Kia ora friends,
I got married last weekend and it was wonderful. We’re still floating in a love bubble.
Now that the prepping, planning and saving is done. I’m excited to get stuck into my GDip at Massey and start saving….again, for our honeymoon.
Here’s another one.
This week I was shown a video circulating on social media and I decided to write about it because it made me mad. All the people who've fought for human rights will be turning in their graves.
Anyway, I’ll start with a definition and go from there.
Cultural appropriation:
'Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures'.
I've discussed racism and appropriation within the anti-vax movement before, and there will be some discussion about that here. However, there is another lens I'd like readers to consider fronting.
A feminist one.
Yes. I can actually hear the enraged howls of aged men as they shake their fists and write bitter responses with the usual ad hominem attacks and lack of eloquence.
Buckle up boys. I'm here for it.
I'll start with a real scenario posted on social media recently where a local wahine Māori is confronting a group of anti-vax protesters from Voices for Freedom. In the video we see a group of Pākehā, mostly women, waving the He Whakaputanga flag like kids with a new balloon.
Of course, Pākeha historians have minimised it's significance and imagined He Whakaputanga as an attempt by Pākeha to create a 'settled form of government'. However, my understanding is that it was meant for Māori unity, sovereignty and autonomous decision-making.
Clearly the wahine confronting the group of white women is feeling mamae about the use of the flag for a 'cause' which would inflict harm on the Māori population. It's slightly distressing to watch as they respond with disdain and a lack of respect for her mana (which she has in spades).
I'm no expert and I'm not Māori so I can't tell you much about the significance for individuals or groups, and therein lies my point. It's not for me to say, or manipulate someone else's flag to suit my agenda. I don't feel I have a right to do that.
Voices for Freedom though...well, they're a bit special. Apparently, it's theirs for the taking and goddammit they have rights. And those rights supersede everyone else's rights!
'It protects everyone!' The local anti-vax leader states with an eye roll. This Pakeha, has the audacity to try 'educating' Maori about their own flag.
The wahine steps up and tells her differently... and she would know, because it's her (peoples) flag, but that doesn't matter to the anti-vax queen.
'Do you know who I am?!' The Queen, (channeling Judith Collins), asks.
'Do you know who I'm married to?! '
'My husband is Samoan, so...
Talofa.'
Ok. I'll move on to my original point about how they also appropriate feminism.
Our local anti-vax group is made up mostly of women which fits with the global anti vax demographic. Privileged white women. (Not all, but most).
What strikes me, as I flick through their social media groups is a running misogynistic theme. There are offensive cartoons of our PM, 'ditch the bitch' profile frames and derogatory sexist name calling. The hypocrisy is tangible when they say they're not anti vax, they're 'pro choice'.
To be fair, if we look at this through a feminist lens, vaccine resistance is kind of understandable.
Although anti-vaxxers have been around since vaccines were invented, it ramped up in the 1980s with second-wave feminism and its absolutely valid, critical view of the medical field.
Historically, women have reported chronic pain or fatigue, only to have their concerns minimised or dismissed. Medicine is a hierarchy where a women’s experience, education or intelligence has not been valued. There is much talk amongst anti-vax 'mama bears' about a mother's instinct being more trustworthy than evidence and understandably they probably feel empowered by using a feminist stance on consent. We've certainly had to fight for consensual practice in many ways.
So while these women who are (not always), but, typically, anti choice were protesting 'freedom of choice' and 'consent'…somewhere in the 'developed' world those rights were being ripped away from women.
If you're confused, join the club.
Anti-vax groups are cherry picking narratives from indigenous rights groups, holocaust victims and feminist groups, and twisting them, to gaslight people into thinking they're the victims.
Misogynistic narratives have been moulded to fit disinformation around COVID-19, 'an event which has had a disproportionately negative impact on women.'
The disinformation has often come with negative depictions of women, either as evil villains or sappy victims.
Voices for Freedom, where were you with your 'my body my choice' signs when we needed you?
You were piously protesting a simple public-health measure while woman's reproductive rights were being stripped away.
You're wasting time and energy fighting for the right to choose not to vaccinate (which puts others at risk), while women are harmed or die ‘due to low, non-existent, or unsafe abortion access'.
And now you're trying to prevent children having access to healthcare!
How low do you go?
You’re using the hard work of actual oppressed groups to justify your 'cause,’ then claim, when you're rightly called out by those groups, that you're 'being bullied,’ as you casually call other women names like ‘demon witch’ and ‘psycho’.
Congratulations, what beautiful photos, I love your dress thanks for sharing.