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A Response to Jan Boyd: Gender Conflicts and Separate Space at SGC2000
I really liked this article written by writer and feminist Jan Boyd. I did have one bone to pick and an explanation of sorts.
In this article, Boyd refers to a controversy over a workshop that invited
people to join male
or female
groups. Despite the attribution to
me, the dismissal of this problem as small
in the article was the
writer's assertion (probably in light of other problems that she saw that we
faced — i.e. neo-nazis circling the site) and was not the way I tried to
characterize my feelings. In fact, we were deeply moved by the events of the
workshop — more so than any other event at the convention. This was a
learning experience for us and participants about the oppression caused by the
polarized concepts of gender. I mentioned this during the interview.
Boyd characterizes me accurately when she paraphrases me as saying there were
conflicting ideologies pressuring us before and throughout the convention, and
it was daunting to create a space that satisfied them all. For example, one
woman left our organizing committee because we were allowing men
to
attend the conference, which she said violated her ability to speak comfortably
in workshops. Other women spoke at the convention about how they were annoyed to
see so many male faces. On the other hand, others said they applauded the
attendance of men and people other than biological women. The very terms
female
and male
were derided by some who saw gender distinctions
as sexist in of themselves. How will these criticisms affect the way we identify
ourselves and organize, who we seek to include and who we unintentionally
exclude?
I really admired the way the next year's SGC (Auburn, Alabama) went to great lengths to create a pro-transgender policy and have facilitators of workshops attempt to explain and justify any gender division. This seemed to preclude the type of problems we had at the workshop. I'm looking forward to future Southern Girl Conventions as we continue to re-evaluate our ideas and the meaning of feminism.