document - because it has made *me* think.

Comments

[ravan]

One of my final straws was being repremanded by by Senior for NOT being Supportive of a Newbie who Beleived that Druids came from Atlantis, which was a colony of Space Beings that powered their ships with Quartz Crystals and Creative Visualizations.

*headdesk*

Critical thinking skillz, we haz them...

[mdehners]

How I Wish;>!One of the Many) things that bug me is how many Pagans Recons and Heathens are Willing to play the JCI card of Bait-N-Switch to get a Seeker to join them. "We don't want to scare them off" is probably the most oft used reason for Lying to Newbies about just about EVERYTHING. My fav was the head of my old kindred telling a Newb that Heathens don't "do" Animal Sacrifice, yet a couple weeks before we'd held a Husel in which the main course had been killed Repectfully. If she'd simply explained that a Traditional Blot was Killing the animal in a Respectful Sacred way, Honored then Eaten...I think the non Vegan would have Understood....
Cheers,
Pat