Male Accountability Within Movements

“Overall, activist scenes are no safe space for women because misogynists and

abusive men exist within them. More, many of these abusers use the language,

tools of activism and support by other activists as means to abuse women and

conceal their behavior. And unfortunately, in a lot of political circles, regardless of

how much we talk about patriarchy or misogyny, women are sacrificed in order to

keep up “the work” or save the organization. Perhaps it is time we actually just

care that activist women are vulnerable to being manipulated and abused by

activist males and consider that proactively addressing this is an integral part of

the “work” that activists must do.”

While engaging with our readings this week, I noticed that my body was tense

and my mood was irritable. I could not understand what about the readings were

causing these responses. The readings presented a highly developed strategy

for promoting active accountability within our communities; why was I so

triggered? Upon further reflection and supplemental readings I was able to

explore my trigger more deeply and on a more personal level.

Throughout my work in and association with radical communities, I have both

observed and experienced patterns of patriarchy, privilege, sexism, exploitation,

misogyny, and abuse of women for which our community has no system of

accountability. Nor are these patterns of behavior being addressed constructively

or transparently. This is not to say that there has not been any effort put forth to

establish an accountability process, there have been many. There have even

been events organized to hold space for dialogue about the pervasiveness of

these behaviors in our communities. These organized events are always

successful in determining that yes; patriarchy, privilege, sexism, exploitation,

misogyny, and abuse are all present in our community. There have been working

groups, study groups, and spokes. So why does nothing change? Why do

women who seek refuge from dominate culture in activist communities get

nothing but lip service when it comes to safe spaces? Why are men who exhibit

these behaviors not held accountable? Why do our highly developed

accountability processes keep failing?

With a topic as triggering as the pervasiveness of sexism and patriarchy within

social justice movements, the conversation gets shut down in an effort to avoid

internal divides. Female identified survivors are silenced in the name of the

movement. The message that gets sent is that addressing sexism and misogyny

within our communities is secondary to organizing campaigns and movement

building. Out of exasperation women will often disengage with the community,

sometimes going as far as to boycott activism all together. This scenario is very

effective at maintaining the imbalance of power in social movements and keeps

our communities entrenched in Rape Culture. As for the working groups, time

and time again they develop one accountability process after another, which is

then unanimously agreed upon by the community. In my experience, this process

no matter how highly developed, is never implemented or applied. Much like the

constitution of our country, it exists as mere rhetoric used to promote a façade of

progressivism. A common theme in every process of accountability I have ever

read (including this weeks’ readings) or engaged with is a commitment to

transparency. Transparency is always the bedrock, the starting point at which we

begin if we want to initiate the process of accountability. To help me breakdown

this buzzword, I researched until I found a meaningful definition.

“Transparency, as used the humanities and in a social context more generally,

implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating

in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.” (WIKI)

As I already discussed, one of the reasons our accountability process fails when

it comes to holding men who exhibit behaviors of sexism or misogyny

accountable is because when women attempt to hold space so that these

behaviors can be addressed with transparency, the conversation is shut down

and labeled as divisive. Consequently, the accountability process is also shut

down before it even starts.

I have recently been struggling with a scenario in which a male member of

Portland’s activist community continues to be validated and perceived by the

community as “radicle” and socially aware while his patterns of behavior are

steeped in sexism, patriarch, privilege, abuse, and exploitation of women. This

individual often speaks from a Feminist Framework so that unless you’ve been

an intimate female partner of his, you would not know of these behaviors. As this

individual holds a considerable amount of privilege in the community, there

seems to be no one willing to risk bringing transparency to his behaviors. The

many personal recounting of experiences with this person leaves me angry that

there is no way to hold this person accountable for his behaviors. I am angry that

he continues to hold privilege and power in the movement.

I am sure that this scenario is not unique to this individual. Rather, I am sure that

this is a common trend. In fact I’ve seen this exact scenario play out many times.

How do we go beyond rhetoric and façade and actually create safe spaces so

that these women can address these behaviors? How can we ensure women

that if they do take the risk that it would be worth it? That the community would

actually hold this person accountable? That they would not be ostracized

because of their efforts?

Identifying that my feelings in regard to the readings stemmed from having lost

patience with academically constructed processes of accountability allowed me

to give space to feelings and thoughts that have been held for far too long.