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Saturday (March 7th 2015) | 14h | Gänseliesel (Göttingen) (Deutsche Version) | Feminist fighting beyond boundaries – against antifeminism, racism, homophobia and trans*phobia!

Antifeminist positions are on the rise and are already widespread. Fundamentalist Christians, organized neo-Nazis, right-wing populists and, not least among them, ‘angry citizens’ (‘Wutbürger’) from the so-called center of society all feel called upon to defend traditional images of gender and family values. Viewed with great interest by the media, they spread notoriously patriarchal norms by referring to the image of a white German middle-class ‘normal’ citizen. They advocate a supposedly natural gender order framed by an exclusively heterosexual way of living.

Antifeminists consider this order to be threatened by feminist claims to equality for all genders. Antifeminists therefore depreciate the claims as all being ‘genderism’. Arguing that ‘nowadays all that has already been achieved’, they dismiss the struggle for equality as ‘gender hysteria of bored women’ and trivialize violence against women, lesbians and trans*people. We are calling to fight against such antifeminist positions!

Against constructing racist boundaries

Antifeminist positions not only oppose diverse ways of living, but also correspond to the racist attitude of the extreme right, conservatives and ‘angry citizens’. This can be seen at the example of the Pegida movement. Since it started voicing all kinds of racist prejudices, the number of attacks against refugees and migrants in Germany has doubled. Pegida’s racist agitating against the ‘islamization’ of society also uses supposedly feminist positions to draw racist boundaries: In the name of defending women’s rights, ‚non-Western cultures’ are devalued as violent and backwards which at the same time serves to enhance their own status. In this argument antifeminist and racist positions are united in order to keep up white German male heterosexual privilege.

Against rigid boundaries between masculinity and femininity

Antifeminist currents share the idea that there are only two genders. Men and women are considered to be so essentially different in characteristics and abilities that inequalities in the division of labour and wages appear as something ‘natural’ and unchangeable.
This idea is patriarchal because it promotes male supremacy and devalues femininity. It is also at the core of the social and legal privileging of white German nuclear families with father, mother and child(ren). By assuming a ‘natural’ desire between men and women, non-heterosexual ways of living are delegitimized. This devaluation is illustrated, for example, in the hate campaign against sexual diversity as part of school curricula. Many of the people participating in this campaign are the same as those joining Pegida, marching against abortions and/or working for the Alternative Party for Germany (AfD).

Feminist fighting beyond boundaries! On International Women’s Day and always!

The International Women’s Day goes back to strikes of textile workers on March 8th 1908 in St.Petersburg and New York. These were fights for humane working and living conditions and against exploitation. Ever since 1921, the 8th of March represents the struggle against war, for women’s vote, for equal pay for the same work, against sexual violence and for a self-determined life.
As part of this tradition we fight for a society beyond rigid gender boundaries and compulsory heterosexuality, against sexist and racist violence and against nationalist border policies. We fight for a society of solidarity, which is built for the people and not on their economic use.

– Saturday, March 7th, starting 2 p.m., Gänseliesel Göttingen –
No to antifeminsm – out on the streets on March 7th and everywhere else always!
Every day is 8th of March!