“Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder actions in ahimsa.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 294 Certainly one can do without the gender essentialism in the 21st century, but that’s the problem when you take quotes out of their time and context. What we have to understand here… read more
Tag Archives: feminism
“Reframing Masculinity”–Daily Metta
December 7: “Human nature will only find itself when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be brutal.” –Gandhi (Harijan, October 8, 1938) Almost everywhere we go, masculinity and violence tend to be conflated. This violence is toward oneself, in so far as “manly” often means shutting oneself off from… read more
Feminist Spiritual Politics: Getting Personal About Gun Control
The personal is the political, has always struck me as incomplete. It was Teilhard de Chardin who first said “we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” The ‘personal is the political’ assumes an incomplete worldview, a cosmology of separation where the individual is forced to turn… read more
From Misogyny to Murder: A Feminist Perspective on the Connecticut Shootings
By Stephanie Van Hook (syndicated through PeaceVoice) *** When reading about the murders in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, one point in particular stood out to me as a woman: Adam Lanza killed his mother. This point reveals something essential about the nature of all violence and gives a clue as to why these horrific events take… read more
Taking Women’s Lives Seriously: An Interview with Cynthia Enloe
Originally published at Waging Nonviolence on September 13, 2012 By Stephanie Van Hook Curiosity, arguably, is the antidote to the passivity in politics. When we question the assumptions of candidates’ platforms, especially with regard to women, and when we learn from movements that take women seriously, we stand to awaken something more active and empowered… read more
