Patriarchal Violence – WHITE NOISE COLLECTIVE

our writing on this theme

Grieving Orlando

From Isaac Lev Szmonko, on behalf of Catalyst Project: Dear friend, Yesterday morning I checked the news groggy-eyed and learned of the massacre in Orlando at ‘Latin Night’ at the Pulse gay club. The grief is overwhelming. I find myself unexpectedly in and out of tears. Queer space is sacred. We owe the fact that there is space for us to go seek community, joy, pleasure, desire, family and justice to generations of freedom fighters. To the ACT UP warriors and the dyke caretakers who fought for queer safety and survival while most of the […]

Themes to Comment On!

Here are the themes that the folks who came to our last dialogue said that they want to explore in future dialogues. Through the help of Beja, they miraculously transformed from notes on poster paper into typed clusters in this blog for people to comment on to collectively figure out what to talk about next (April 12). Let’s see if this works. They are numbered and named for ease of commenting: Here’s a suggested process: 1. Read them over 2. Pick a cluster or a topic within a cluster that you think would be a […]

Body as Battleground: A Little Historical Context on the Attack on Women & Reproductive Rights

Labor and Work, Monthly Dialogues, Patriarchal Violence

Body as Battleground: A Little Historical Context on the Attack on Women & Reproductive Rights

In our September dialogue, we focused on the topic “Body as battleground.” Obviously, with the current political attack on womens’ reproductive rights, the conservative media’s sexist slandering, and the general ways that patriarchy interferes on every angle of our daily lives, there was a lot to talk about. We delved into a slew of intense and interesting themes, but for me it was the reading I did in preparation for the night that really floored me. I have been reading a book called Caliban & the Witch for the past few months. It’s been recommended […]

Moving into Radical Self-Worth to Better Support our Movements — part 1 in a series

"White Womanhood", Anti-racism Practice, Hate Groups, Labor and Work, Patriarchal Violence, Reflection

Moving into Radical Self-Worth to Better Support our Movements — part 1 in a series

In our struggles to take down white supremacy and patriarchy, we must each heal the ways we have internalized these systems of oppression. Otherwise, we end up recreating them — even in our liberation movements. This healing means different things to different people. We write this piece in particular for those of us who identify at what we often call the intersection of race privilege and gender(ed) oppression. The two primary authors of this piece identify as white, queer women (though those labels never seem sufficient), but we recognize that people invested in this conversation […]

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Liberate Halloween Action Kit!

They’re ba-ack! (shudder) With Halloween quickly approaching, and costume shops like Spirit Halloween opening their doors, many of us are cringing at the thought of another Halloween full of racism, sexism, heterosexism and the full range of offensive apparel we annually witness. In response, we offer up a toolkit to those who wish to be a part of resisting the dominant paradigms that plague this season. Let’s make this be a season to reclaim and expand our expressive imaginations from being steered into narrow, tired, offensive and uncreative marketing channels. Not sure what exactly is so offensive about […]

Narratives of White Women Used to Uphold Racism and Patriarchy: A Partial Timeline

"White Womanhood", Gender Identity, Militarism and Imperialism, Patriarchal Violence, Privilege Systems, Reflection, Saviorism, State Violence

Narratives of White Women Used to Uphold Racism and Patriarchy: A Partial Timeline

This is a timeline we use in White Noise workshops to help make visible dominant representations of white women that have historically served to reinforce, normalize and naturalize forms of racist violence and patriarchal oppression. How do these narratives of white female sexuality and identity (re)appear in the present? How do they continue to live in our imaginations, bodies, dreams, media, collective consciousness, politics? By no means attempting to be some kind of comprehensive history, but rather pulling out some key threads in the unweaving of structures of domination. Here we go: Captivity narratives, stories […]

White Women’s Tears and the Men Who Love Them

There has been much critique lately of “white tears.” This term refers to all of the ways, both literally and metaphorically, that white people cry about how hard racism is on us. In my work, I consistently encounter these tears in their various forms, and many writers have provided excellent critiques. Here, I want to address one specific manifestation of white tears: those shed by white women in cross-racial settings.

Disposability, Desirablity, and #MeToo

"White Womanhood", Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Disposability, Desirablity, and #MeToo

This blog post is written in response to comments and discussion generated at the January 2018 White Noise Collective dialogue, which examined the themes of “Race, Gender and #MeToo”. I am grateful to the participants for their frank, vulnerable, and honest conversation. See our website for the guiding questions and suggested readings for the dialogue. The following two articles were additional excellent ruminations for this piece: Consenting to Normal by Hyejin Shin and The Female Price of Male Pleasure by Lili Loofbourow. ————– As someone with very limited social media exposure, I’ve been largely distant […]

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Resources for Engaging and Ending Police Violence

Patriarchal Violence, Reflection, State Violence

Resources for Engaging and Ending Police Violence

In this time of mourning, rage and national reckoning with the legacies and realities of racist police violence – resources for connection, deeper engagement and different forms of action are flooding through the widening cracks of this broken system. Here is a partial compilation, from quick click actions to concrete alternatives to political education to visionary policy solutions. Please circulate and share with others. Petition: The Department of Justice and Police Violence against African Americans Movement for Black Lives Pledge We want an end to the war being waged on Black people, in all its forms. WNC […]

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Cultural Appropriation, Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Problematic Holidays, Reflection

Racial and Gender Justice Halloween Action Toolkit!

Ah the beginning of fall. The air is a little colder, the colors a little more orange, and there is no shortage of pumpkin flavored products. Yet there is one sign of the turning seasons that is truly unwelcome…racist, sexist, heterosexist, and colonialist costumes — already in full force in stores around the country. Enter into any Spirit Halloween store and you will find the full gamut of costumes perpetuating cultural appropriation, racist stereotypes, Indigenous erasure and hetero-misogyny. At a time when Black Lives Matter has become a resounding movement pressing for the safety, humanity […]

Taking up space (or: the things we learn on BART)

"White Womanhood", Gender Identity, Patriarchal Violence, Reflection

Taking up space (or: the things we learn on BART)

They say every moment is a learning opportunity. But I hate when those moments happen when I’m half awake and grumpy. Last week, I was taking my bike onto BART for my ever-so-wonderful and all-to-early morning commute from West Oakland to San Francisco. Though I am one of those pesky bikers that often sneak onto trains just a few minutes before I’m allowed to in order to get to my morning meeting at work on time, on this particular morning I was actually on BART at a legally-allowed time. So, onto BART I go, through […]

dialogue notes on this topic

Though many of the themes from the monthly dialogues are represented in our blog posts, those posts rarely include all of what was discussed. Find the notes here from each dialogue raw and uncut. We share them (with names omitted) in an effort to be accountable and transparent to our larger community, accessible for those who are not able to attend, and saved as archive to return to and draw from.

March 2019 WNC Dialogue: Carceral Feminism — Whiteness, Gender Violence and the Rise of the Prison System

From the murder of Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin to Dylan Roof who, when opening fire on a Charleston Black church said, “Y’all are raping our white women. Y’all are taking over the world”, how has “white women’s” sexual purity been weaponized to criminalize Black men? How has the rise of the #MeToo movement bolstered the prison system in the name of stopping sexual violence? How does this racist protectionism encompass or exclude different white women, including fat, disabled, poor, neurodivergent, transwomen or gender nonconforming people? What are the consequences on the lives of targeted […]

July 2018: Desirability Politics, Worthiness and Belonging

Dialogue Description: What does it mean to be attracted to someone or to find someone desirable? How do we know a person is beautiful? How are our attractions, both sexual and otherwise, shaped and influenced? What messages have white supremacy and patriarchy, alongside cisheterosexism, femme-phobia, fat-phobia, ageism and ableism directed at us about worth and belonging in our relationships? How does desirability influence your own sense of worth, your relationship to your body and relationship to others? How are desirability politics playing out for us in this moment of increased violence directed at multiply marginalized communities, especially trans women of color and immigrants? Join us in dialogue as we explore these questions, and others, in an exploration of how race, gender, and desirability impact and complicate our lives.

February 2018: Emotional Labor and Difficult Conversations Around Race and Gender

Dialogue Description: What messages have white supremacy and patriarchy directed at us about emotional labor in interpersonal relationships? Do you feel challenged navigating differences across race and gender where emotional labor is expected or warranted? Do you find yourself struggling to identify and maintain boundaries with colleagues, friends, housemates, community members, partners, or family when it comes to having difficult conversations about race, gender, and other lived experiences? Join us in dialogue as we explore these questions, and others, in an exploration of how race, gender, and emotional labor impact and complicate our lives. Some […]

January 2018: Race, Gender and #MeToo

Dialogue Description: #MeToo has galvanized millions of people globally to name and explore issues of sexual violence over these past months. Founded by Tarana Burke, #MeToo has also visibilized long-standing dynamics about whose narratives of victimhood and survivorhood are believed, and whose are challenged. How do we mobilize in this movement moment to address gendered violence, building for accountability and collective liberation? How can we push to organize beyond exclusively white, middle class cis-women issues and towards intersectional racial justice in our work to end sexual violence? How do we hold complexity and recognize possibility in decentralized, online campaigns […]

February 2017: Building an Intersectional Feminist Movement beyond the Pink Hat

Dialogue Description: In this movement moment when millions of white cis-women are becoming mobilized and radicalized in opposition to Trump, how can we push the movement to organize beyond white middle class cis-women issues and towards racial justice? What common and historical patterns of white feminism should we make conscious and disrupt — now and for the long haul? As a collective, we have particularly investigated how “white womanhood” is used to justify systems and patterns of harm especially against POC, while also holding space for our queer and TGNC experiences in that conversation. How […]

August 2016: Race, Gender and Workplace Power

Dialogue Description: Guided by many motivating questions, our August dialogue will explore our struggles for racial and gender justice in our workplace settings. Whether we work at an explicit racialjustice organization, a largely white, “a-racial” institution, or somewhere in between, we want to use this dialogue to examine the unique challenge of managing workplace relationships and institutional power while also struggling for workplace justice. What roles do we hold in our workplaces, and what barriers do we face to dismantling white supremacy and patriarchy within our institutions? How do the real risks of losing or […]

February 2015: Violence and Safety

Dialogue Description: The past few months have been full of excitement with the building power of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to systematic police brutality and murder of black and brown people. In response, the media, along with individuals and activists alike, are questioning the strategy and tactics of the emergent street mobilizations and organized responses. Throughout this analysis are various opinions about the meaning, role, and position of “violence” in this movement movement. In this WNC Dialogue, we will explore the meaning of violence and safety, especially through the lenses of white […]

February 2014: Love, Rage and V-Day: What’s going on with white feminists?

Dialogue Description: What issues are white feminists largely drawn to, how are those issues expressed, in what ways is white privilege showing up, and what patterns are helpful to explore? Here are links to a number of pieces that relate to this month’s theme, diving into patterns, concerns, critiques, and questions of white feminists and feminism. We offer these not to be overwhelming, but thought that one or two might stir your interest before we meet in person: Beyond Eve Ensler: What Should Organizing Against Gender Violence Look Like? One Billion Rising: Eve Ensler’s White […]

August 2013: Virtuous Victim Narrative

Dialogue Description: We’ll spend this evening looking at ways the narratives about white women, such as the virtuous victim narrative, are used to justify violence against men of color. Specifically, we’d like to discuss the ways Zimmerman used his neighbor to justify his murder of Trayvon Martin, how this ties into deeply entrenched histories and brainstorm ways we can counteract this narrative. Dialogue Notes: These are rough, uncut, unfiltered, and anonymous notes taken at the dialogue. We get that these may not be very readable to those who were not in attendance at the dialogue, […]

September 2012: Body as Battleground

Dialogue Description: Within the context of the upcoming presidential elections – from reproductive rights under attack, to moves to redefine rape, to slut shaming, how are female bodies being used to wage political war and ideologies? How are white women and women of color being targeted and represented differently? How can we strategically step up and speak out in alliance? Dialogue Notes: These are rough, uncut, unfiltered, and anonymous notes taken at the dialogue. We get that these may not be very readable to those who were not in attendance at the dialogue, and, honestly, […]