What is WAM/SSM relation to feminism?

Q.  I can't seem to find the word feminism anywhere on the pages related to WAM/SSM. What is WAM/SSM relation to feminism? Is it informed by feminism, is feminism its bedrock, is it an offshoot...? Does it draw on feminist thought? Does it have a feminist ideological bent? Etc.

There doesn't seem to be any position statement at the site, and, while it can be inferred (given your blog and Pseudo-Adrienne's), it would be helpful to clarify on this issue.

A. Thanks for a great question – The main page doesn’t use the word Feminism because I deliberately left it out. The minute some people see it they stop thinking and start stereotyping. This is an attempt to reframe aspects of feminism and re-energize the movement. There’s to be no fund raising involved – it’s strictly what the Second Wave Feminists called “Consciousness Raising”. All that is required to join is to declare that you support it, and place a link, badge, or some mention of it on your website. We’re creating awareness and trying to bring some maturity and pragmatism to the political discourse.

I’m tired of people getting hung up on the “F” word. I am most decidedly a feminist, but I feel as if the leadership is too anxious to get along with the extant power structure. They’ve become very politic and somewhat fear-based. They are so eager to be “taken seriously” that they allow the derision from the power structure of the dominant culture to make us divide the community against ourselves. Straight women are embarrassed by being compared to the lesbians, the Christians are embarrassed by the Witches, and  Atheists are afraid of religion altogether. We need to grow up and stand in solidarity. I don’t give a shit what someone in Washington thinks of me. I want to give them notice that we’re here and we vote in ever increasing numbers. We WILL be counted. Anything less cannot be acceptable to us, or it is all we’ll ever get. It simply isn’t in the nature of Western Civilization to cede any kind of advantage. Men aren’t going to give us anything. The women who fought to give us the right to vote were imprisoned and tortured. Women are systematically beaten, raped, tortured, mutilated and murdered in every country on Earth. There is a war against women that too many of us take for granted. It doesn’t have to be this way. It will only change if we demand that change.

I want us to focus on our own humanity. The big problem with the “Pro-Choice” movement is that we have allowed radical Christians to frame the debate. Abortion is not a choice if it’s your only chance of survival, or if you can’t afford to raise a kid. I want to take the focus off the fetus. Whether a fetus is a “life” or not cannot be proven, and is therefore a moot argument. The issue is whether I, as a living, breathing woman with my own goals and aspirations, have the right to make my own sexual decisions. If we acknowledge any authority by the state to regulate our reproductive choice, then we are owned by the state. To be free and equal citizens, we have to have autonomy in our most intimate decisions. Women are People Not Property.

Men never have to think about this. They have complete autonomy to be enjoyed and even abused as they will. Men can go around lying to obtain sex from women with impunity. What if a woman has a moral code that forbids her to be involved with a married man, yet her boyfriend lies about having a wife? She has no legal recourse available to her, though she behaved in an honorable manner. Why is it legal for him to violate her trust, and even impregnate her, with no greater risk than child support? He has destroyed her moral identity, endangered her life with pregnancy and possible exposure to STD’s, forever altered her lifestyle and will probably never even be forced to support any child that results.

The only way for her to mitigate the damage done by his lies may be to have an abortion. That way she can minimize the trauma to her body, and won’t be saddled with the considerable cost and responsibility of raising a child with no father. I never hear this scenario in the debate about Choice, but I see it played out all around me. Why isn’t there a penalty for what I call “male fraud”? It’s a unique situation that only affects one gender. Women can’t have more than one man pregnant at the same time, so why should we bear the burden of such atrocious behavior? Why don’t wives have recourse against spouses who expose them to AIDS with their lying and infidelity? The fastest growing population with new HIV infections is women in what they believe are monogamous relationships. This isn’t just infidelity – it is murder. How many men are punished for it? Zero.

I want women to be treated as full and equal citizens under the law. I want the law to stop tolerating men’s infidelity, and stop penalizing women’s sexuality. I reject the monotheist idea that sex is only for procreation, and that engaging in sex is somehow “wrong”. It is a normal adult activity that people should be free to enjoy in an honest, responsible manner. The state has no business in the bedroom. It’s only input to sexual activity should be to prevent the spread of disease, and it isn’t even doing that. Only women should have the power to make decisions that affect only women. No Uterus, No Opinion.

Yes, that phrase is harsh, and men bristle at it. I don’t care.

 My uterus is not a political issue, and no male is authorized to negotiate the disposition of it. Ever.

Having a child is an awesome responsibility. I admire the people who choose to do it. Stewardship of another human, whether through parenting, teaching, or healing, is a sacred act that should be taken on with an open and loving heart. We cause only harm by forcing people to have children they don’t want. The current declines we are seeing in the crime rate are in direct correlation to the availability of legal abortions. It is wrong to force a woman to risk her life if she is unwilling or unable to carry a pregnancy to term. It is pointless for society to create a burden on women, social services and the legal system when we have a perfectly viable alternative to unwanted pregnancy.

Adoption is not always an option, as the Radical Right would have us believe. Adoption can carry enormous emotional scars for everyone concerned. I’ve seen the damage that can happen when child of rape is rejected by her birth parent. There aren’t enough adoptive and foster homes to effectively deal with the children we already have. Right now, tonight, 3 million children are homeless in America, the richest country in the world. We have no business even discussing “slave birth” until we can care for the kids we have.

There are two co-existing political movements represented here. The Women’s Autonomy Movement is about our rights to our own bodies, and our own lives. It’s the “Pro-Choice” side of the coin. The other side is the Sexual Sovereignty Movement, which asserts the rights of adults as sexual beings. It incorporates the LGBT rights movement, and opposes the monotheistic view that sex is “sinful”. Sex is a normal, healthy part of life. We are biologically hard-wired to need touch, movement, love and yes, even orgasms. It’s good for us, and we shouldn’t punish people for being human. People are going to have sex, no matter what society says about it. At least 10 per cent of the population is gay, and that’s a normal variation that occurs all through nature. There’s also a strong emphasis on sex and marriage being for adults. A fifteen year old girl can’t legally sign a contract to rent a DVD player, but she can be forced into marrying by her parents or her church, sometimes to much older men. The marriage contract should be reserved for adults. It makes no sense for the state to sanction a situation that would otherwise constitute child abuse or statutory rape. There is no way a teenager can make a commitment that is ostensibly supposed to last the rest of their lives.

I couldn’t find a phrase that embraced both concepts completely, and I’m very aware that there might be people who support one and not the other. I want to be as inclusive as possible. I don’t want people to back out on a technicality. This is too important. We’re trying to re-educate people’s ideas of gender and sexuality, and that’s going to take a lot of people to get the idea into the public consciousness. I envision this as a populist movement that will take on a life of its own.