A lot of gender studies, queer studies, etc boils down to referencing your knowledge about marganilized people to boost your own authority within a system of power, while speaking over and without marganilized people.
For the record, what I’m saying is not: do gender studies better.
What I’m saying is: stop thinking you can change things by becoming a person whose authority is recognized within an oppressive system of power. Or that you’ll find the tools for revolutionary change within that system.
Get out of the university, ditch your need to feel knowledgeable and the inaccessible language that goes with it. Just get on the street and fucking change the world with the rest of us.
why can’t we do both?
yes, there are a lot of issues with gender studies. but for a lot of people, just “taking to the streets” is not just not feasible, but impossible.
I’m physically disabled. i can still go to peaceful marches, but if i went to something like Charlotteville or Portland, i would be much more of a liability than an asset to my comrades. So I’m trying to help the best way I can. im getting an education, im using it to try and win over the folks who are willing to be educated. i want to be a counselor, who is not just informed on minorities, but a member or several minority groups themself.
Yea, im not gonna change the world with a gender studies degree. but i can still use it to help.
It’s not that everyone needs to stop reading and writing and learning and physically fight instead. Far from it.
The problem is the way universities work, the way they concentrate power, the way they require people to state the fucking obvious in thousands of highly complicated words in order to make it real, the way they prioritize the writing of people in positions of authority over the lived experiences of those experiencing oppression, the way they maintain the concept of authority, etc. etc etc.
In capitalism people need to sell their labor to survive, but if the way you sell your labor is by working within the university (this post was about people who work as academics within the university), you better be very conscious about the fact that you’re actively contributing to a messed up institution and you better be extremely aware of how that warps your perspective and limits what you’ll end up doing and writing.
Which doesn’t mean no one within gender studies has ever produced anything worth while. There’s quite a few amazing writers that I love very much. But I do think they were able to produce such fantastic works out of their own experiences and brilliance despite working within that system, not because of it.
QueerAnarchism 