Feminist spaces have, for the longest time, maintained a close link with the idea that the “personal is political” (Hanisch 1969)—referring to the interdependent relationship between the personal self and the political system that the self is based in. Both the personal self and the political self interact, modify, create, and mold each other. While this interaction is claimed to be embodied in feminist organizations, it is often absent in their praxis. In our observations, we note how personal “cis-terhoods” supersede the political “sisterhoods” with a reduction of the political to the personal. In today's world, where an increasing “gender critical” and trans-exclusionary feminism is taking precedence within progressive movements, it is important for people within organizing spaces to take account of our own actions. The objective should be to not replicate the exclusions that we have been subjected to inside our own safe spaces and feminist groups.
Through...
