Why We're Fixing Our Feminist Gaze on Flourishing
In Flourishing Feminist Framework, I emphasize the importance of fixing our feminist gaze on flourishing and cite this as one of our four guiding tasks in this political moment.
"We establish a flourishing feminist epoch by focusing our attention on the embodied ecologic era that has already been birthed. We must refuse to fixate on supremacist violence; doing so could result in the neglect and imperilment of this nascent era. Ours is the work of nurturing: the care-full project of tending to this new embodied ecologic era, strengthening its vitality, giving it life. We find pleasure and purpose in the daily labor of creating new habits, customs, behaviors, belief systems, structures, ecologies, and economies that set the conditions for our individual and collective flourishing. As we work in chorus and coordination in the decades ahead, we establish the endurance of a flourishing feminist epoch." (Feminist Flourishing Framework p.113, edited & revised)
Fixing our feminist gaze on flourishing will shape what we choose to talk about here in the club, and how we will talk about it. This principle is first tenet of our club Code of Conduct and directly informs the Communication Guidelines you will receive next week.
We cannot fix our gaze on two things at once. To fix our feminist gaze on flourishing necessarily requires us not to fix our gaze on the spectacle of supremacist violence. We look away from violence and instead, we look to helping and healing those who have been violated (including ourselves). We refuse abusers the gift of our attention and instead, focus on creating safety in our bodies, on the earth, and with each other.
This is different than looking away out of fear or denial. To shift our gaze—with intention—is to make a strategic political choice.
To further explain this, I'm sharing an essay I wrote almost exactly one year ago, after watching a docuseries and feeling disgusted by the spectacle of violence against women. I wrote this essay for myself, to clarify my own feminist convictions and commitments. I have edited it for improved readability. In it, I see the seeds of the Feminist Flourishing Framework 📒.