Believe it or not, the etymology of the word ‘woman’ is the “wife of a man” (*cue eyeroll*) showing that the term is still rooted in patriarchy. The use of the x in womxn dissociates that relationship, rejecting the notion that women are defined by men. Womxn says bye to masculinity being the default (as is the case with many English words such as waiter over waitress) and recognizes that womxn are their very own separate entities who are capable of operating on their own without a man to aid them.
Exposing heteronormativity of the word woman, it’s also gender-expansive meaning that it includes all kinds of womxn across the LGBTIQI+ spectrum, including those that are femme-identifying bodies and even gender non-conforming and non-binary people.
Drawing from Kimberle Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality, the x aims to acknowledge the historical marginalisation of not just all women but specifically the discrimination faced by womxn of colour. Womxn accounts for the fact that we are defined beyond gender alone and recognizes that our sexuality, able-bodiedness, mental health, class, among other things, which cause certain privileges and oppressions for some of us, also form part of our identities. Understanding this allows us not to silence groups among us when we organise and so no one has to choose between their struggles.
It’s common knowledge that South Africa has a serious sexual violence pandemic, but a big part of this also has to do with the violent masculinity that has been cultivated here which is affronted by those tick the box of either male or female. Kammila Naidoo says:
“Public and socio-economic marginalization has contributed to gang formation, sporadic acts of brutality, and the reassertion of sustained violence on the part of various categories of emasculated men who seek to restore the status quo. Against this background, women’s bodies are believed to be instruments through which masculine power and control can be regained. This argument has found renewed credence in the current era as gays and lesbians struggle to address homophobic violence. Specifically, “corrective rape", an odd concept originating in South Africa to refer to the rape of lesbians, has gained notoriety.”
Since 2000 there have been close to 40 lesbian women murdered and on average about ten lesbians are raped each week by men who subscribe to the view that they are “correcting” the women’s sexual orientations. This kind of violent homophobia, or just a complete lack of tolerance for people that don’t conform to the gender binary, makes an already vulnerable and marginalised group even more vulnerable and stems from the idea that the existence of these people forms a threat to patriarchy, masculinity and hetero-normativity which demarcate women’s bodies as male property. Men try to assert their power onto womxn “who try to be like men” and use violence as a way of doing so.
There’s been some hate toward use of the word womxn with some people claiming that the change in spelling is a minor adjustment that doesn’t do anything significant or meaningful; but just as micro-aggressions work to subtly enforce racist ideals and tendencies among people, the word ‘women’ subtly enforces the idea that womxn are second to men. In the least, bringing it up in conversation can also lead to opportunities to discuss and educate others about the barriers womxn face and have faced globally for years. Large-scale changes are dependent on the small everyday conversations that happen at the dinner table, the revolution begins with us.
Sources:
Medium, Intersectional Feminism 101: What is Womxn?https://medium.com/@knottyvibescompany/intersectional-feminism-101-what-is-womxn-36c0a3140126
Ndelu, Sandy; Dlakavu, Simamkele; Boswell, Barbara (2017-10-02). "Womxn's and nonbinary activists' contribution to the RhodesMustFall and FeesMustFall student movements: 2015 and 2016". Agenda. 31 (3–4): 1–4. doi:10.1080/10130950.2017.1394693. ISSN 1013-0950.
What do Womxn Want? Breena Kerr on Newyork Times
Realisation or oversight of a constitutional mandate? Corrective rape of black African lesbians in South Africa. Lea Mwambene, Maudri Wheal. AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW JOURNAL. http://www.saflii.org/za/journals/AHRLJ/2015/3.pdf
Why I Choose to Identify As a Womxn by Natalia Emmanuel, Washington Contributor https://www.hercampus.com/school/washington/why-i-choose-identify-womxn
Sexual Violence and “Corrective Rape” in South Africa
by Kammila Naidoo, University of Johannesburg, South Africa and member of ISA Research Committees on Women in Society (RC32), Biography and Society (RC38), and Clinical Sociology (RC46) global dialogue magazine for the international sociological association
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