
Marge Frantz

Au cours des dernières années, nous avons observé une nouvelle tendance inquiétante dans les espaces internationaux consacrés aux droits humains. Les discours axés sur « la protection de la famille » sont en effet utilisés pour défendre des violations des droits de membres de la famille, pour renforcer et justifier l’impunité des auteurs de ces violations et pour restreindre l’égalité des droits au niveau de la vie familiale.
La campagne en faveur de la « Protection de la famille » est motivée par une volonté conservatrice d’imposer des conceptions « traditionnelles » et patriarcales de la famille et de priver les membres de la famille de leurs droits pour les transférer à « l’institution familiale ».
Depuis 2014, un groupe d’Etats travaille de front dans les espaces dédiés aux droits humains sous le nom de « Group of Friends of the Family » (Groupe des ami-e-s de la famille) ; des résolutions sur la « Protection de la famille » ont été adoptées chaque année depuis 2014.
Ce programme s’est propagé au-delà du Conseil des droits humains. Nous avons observé l’introduction d’un discours régressif autour de la « famille » à la Commission sur la condition de la femme, ainsi que des tentatives d’introduction dans les négociations sur les Objectifs de développement durable.
L’AWID travaille avec des partenaires et des allié-e-s pour s’opposer ensemble à la « Protection de la famille » et à d’autres programmes régressifs et défendre l’universalité des droits humains.
En réponse à l’influence croissante d’acteurs régressifs au sein des espaces dédiés aux droits humains, l’AWID a rejoint des allié-e-s afin de créer l’Observatoire sur l'Universalité des droits (OURs) (site en anglais). L’OURs est un projet de collaboration qui surveille, analyse et diffuse les informations concernant les initiatives anti-droits telles que la « Protection de la famille ».
Le premier rapport de l’OURs, Nos droits en danger, trace une cartographie des acteurs et actrices qui constituent le lobby mondial anti-droits et identifie leur réthorique et stratégies clés ainsi que leur impact sur les droits humains.
Le rapport précise que le programme de « Protection de la famille » a développé une collaboration entre un large éventail d’acteurs régressifs aux Nations Unies, qu’il décrit comme « un cadre stratégique abritant des positions anti-droits et patriarcales multiples, où le cadre vise entre autres à légitimer et institutionnaliser ces positions. »
Are you job hunting? One of the perks of joining the AWID Community, is getting access to our community curated jobs board. You'll get to explore new opportunities, and you will also have the chance to share vacancies and call for proposals with all members.
Jacqueline fue una feminista pionera malí-burkinesa, nacionalista y educadora.
Enseñó inglés en Senegal antes de ser convocada en 1961 como maestra de inglés en el Lycée Philippe Zinda Kaboré en Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Debido a su activismo, estuvo involucrada en el alzamiento popular del 3 de enero de 1966. Entre 1961 y 1966 fue responsable de la prensa del sindicato docente, Voces de lxs Maestrxs. Fue nombrada directora del Curso Normal para Niñas Jóvenes (ahora conocida como Escuela Secundaria Nelson Mandela), cargo que ocupó hasta 1974, dedicándose a la educación de las niñas y a la promoción de los derechos de las mujeres.
En 1984 recibió el Premio Paul G. Hoffmann por su destacado trabajo para el desarrollo nacional e internacional.
Un réseau complexe et mouvant d’antidroits exerce une influence croissante dans les sphères internationales et les politiques locales. Souvent soutenu·e·s par des financements d’origine imprécise, ces acteur·rice·s renforcent leur impact en créant des alliances tactiques entre thématiques, régions et croyances.
Alors que les discours des fascistes et fondamentalistes sont tout à fait nationalistes, leurs assises idéologiques, alliances politiques et réseaux de financement ne connaissent pas de frontières. Parfois soutenus par des flux de financement d’origine obscure, en lien avec de grosses entreprises ou des partis d’extrême droite, ces groupes concluent des alliances stratégiques, voire avec des sous-groupes de mouvements féministes et pour les droits des femmes, dans certains cas, tout en s’éloignant d’éléments ouvertement extrêmes pour acquérir davantage de légitimité. Ces acteur·rice·s diffusent et reproduisent également partout dans le monde leur modèle d’organisation antidroits : leurs manières de faire campagne, de faire pression ou de mener des actions stratégiques en justice.
por Karina Ocampo
A un rincón escondido de Chiapas, México, llegamos mujeres y disidencias sexuales para organizar nuestras acciones. (...)
< arte: «Proyecto fotográfico: La muerte sale por el Oriente», de Sonia MadrigalMientras atravesamos las múltiples crisis globales, los movimientos infatigablemente construimos el poder más allá de las estructuras de poder tradicionales. La ola de órdenes ejecutivas que ha emitido la presidencia de los EE.UU. tiene la intención de amedrentarnos, pero no hay ideología fascista capaz de borrar nuestra existencia y resistencia.
Te invitamos a formar parte de la campaña de construcción de solidaridad para poner al descubierto y resistir a las fuerzas fascistas que socavan los movimientos feministas y por la justicia de género en tu contexto.
Lara était une DJ bien connue et appréciée de la Motsweding, une radio FM d’Afrique du Sud.
Lara a été l’un des premières animatrices ouvertement transgenre d’une radio grand public. Elle a œuvré sans relâche pour que lumière soit faite sur les questions LGBTI.
L’activisme de Lara a commencé très tôt, alors qu’elle revendiquait son droit de s’habiller et de se comporter afin de se sentir à l’aise auprès des membres de sa communauté qui ne comprenaient pas encore ce que signifiait être transgenre.
AWID is very pleased to share our 2014 Annual Report.
From building knowledge on women’s rights issues to amplifying responses to violence against women human rights defenders (WHRDs), our work last year continued to strengthen feminist and women’s rights movements across the world.
Get learn how we built the capacity of our members and broader constituency, pushed hard to keep women’s rights on the agenda of major international development and human rights processes, and helped increase coverage of women’s rights issues and organizing through the media. You'll find a panoramic sampling of our projects and some concrete numbers demonstrating our impact.
Collaboration is at the heart of all that we do, and we look forward to another year of working together to take our movements to the next level.
Despite an increasingly challenging panorama, there are important signs of hope for advancing women’s rights agendas. Women’s rights activists remain crucial in creating openings to demand structural change, sustaining their communities, opposing violence and holding the line on key achievements. And there are important opportunities to influence new actors and to mobilize greater resources to support women’s rights organizations.
In this context, strong collective action and organizing among women’s rights activists remains essential.
I am sincerely thrilled by AWID’s accomplishments since 1982 and hope to be able to pay at least a modest contribution to its hard work for the benefit of women and situation of gender equality.” — Aleksandra Miletic-Santic, Bosnia Herzegovina
فقدان الكلامترجمة رولا علاء الدين |
![]() |
![]() |
تشينيلو أونوالو | غوى صايغ |
«لمّا نكون مُستَقتِلين للتغيير، لِكوننا في حالة مرضٍ وتمرّدٍ في آنٍ واحد، تخلو لغتنا من التعقيد وتنصقل لتعكس أبسط ركائزها. (...) لكن، ومع استمرار المرض والثورة، تصبح اللغة المُصاغة في هذه الحالة وعنها أكثرَ عمقاً وأكثرَ تعبيراً عن الفوارق الدقيقة، وتكون منغمسة انغماساً شديداً في التجربة الإنسانية التي يواجه فيها المرءُ حدودَه عند نهاية العالم».
بدأنا التخطيط لعدد المجلّة هذا مع نانا داركوا قُبيل مهرجان «ابدعي، قاومي، غيٍّري: مهرجان للحراكات النسوية» لجمعية «حقوق المرأة في التنمية» AWID، وانطلقنا وقتها من سؤالٍ هو بالأحرى ملاحظة حول حالة العالم، ورغبة في تغيير الاعتقادات السائدة: لماذا لا تزال جنسانيّاتنا وملذّاتنا تخضع للترويض والتجريم مع أنّه يتمّ تذكيرنا مراراً وتكراراً بأنّها لا تأتي بأيّ قيمة أو تطوّر؟ واستنتجنا أنّ جنسانيّاتنا، لمّا تتجسّد، فيها ما يتعارض مع النظام العالمي الذي ما زال يتجلّى من خلال ضوابط الحدود، والتمييز العنصري في توزيع اللقاح، والاستعمار الاستيطاني، والتطهير العرقي، والرأسمالية المُستشرية. هل يمكننا إذاً القول إنّ لجنسانيّاتنا قدرةٌ تعطيليّة؟ وهل يصحّ هذا القول عندما ننظر إلى واقع حركاتنا التي يتمّ الاستيلاء عليها ومأسستها في سعيها للتزوّد بالموارد؟
عندما يصبح عملنا المتجسّد مادةً ربحية في أيدي الأنظمة التي نسعى إلى إزالتها فلا عجب أنّ جنسانيّاتنا وملذّاتنا توضَع جانباً من جديد، لا سيّما أنّها ليست مُربِحة بما فيه الكفاية. لقد تساءلنا، في مواقف عدّة خلال إنتاج هذا العدد، ما الذي سيحدث إذا رفضنا مراعاة خدمات الرأسمالية الأساسية؟ لكن هل نجرؤ على هذا التساؤل وقد أنهكنا العالم؟ ربما يتمّ تجاهل جنسانيّاتنا بهذه السهولة لأنها لا تُعتَبَر أشكالاً من أشكال الرعاية. ربما ما نحتاجه هو أن نعيد تصوّر الملذّة كشكلٍ من أشكال الرعاية الجذرية، تكون أيضاً مناهضة للرأسمالية وللمؤسساتية.
بدأنا العام الثاني على التوالي لحالة الجائحة العالمية وكان لا بدّ أن تركّز مقاربتنا للتجسيدات العابرة للحدود القومية على ملاحظة سياسيّة واحدة: أنّ الرعاية هي شكل من أشكال التجسيد. وبما أنّ جزءاً كبيراً من عملنا يتمّ حالياً من دون أيّ اعتبار للحدود بيننا وفينا فنحن جميعاً متجسّدون بشكلٍ عابرٍ للحدود القومية، ونحن جميعاً نفشل. نحن نفشل في رعاية ذاتنا، والأهمّ أننا نفشل في رعاية الآخرين.
هذا الفشل ليس من صنع أيدينا.
إنّ الكثير من أهالينا اعتبروا العملَ مقايضةً، أي أنّه شيءٌ يُعطى مقابل أجرٍ وضمانة بالحصول على الرعاية. صحيحٌ أنّه تمّ الإخلال بهذه المقايضة أحياناً، لكنّ أهالينا ما كانوا يأملون أنّ عملهم سيوفّر لهم الرِضا الذاتي، وكانوا يعتمدون لهذا الغرض على نشاطهم الترفيهي وهواياتهم ومجتمعاتهم. أمّا اليوم، فنحن، أولادهم الذين تمّت تهيأتنا لنعتبر العمل متشابكاً مع الشغف، توقّعاتنا مختلفة تماماً. نحن لا نفرّق بين العمل والترفيه ونعتبرهما عنصراً واحداً، وبالنسبة للكثيرين بيننا، العمل بات يجسّد الذات بكاملها.
إنّ الرأسمالية القائمة على الأبويّة والمغايَرة الجنسية لا ترى لنا أيّ قيمة، ناهيك عن عملنا وجنسانيّاتنا. إنّه نظامٌ سيستمر في طلب المزيد والمزيد منك إلى يوم مماتك، وبعدها سيستبدلك بشخصٍ آخر. يُنتَظَر منّا أن نكون على اتصال بالإنترنت في كلّ الأوقات، ما يعني أنّه لا يمكننا الانصراف عن العمل حتى لو شئنا ذلك. إنّ هذا التَتْجير للعمل وفصله تماماً عن الشخص قد تسلّل إلى كلّ ناحية من نواحي حياتنا، ويتمّ ترسيخ هذا التَتْجير حتى في الأوساط الأكثر نسويّة والأكثر تمرّداً وتشدّداً.
لطالما حمَلَت تطلّعات الرأسمالية ضرراً كبيراً بالأجساد التي لا تتوافق مع النموذج المثالي، وأولئك الذين يسعون إلى ترسيخ سلطتهم استغّلوا الجائحة كفرصة لاستهداف النساء والأقلّيات الجنسية وكلّ مَن يعتبرونه دون المستوى.
تمّ إعداد هذا العدد الخاص بفعل هذا الواقع، وطبعاً، رغماً عن هذا الواقع.
لقد قدّم المساهمون/ المساهمات والعاملون/ العاملات كلّهم تقريباً مجهوداً يفوق طاقاتهم، وكلٌّ من الأعمال الواردة هنا هو نتاجُ سعيٍ شغوف ولكن أيضاً نتاج حالة إنهاكٍ شديد. يشكّل هذا العدد، بطريقة غايةً في الواقعية، تجسيداً للعمل العابر للحدود القومية، علماً أنّ أيّ عمل في عصرنا الرقمي أصبحَ عابراً لتلك الحدود. وفيما فُرِضَ علينا تقبّل حدود جديدة، وهي حدود لا تخالف النظام القائم سابقاً بل تعزّزه، اختبرنا مباشرةً، إلى جانب مساهمينا، كيف تستنزف الرأسمالية طاقاتنا القصوى – كيف يصبح من الصعب بناء الحجج المتماسكة لا سيّما حينما تكون خاضعة لموعد التسليم. إننا نعاني بشكلٍ جَماعي من فقدان الكلام لأننا أساساً نعاني من فقدان العوالم.
الشعور بالضياع والوحدة في عالم الرأسمالية القائمة على الأبوية والمغايَرة الجنسية هو بالتحديد ما يجعل من الضروري أن نعيد تقييم أنظمة الرعاية التي نتّبعها وأن نُعيد النظر فيها. لقد حوّلنا هذا العدد بوسائل عدّة إلى مهمّة لإيجاد الملذّة في الرعاية. فبما أنّه بات من الصعب بناء الحجج المتماسكة، برزت الوسائط البصرية والمبتكرة وقد لجأ كثرٌ ممن اعتادوا الكتابة إلى هذه الوسائط كطرقٍ لإنتاج المعرفة واختراق الضباب الفكريّ الذي أحاط بنا. لقد ضمّينا في هذا العدد أصواتاً أخرى، بالإضافة إلى أصواتٍ عدّة استمعتم إليها في المهرجان، كوسيلة لإطلاق حوارات جديدة وتوسيع آفاقنا.
بما أنّ كلماتنا قد سُرِقَت منّا، يقضي واجبنا السياسي بأن نستمر في إيجاد الوسائل للحفاظ على أنفسنا والآخرين والاهتمام بأنفسنا وبالآخرين. بالتالي، يصبح تجسّدنا نوعاً من المقاومة إذ هو بداية إيجادنا لسبيل الخروج من الذات ودخولها.
Nous vivons dans un monde où la destruction de la Nature alimente notre économie mondiale actuelle. Même en période de crise climatique, les gouvernements continuent d'encourager les industries agricoles à grande échelle à se développer. Ces activités empoisonnent la terre, menacent la biodiversité et détruisent la production alimentaire et les moyens de subsistance locaux. Pendant ce temps, alors que les femmes produisent la majorité de la nourriture dans le monde, elles ne possèdent presque aucune terre.
Et si nous percevions la terre et la Nature non pas comme une propriété privée à exploiter, mais comme une totalité avec laquelle vivre, apprendre et coexister harmonieusement ? Et si nous réparions nos relations avec la terre et adoptions des alternatives plus durables qui nourrissent à la fois la planète et ses communautés?
Nous Sommes la Solution (NSS) est l'un des nombreux mouvements dirigés par des femmes qui s'efforcent d'atteindre cet objectif.
Voici leur histoire.
par Alejandra Laprea
Je vis dans le pays de l’impossible, où les bombes ne tombent pas alors que nous connaissons la guerre. (...)
illustration : « Entretejidas » (« Entrelacées »), par Surmercé >✉️ Requiere inscripción previa. Regístrate aquí
📅 Martes 11 de marzo de 2025
🕒 De 06:00 a 08:00 p. m.,
🏢 Chef's Kitchen Loft with Terrace, 216 East 45th St 13th Floor New York
Organiza: AWID
Riham was a lawyer and activist committed to monitoring rights violations in Yemen.
She worked with other activists to supply civilians trapped by Houthi militias in the outskirts of the city of Taiz with food and water.
Riham was killed in February 2018 and it is unconfirmed whether she was killed by a sniper or hit by an aircraft. Nobody has been held accountable for her murder.
AWID comenzó a preparar este informe anual en el momento en que la pandemia global empezaba a desintegrar las formas en que nos reunimos, nos organizamos y vivimos nuestras vidas. Es imposible reseñar lo que hemos hecho sin que el COVID-19 afecte nuestra evaluación.
Descargar el informe anual 2019 completo (PDF)
Es una afirmación, urgentemente necesaria, de que existen otros modos, más justos, de organizar nuestras vidas. Durante 2019, cientos de grupos compartieron con nosotrxs sus experiencias y propuestas de realidades feministas, que van desde las redes radicales de apoyo comunitario que facilitan el aborto autogestionado en América Latina y las prácticas de economías comunitarias en Indonesia y de sistemas alimentarios comunitarios en India y EEUU, hasta la reconcepción y renovación de las prácticas no perjudiciales para ritos de iniciación en Sierra Leona. Estas son las experiencias que trazarán un camino hacia una «nueva normalidad».
Una parte clave de nuestro trabajo de 2019 fue alentar estas exploraciones a través de una guía que AWID lanzó para apoyar a aquellos grupos interesados en descubrir las historias y las aspiraciones que son los componentes esenciales de las proposiciones feministas.
Mientras nos focalizamos en nuestras propuestas para un mundo diferente, también reconocemos el complejo contexto que nos rodea. A través de alianzas con el Observatorio sobre la Universalidad de los Derechos, las Feministas por un Tratado Vinculante, el Consorcio Count Me In! y otras organizaciones, AWID ha continuado resistiendo contra el poder corporativo irrestricto y contra las agendas fascistas y fundamentalistas que socavan los derechos de las mujeres y la justicia de género. En vista de las escasas posibilidades de lograr un cambio transformador a través de procesos multilaterales y de la limitada receptividad de la mayoría de los Estados, estamos redoblando nuestros esfuerzos para garantizar que los movimientos feministas, en toda su diversidad, sean financiados de forma proporcional al papel crítico que desempeñan al apoyar a sus comunidades, reclamar derechos, y responder a las crisis. En 2019, introdujimos principios y enfoques feministas para fondos innovadores como la Iniciativa Spotlight y el Fondo Igualdad, y logramos obtener recursos a través de subvenciones de fondos semilla para realidades feministas provenientes de donantes feministas.
Si miramos hacia adelante, resulta claro que el contexto requiere una transformación de nuestras estrategias de organización:
AWID se está embarcando ahora en un nuevo modelo de membresía que reduce las barreras para el acceso y pone el énfasis en las oportunidades para la participación y la conexión entre afiliadxs. Seguiremos experimentando con distintas herramientas y procesos virtuales para construir comunidad. La interacción entre movimientos continuará siendo central para nuestro trabajo. Las acciones de AWID en solidaridad con los movimientos y las identidades que sufren opresión (incluso y especialmente cuando estas quedan marginalizadas dentro de los movimientos feministas) son importantes para impulsar el cambio y brindar apoyo a los movimientos amplios e inclusivos para todas las personas.
Somos resilientes, nos adaptamos, y nos hacemos presentes para lxs demás. Y tenemos que seguir haciéndolo mejor. Gracias a todxs ustedes, que son parte del viaje junto con nosotrxs.
![]() |
Tshegofatso Senne is a Black, chronically-ill, genderqueer feminist who does the most. Much of their work is rooted in pleasure, community, and dreaming, while being informed by somatic abolitionism and disability, healing, and transformative justices. Writing, researching, and speaking on issues concerning feminism, community, sexual and reproductive justice, consent, rape culture, and justice, Tshegofatso has 8 years of experience theorising on the ways in which these topics intersect with pleasure. They run their own business, Thembekile Stationery, and their community platform Hedone brings people together to explore and understand the power of trauma-awareness and pleasure in their daily lives. Tshegofatso believes deeply in the individual and collective potential of regenerative and sustainable change, pleasure, and care work. |
The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience and a sense of flow.
These words, said by Resmaa Menakem in his book My Grandmother’s Hands, have stayed with me.
The body; it holds our experiences. Our memories. Our resilience. And as Menakem has written, the body also holds our traumas. It responds with spontaneous protective mechanisms to stop or prevent more damage. That is the power of the body. Trauma is not the event; it is how our bodies respond to events that feel dangerous to us. It is often left stuck in the body, until we address it. There’s no talking our body out of this response – it just is.
Using Ling Tan’s Digital Superpower app, I tracked how my body felt as I travelled around different parts of my city, Johannesburg, South Africa. The app is a gesture-driven online platform that allows you to trace your perceptions as you move through locations by logging and recording the data. I used it to track my psychosomatic symptoms – physical reactions connected to a mental cause. Whether that be flashbacks. Panic attacks. Tightness in the chest. A fast heartbeat. Tension headaches. Muscle pain. Insomnia. Struggling to breathe. I tracked these symptoms as I walked and travelled to different areas in Johannesburg. And I asked myself.
Where can we be safe? Can we be safe?
Psychosomatic responses can be caused by a number of things, and some are not as severe as others. After experiencing any kind of trauma you may feel intense distress in similar events or situations. I tracked my sensations, ranked on a scale of 1-5, where 1 were the instances I barely felt any of these symptoms – I felt at ease rather than on-guard and jumpy, my breath and heart rate were stable, I was not looking over my shoulder – and number 5 being the opposite – symptoms that had me close to a panic attack.
As a Black person. As a queer person. As a genderqueer person who could be perceived as a woman, depending on what my gender expression is that day.
I asked myself.
Where can we be safe?
Even in neighbourhoods one might consider “safe,” I felt constantly panicked. Looking around me to make sure I wasn’t being followed, adjusting the way my T-shirt sat so my breasts wouldn’t show up as much, looking around to make sure I knew multiple routes to get out of the place I was should I sense danger. An empty road brings anxiety. A packed one does too. Being in an Uber does. Walking on a public road does. Being in my apartment does. So does picking up a delivery from the front of the building.
Can we be safe?
Pumla Dineo Gqola speaks of the Female Fear Factory. It may or may not be familiar, but if you’re someone socialised as a woman, you’ll know this feeling well. The feeling that has you planning every step you take, whether you’re going to work, school, or just running an errand. The feeling that you have to watch how you dress, act, speak in public and private spaces. The feeling in the pit of your stomach if you have to travel at night, get a delivery, or deal with any person who continues to socialise as a cis man. Harassed on the street, always with the threat of violence. Us existing in any space comes with an innate fear.
Fear is both an individual and a socio-political phenomenon. At an individual level, fear can be present as part of a healthy well developing warning system […] When we think about fear, it is important to hold both notions of individual emotional experience and the political ways in which fear has been used in different epochs for control.
- Pumla Dineo Gqola, in her book Rape: A South African Nightmare
South African women, femmes, and queers know that every step we take outside – steps to do ordinary things: a walk to the shops, a taxi to work, an Uber from a party – all of these acts are a negotiation with violence. This fear, is part of the trauma. To cope with the trauma we carry in our bodies, we develop responses to detect danger – watching the emotional responses of those around us, reading for “friendliness.” We’re constantly on guard.
Day after day. Year after year. Life after life. Generation after generation.
On the additional challenge of this learned defence system, author of The Body Keeps Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk, has said
It disrupts this ability to accurately read others, rendering the trauma survivor either less able to detect danger or more likely to misperceive danger where there is none. It takes tremendous energy to keep functioning while carrying the memory of terror, and the shame of utter weakness and vulnerability.
As Resmaa Menakem has said, trauma is in everything; it infiltrates the air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat. It is in the systems that govern us, the institutions that teach and also traumatise us, and within the social contracts we enter into with each other. Most importantly, we take it with us everywhere we go, in our bodies, exhausting us and eroding our health and happiness. We carry that truth in our bodies. Generations of us have.
So, as I walk around my city, whether an area is considered “safe” or not, I carry the traumas of generations whose responses are embedded in my body. My heart palpitates, it becomes difficult to breathe, my chest tightens – because my body feels as though the trauma is happening in that very moment. I live hyper vigilant. To the point where one is either too on-guard to mindfully enjoy their life, or too numb to absorb new experiences.
For us to begin to heal, we need to acknowledge these truths.
These truths that live in our bodies.
This trauma is what keeps many of us from living the lives we want. Ask any femme or queer person what safety looks like to them and they’ll mostly share examples that are simple tasks – being able to simply live joyful lives, without the constant threat of violence.
Feelings of safety, of comfort and ease, are spatial. When we embody our trauma, it affects the ways we perceive our own safety, affects the ways we interact with the world, and alters the ways we are able to experience and embody anything pleasurable and joyful.
We have to refuse this burdensome responsibility and fight for a safe world for all of us. Walking wounded as many of us are, we are fighters. Patriarchy may terrorise and brutalise us, but we will not give up the fight. As we repeatedly take to the streets, defying the fear in spectacular and seemingly insignificant ways, we defend ourselves and speak in our own name.
- Pumla Dineo Gqola, in her book Rape: A South African Nightmare
Where can we be safe? How do we begin to defend ourselves, not just in the physical sense, but in the emotional, psychological, and spiritual senses?
“Trauma makes weapons out of us all,” adrienne maree brown has said in an interview conducted by Justin Scott Campbell. And her work, Pleasure Activism, offers us multiple methodologies to heal that trauma and ground ourselves in the understanding that healing, justice, and liberation can also be pleasurable experiences. Especially those of us who are the most marginalised, who may have been raised to equate suffering with “The Work.” The Work that so many of us have gone into as activists, community builders and workers, those serving the most marginalised, The Work that we struggle in order to do, burning ourselves out and rarely caring for our minds and bodies. The alternative is becoming more informed about our trauma, able to identify our own needs, and becoming deeply embodied. That embodiment means we are simply more able to experience the world through the senses and sensations in our bodies, acknowledging what they tell us rather than suppressing and ignoring the information it is communicating with us.
Being constantly in conversation with our living body and intentionally practising those conversations connects us to embodiment more deeply; it allows us to make tangible the emotions we feel as we interact with the world, befriend our bodies, and understand all that they try to teach us. When understanding trauma and embodiment paired, we can begin to start the healing and access pleasure more holistically, healthily, and in our daily lives without shame and guilt. We can begin to access pleasure as a tool for individual and social change, tapping into the power of the erotic as Audre Lorde described it. A power that allows us to share the joy we access and experience, expanding our capacity for happiness and understanding that we are deserving of it, even with our trauma.
Tapping into pleasure and embodying the erotic gives us the expansion of being deliberately alive, feeling grounded and stable and understanding our nervous systems. It allows us to understand and shed the generational baggage we’ve been carrying without realising; we can be empowered with the knowledge that even as traumatised as we are, as traumatised as we potentially could be in the future, we are still deserving of pleasurable and joyful lives, that we can share that power with our people. It is the community aspect that is missing from the ways we care for ourselves; self-care cannot exist without community care. We are able to feel a deeper internal trust, safety, and power of ourselves, especially in the face of future traumas that will trigger us, knowing how to soothe and stabilise ourselves. All this understanding leads us to a deep internal power that is resourced to meet any challenges that come your way.
As those living with deep generational traumas, we have come to distrust and perhaps think we are incapable of containing and accessing the power we have. In “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Lorde teaches us that the erotic offers a source of replenishment, a way to demand better for ourselves and our lives.
For the erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. Once we know the extent to which we are capable of feeling that sense of satisfaction and completion, we can then observe which of our various life endeavours brings us closest to that fullness.
I don’t say any of this lightly – I know that this is easier said than done. I know that many of us are prevented from understanding these truths, from internalising or even healing them. Resistance comes with acts of feeling unsafe, but is not impossible. Resisting power structures that keep the most powerful safe will always endanger those of us shoved to the margins. Acknowledging the traumas you’ve faced is a reclamation of your lived experiences, those that have passed and those that will follow; it is resistance that embodies that knowledge that we are deserving of more than the breadcrumbs these systems have forced us to lap up. It is a resistance that understands that pleasure is complicated by trauma, but it can be accessed in arbitrary and powerful ways. It is a resistance that acknowledges that our trauma is a resource that connects us to each other, and can allow us to keep each other safe. It is a resistance that understands that even with pleasure and joy, this is not a utopia; we will still harm and be harmed, but we will be better equipped for survival and thrive in a community of diverse care and kindness. A resistance that makes way for healing and connecting to our full human selves.
Healing will never be an easy and rosy journey, but it begins with the acknowledgment of the possibility. When oppression makes us believe that pleasure is not something that we all have equal access to, one of the ways that we start doing the work of reclaiming our full selves — our whole liberated, free selves — is by reclaiming our access to pleasure.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has said in her article in Pleasure Activism (to which she contributed),
I know that for most people, the words “care” and “pleasure” can’t even be in the same sentence. We’re all soaking in ableism’s hatred of bodies that have needs, and we’re given a really shitty choice: either have no needs and get to have autonomy, dignity, and control over your life or admit you need care and lose all of the above.
The power that this has? We understand our traumas, so we understand those of others; we embody the sensations we experience and tend to them rather than distract and avoid. We access pleasure in ways that make us want to share that joy with those in our communities. When we are trauma-informed, we give ourselves more room to experience all this and give ourselves, and others, permission to heal. Imagine, a community in which everyone has access, resources, and time to live pleasurable lives, in whichever way they want and deserve. In which spatial traumas are lessened because the people that occupy them are trauma-aware, are filled with a tender care. Isn’t that healing? Is that not working through generational traumas? Does that not build and sustain healthier futures for us all?
It is time we reconnected with the ancestral knowledge that we deserve to live full lives. We need to get back in touch with our natural right to joy and existing for ourselves. To feel pleasure simply for the sake of it. To not live lives of terror. It sounds radical; it feels radical. In a world where we have been socialised and traumatised to numb, to fear, to feel and remain powerless, to be greedy and live with structural issues that lead to mental illness, what a gift and wonder it is to begin to feel, to be in community with those who feel, to be healthily interdependent in, to love each other boldly. Feeling is radical. Pleasure is radical. Healing is radical.
You have permission to feel pleasure. You have permission to dance, create, make love to yourself and others, celebrate and cultivate joy. You are encouraged to do so. You have permission to heal. Don’t bottle it up inside, don’t try to move through this time alone. You have permission to grieve. And you have permission to live.
- adrienne maree brown, “You Have Permission”
Somatic embodiment allows us to explore our trauma, work through it and make meaningful connections to ourselves and the collective. Doing this over time sustains our healing; just like trauma, healing is not a one-time only event. This healing helps move us toward individual and collective liberation.
In “A Queer Politics of Pleasure,” Andy Johnson speaks about the ways in which the queering of pleasure offers us sources of healing, acceptance, release, playfulness, wholeness, defiance, subversion, and freedom. How expansive! When we embody pleasure in ways that are this holistic, this queer, we are able to acknowledge the limitation.
Queering pleasure also asks us the questions that intersect our dreaming with our lived realities.
Who is free or deemed worthy enough to feel pleasure? When is one allowed to feel pleasure or pleased? With whom can one experience pleasure? What kind of pleasure is accessible? What limits one from accessing their full erotic and pleased potential?
- Andy Johnson, “A Queer Politics
of Pleasure”
When our trauma-informed pleasure practices are grounded in community care, we begin to answer some of these questions. We begin to understand the liberating potential. As pleasure activists, this is the reality we ground ourselves within. The reality that says, my pleasure may be fractal, but it has the potential to heal not only me and my community, but future bloodlines.
I am a whole system; we are whole systems. We are not just our pains, not just our fears, and not just our thoughts. We are entire systems wired for pleasure, and we can learn how to say yes from the inside out.
- Prentis Hemphill, interviewed by Shar Jossell
There’s a world of pleasure that allows us to begin to understand ourselves holistically, in ways that give us room to rebuild the realities that affirm that we are capable and deserving of daily pleasure. BDSM, one of my deepest pleasures, allows me a glimpse into these realities where I can both feel and heal my trauma, as well as feel immeasurable opportunities to say yes from the inside out. While trauma keeps me stuck in a cycle of fight or flight, bondage, kneeling, impact, and breath play encourage me to stay grounded and connected, reconnecting to restoration. Pleasure that is playful allows me to heal, to identify where traumatic energy is stored in my body and focus my energy there. It allows me to express the sensations my body feels through screams of pain and delight, to express my no with no fear and revel in the fuck yes. With a safety plan, aftercare, and a deeper understanding of trauma, kink offers a place of pleasure and healing that is invaluable.
So whether your pleasure looks like cooking a meal at your leisure, engaging in sex, having bed days with your people, participating in disability care collectives, having someone spit in your mouth, going on accessible outings, having cuddle dates, attending an online dance party, spending time in your garden, being choked out in a dungeon,
I hope you take pleasure with you wherever you go. I hope it heals you and your people.
Recognising the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world.
- Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”
This journal edition in partnership with Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research, will explore feminist solutions, proposals and realities for transforming our current world, our bodies and our sexualities.
نصدر النسخة هذه من المجلة بالشراكة مع «كحل: مجلة لأبحاث الجسد والجندر»، وسنستكشف عبرها الحلول والاقتراحات وأنواع الواقع النسوية لتغيير عالمنا الحالي وكذلك أجسادنا وجنسانياتنا.
Gender Impact Investing (GII) is now trending as a solution to gender inequality. Yet, as our report indicates, it is actually part of the problem. Public and private institutions marketing GII equate it with promotion of gender equality and with increased resources for women and girls.
Rather, GII is another expression of subjecting our lives and societies to the same financial logic that has shaped, and continues shaping, the profound inequalities in our world.
With this report, AWID offers the readers - feminists, gender justice advocates and stakeholders in gender impact investing - a critical analysis and substantiated evidence to understand GII, its narratives, and economic and political implications for feminist movements.