DECENTERING MEN AND WHITENESS
An astonishingly significant amount of solutions to the widespread oppression, exploitation, and neglect perpetrated in the U.S. lie on the other side of this relatively simple concept:
Decentering whiteness and decentering men.
As a 47 year old, cis, hetero white woman raised mostly in the South and mostly in the suburbs, these are two relatively, embarrassingly new concepts to me.
While I have tried to live my life uplifting women, Black people, and other members of marginalized populations in my day-to-day life and parenting, the (new to me) specific strategy of decentering whiteness and men ignites my reflexive Capricorn drive to find effective fixes to problems.
Learning about the 4B Movement launched by women in Korea was my first introduction to the concept of decentering men. It resonated with me deeply and I immediately began implementing it personally in baby steps, trying to reprogram the way I approach innumerable aspects of my life. This has led to a fantastically consequential change in my efforts to walk toward a more thriving life. I’m much more free from the overly masculinized, hyper-toxic culture which sees women as subhuman props, tools, and service providers.
As a GenX white woman, I have a lot more learning to do about decentering whiteness. In building The Agentic Feminine, a pillar of my work will be finding, learning from, and supporting people at the forefront of this movement, which should not be confused with being anti-racist (talking to the fellow mayo brigade, here).
Why are these strategies so imperative in the destruction of white supremacist patriarchy?
They acknowledge and operate from a clear understanding that the U.S. is a sociopolitical, socioeconomic, cultural white supremacist patriarchy. Bringing it from an ideological debate into a full-frontal acknowledgement that white supremacist patriarchy (WSP) is the air we breathe and the water we swim in. It’s a reality that dominates every area anointed as “of economic and societal value” in this country. This last election and current administration is WSP in its most unhinged, concentrated state and will bring our country to its knees and absolute destruction if we cannot find a way to rebuild different systems of community.
To strategically and purposefully restructure the way we accept and participate in these existing hierarchies is to reallocate power and resources. Instead of simply giving historically exploited populations tickets to the white man’s party, decentering men and whiteness builds a completely new badass and beneficial party for us — with galactically better music and dancing. And food.
Clearly, these are not new concepts. Marginalized communities have employed the tactics of actively decentering whiteness and men since they first suffered patriarchy and colonialism.
So, I want to be clear, I am addressing us white women who are more recent converts to these strategies as I explore and implement them on greater and deeper levels going forward, inviting those new to the work to join me. It has for too long been time for us to gather our sisters (by the hair if we have to) and support those doing the work to tear down the oppressive structures that undergird the current (dys)functioning of the U.S. and building new ones centering and benefitting historically abused populations.
We need radical, cooperative honesty about our overly masculinized, overly Euro-centric socioeconomic culture as we work to transition human existence from one of conquest and conquering to one of communal thriving.