GRRRBOSS ZINE ISSUE ONE

GRRR

BOSS!

femme-inism

issue

the

OrG

Asm

GaP

GRRRBOSS! FEMME-INISM ISSUE

Recently, I began craving deep vulnerability with my mind, body, spirit, and community. I know that so many of us have been at dissonance with ourselves, as we are taught to isolate ourselves from all that these systems repress, we begin to isolate from ourselves as well. Many of us have learned to fear our bodies, for we’re taught that they’re the root of our problems. We have been fed lies, teaching us that the system is not to blame for our oppression and repression, but that the blood is on the hands of our own people. These systems which undergird every facet of our lives want us silent, hurting, and dying - and their definitions of us will set us up for suffering.

We have been trained to fulfill and live out these dehumanizing depictions of us. From a young age, people socialized as girls have been taught to shrink themselves, to be small. After all, how could they degrade us if we weren’t so afraid to take up space? Black, Indigenous, and people of colour are taught that their bodies are to be feared, rather than to fear white supremacy. Could this be why some of us comply and watch as they see our people die? They’ve cursed our tounges, stripping us of our language, how can we be free to speak and express if you’ve torn the pen from my fingers and cut my mother tongue. How can I feel free in this so-called country, in a home where the bricks are held together with the blood of my ancestors. They do not protect me, pigs do not protect me when they feast on our hearts, on our humanity. You may call this nature but don’t lose sight of the ways they marginalize and oppress us, nothing about this is natural to us as humans.

But I no longer to I wish to be constraint, you do not define me. If you decide what is a “woman” then I no longer wish to be her. If your love and freedom may only imprison me, I no longer wish to love him. If my skin reeks of “terrorist”; if my body is so hideous; if my mind is criminal; if loving is now radical; then we must release ourselves from our shackles. How can we truly liberate ourselves when even the air around us feels so heavy, filled with the sweat and tears of our people? Capitalism and white supremacy penetrate the ground beneath me, attempting to suck up all life from the Land. Yet, I know that this very land is home. I am reminded of how connected we all are as we plant our feet on the ground, allowing our bodies to kiss the earth as we become enveloped in Mother Nature. She holds us all, as we begin to fall back into our bodies, and slowly can maybe start to feel a bit safer in this world. As I know that our Mother can never define and separate us, she is mwy sanctuary. To me, loving her means to love myself, for I don’t need to perform any longer, because I know I’m safe here. I’ve begun to feel free. I know that I can take up space, that I can begin to fall so deeply into myself.

To

healand DEEPLY,forlove, joy,an actnot

OF

Your violent killing and exploitation of the Land that is so sacred to us is deeply embedded into your colonial mindset, as you kill and exploit our people just the same. The way to feel safe in our bodies is to care for, love, and defend the Land. When we see how you torture and berate the Land, we can only imagine how you wish to do the same to our bodies, mind, and spirit. You wish to rip us from our dignity and our humanity, you wish to isolate us. You see humanity and morality as a fatal flaw, you see love and emotion as a weakness. By these terms, you render us useless, you decide that these modes of thought are foolish and unworthy of respect. But, radical love can set us all free. They shrink our message because they know that if we do prevail, then soon they will fall.

GRRRBOSS! FEMME-INISM ISSUE