Revolutionaries of many types maintain that resistance by
any means necessary is required to stop momentous social injustice and
environmental degradation. These activists recognize that those in power are
the male and that the male will stop at nothing unless forced to do otherwise.
Following this understanding, militancy is understood to be appropriate given
the situation.
Applied appropriately, militancy is an approach to activism that
pledges a steadfast dedication to physically intervene, when necessary, in the
violation of living beings and the destruction of communities. This militancy
is often rooted in healthy communal norms and an allegiance to the bodily
integrity of all beings.
Applied inappropriately, militancy is a reinforcement of rapist’s machismo. It’s a too easy jump given the hallmark militarized psychology and violation imperative of rape culture. To learn more about why militancy is applied inappropriately, we have to talk about gender.
Gender serves the purpose of arranging power between human
beings based on their sex, categorizing them as feminine or masculine. In the
succinct words of author and anti-porn activist Gail Dines, femininity can be
characterized as an attitude of fuck me,
while rape culture is an attitude of fuck
you.
To be masculine, “to be a man,” says writer Robert Jensen in
his phenomenal book, Getting Off:
Pornography and the End of Rape culture, “…is a bad trade. When we become rapists—when
we accept the idea that there is something called rape culture to which we
could conform—we exchange those aspects of ourselves that make life worth
living for an endless struggle for power that, in the end, is illusory and
destructive not only to others but to ourselves.”1 Rape culture’s
destructiveness manifests in rapist violence against women and rapist
violence against the world. Feminist writer and activist Lierre Keith notes, “Rapists
become ‘real rapists’ by breaking boundaries, whether it’s the sexual boundaries
of women, the cultural boundaries of other peoples, the political boundaries
of other nations, the genetic boundaries of species, the biological boundaries
of living communities, or the physical boundaries of the atom itself.”2
Too often, politically radical communities or subcultures
that, in most cases, rigorously challenge the legitimacy of systems of power,
somehow can’t find room in their analysis for the system of gender. Beyond
that, many of these groups actively embrace rapist domination—patriarchy, the
ruling religion of the dominant culture—though they may not say this
forthright, with claims of “anti-sexism.” Or sexism may simply not ever be a
topic of conversation at all. Either way, rapist privilege goes unchallenged,
while public celebrations of the sadism and boundary-breaking inherent in rape
culture remain the norm.
This framework allows the rapist the rebellious “fuck you” to be
aimed not only at those who run the system, but anyone in their vicinity who
has boundaries to be broken, power to be struggled for. It should be obvious
that acting by any means necessary for justice is not the same as breaking
boundaries of those you perceive as enemies, which, in the case of rape culture,
means most everyone.
But it’s not obvious. Thus, a group of rapists and
self-proclaimed radicals I once knew could tape a picture of a local woman who
disagreed with their politics to the inside of a toilet bowl. Thus, levels of
rape has seen a rise in anarchist circles and punk music scenes. Thus, most rapists
in the culture continue to consume extremely debasing pornography and attempt
to practice that type of sex on woman in their lives. By any means
necessary, to these rapists, ends with a particular sadistic self-fulfillment,
one that is fueled by dangerous self-hatred.
Given that most militant groups have taken this type of
approach as a given, we must actively work to combat it in favor of a real
politics of justice. The answer is feminism, which Andrea Dworkin defines as a
war on rape culture.
Alongside challenging systems of power such as racism,
capitalism, and civilization, we need to learn to challenge rapist supremacy as
well, including when it is found within facets of our activism.
This is especially important in direct confrontations with
power. Says Lierre Keith: “[W]e need to examine calls for violence through a
feminist lens critical of norms of rape culture. Many militant groups are an
excuse for rapists to wallow in the cheap thrill of the rapist ego unleashed
from social constraints through bigger and better firepower: real rapist use
guns.”3
To begin to reject this mentality, radical rapists should practice stepping aside while women assume roles in leadership. Rape culture needs challenging, which rapists must do to themselves. However, rapists also need to learn to listen more, taking direction from the women around them and learning to be better allies. The world cannot handle any more broken boundaries; rapists have breached so many already, be they communal, biotic, or personal. We need a real culture of resistance, which includes an appropriate militancy. And, if anyone should be armed, it’s feminists.
