Friday, November 4, 2011

Female Bodies At Occupy Wall Street

1. Government

- In our consensus process we give precedence to politically disadvantaged.
- Are you one of the disadvantaged?
- I am female bodied.
- You're saying you are female?
- Some people with the body of a female don't identify themselves as female.
- Are the female bodies discriminated against or the female identification?
- Both.
- Then would a female bodied but male identifying person be less discriminated against?
- No, because the combination itself is discriminated against.
- You don't want people to think that because your body is female they know anything more about you than that.
- Yes. And to point out the possibilities.
- I see. But the language closes possibilities too.
- How?
- You know what it means when we say someone talks like a book. A political statement, meant to stand on its own and aimed at the masses, doesn't belong in conversation.
- You're the one who asked.

2. Society

When someone does something good other people can take it or leave it. No one has to protect themselves from good. When someone does something bad, other people have to do something about it. They have to take measures to protect themselves. Thomas Paine put it like this:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Or as a protester would demand:

Politics Out Of Private Life!