Enke

Some of the details written in Enke's article really hit home due to some personal experiences I had this week, and I wanted to share. If you 'tl;dr' me, I totally understand.

I thought the insight, particularly from the Introduction piece on the formation of the feminist movement, was a fantastic piece into seeing the "movement outside of the movement," so to speak, and for getting a sense of understanding from people who weren't in the forefront of the movement, who may not have identified as a feminist for one reason or another, but still grasped the concept of liberation and tried to initiate grass root change in their own systems. We hear the "feminist movement" and we think of organized protests, or well established groups who worked both independently and together to impact this great social change; yet this was only one facet of initiating that change. Why were certain groups the faces of change, while others who may have made a significant impact were left out of history books? Stemming to the previous readings we've had about the feminists vs. lesbian feminists, I have started to see trends that social movements, while advocating for the rights of a targeted minority group, are still ranked in accordance to how they fit on the scale of dominant culture. On page 11 of the text, Enke writes, "How, then, do we understand the exclusions and hierarchies, and the ways that they contributed to the differential visibilities of actors and agendas within the movement? What was "white" and "middle class" about the movement when women of color and working women helped generate it from the beginning? A spatial analysis shows that conflicts within feminism gained form and name with tangible spatial contestations over environments already laid through with race, class, and sexual hierarchies."

This hit home;

I have been infrequently attending the meetings for the campus gay-straight alliance this school year, better known as the former LGBTieS, and was sitting in on a meet Monday evening. I have been looking for ways to become more involved in LGBTQ issues, but for the length of time that I have attended ETSU, the club has done the bare minimum in terms of organizing, getting their name out, or serving the needs of its members. I have become somewhat involved over this semester and last in trying to push for the club to make changes to serve a mission and to make a name for itself and the LGBTQ "community", but it has failed to do so. I was recently nominated to run for office within the organization and feel as though this will be a strong outlet to really try to initiate some change for our non-active yet still growing LGBTQ population.

Community; we've asked the question in class, "Who IS the community? Who ISN'T the community?" This is has been on my mind in a significant portion over the past few weeks, both from the perspective of someone who feels often left out of the "community" as an open and devout bisexual, and yet someone whose goal over the next school year is going to be to encompass "community" through one of the only LGBTQ outlets on campus.

Walking out of the meeting, I was approached by an acquaintance I hadn't even noticed. I had been sitting in the front of the room and paid little to no attention to who else was there, but knew he wasn't a regular to the group. I had never seen him in a meeting before, and that was the first thing he really brought up to me; he was also an African American male. He said that he wanted to talk for a minute both because I was a familiar face and because he found out I was nominated to run for office. He begins explaining that it isn't the first club meeting he's ever attended there, but that he's never felt a sense of acceptance or comfort by being there. He expressed that despite the fact that the club doesn't do much for anyone, they specifically exclude any concept of race, and that he has several friends who identify as both gay and African American, and would love to get involved with the LGBTQ community if they thought for a second that they would be accepted.

To shed light back to Enke's perception of the feminist movement, but also to cross-culturally connect the """Gay and Lesbian Movement""", it seems that these groups too frequently exclude more than they include. The "Gay and Lesbian Movement" has changed to include Bisexuals and Transgender People to their name,forming the "LGBT/LGBTQ" acronym, but they're still in the back of the movement; they "complicate" things. Same with race; it's an excluded issue because it "complicates" the movement.

In reflection to the meetings the campus organization has had, regardless of the lack of diversity at ETSU, the club is 75-80% white, homosexual, males. I'm excited to hopefully win election as the President of the organization (which by the way, was voted on Monday to change it's name to H.E.R.O.E.S - Helping to Educate, Regarding Orientation, Equality, & the Spectrum) and will be working very hard to try to open up its door to becoming a more inclusive group toward race, orientation, sex, gender identity, class, and toward hetero allies.

"no one is free when others are oppressed."