I witnessed toxic use of feminist language to cover shallow work and management styles.
Power
When I get uncomfortable with power, I have to sit and reflect if the discomfort is actually resentment/envy of not having power and influence? Or is it an actual witnessing of misuse of power. I have a lot to learn about assessing and being able to hold genuine/difficult conversations about power in certain spaces without setting everything on fire.
My barometer for use of power is when it distances you from the collective – from the people you would otherwise hang out with and find a lot of joy in conversations and working with.
I have a loud personality – over opinionated at times, expressive, taking my space in decision-making, etc. – I feel like this often aligns me with power. It is probably a power to hold in itself too.
Women like myself who come from a precarious background (powerlessness), and how that influences what we think we deserve (even a little is enough power to move things in one’s own life).
Labour
I am confused about how to work from a precarious place like my country without constant awareness that at the end of the day the foundations that fund our work are the same elite that will negotiate/compromise our work for profits and votes in powerful countries that will continue the cycle of exploitative geopolitics.
We hear stories of workplace exploitation, power plays, structural issues from within “feminist spaces” quite often and yet, there isn’t an active conversation to engage with or build upon. How is the feminist ecosystem not aware of the neoliberal labour market catching up with them – people in far away countries with critical on-ground contacts but hired on dubious online contracts?
I was invited to join the leadership team of the organization and realized that more than my leadership, they needed my identity to somehow use the diversity as a validation of their existence in the ecosystem. I found myself held high between a toxic leadership and my colleagues whose labour was exploited and politics compromised (…)
Language
Always wielding language and feminist sentiments as a weapon: 'We are figuring this out as we go,' 'We are learning,' and 'We may not have the resources to make things perfect, but we must do something for these women.
I witnessed toxic use of feminist language to cover shallow work and management styles. All the feminist values were mere words picked from the web.
