Pretending to be a Syrian Lesbian

For just one minute, let us ignore the damage this kind of behavior does to the Syrian community in particular, to the Arab community as a whole, to the delicate balance between east and west - to the reputation of the west as it is understood by the more extremist factions in the east, to the reputation of the east as it is understood by the more extreme factions of the west... you get the idea. Let us ignore, if we can, the damage this has done to the many people who believed they were supporting a woman, befriending a woman, caring for a woman. Instead of that damage, which will be discussed by far more knowledgeable people than I, let us ponder for one moment the fact that once again, a man (no, two men and how many more?) have taken it upon themselves to speak not only for, but as women.

Oh 18th century, I thought we'd seen the last of you. Once again, the attention that rightly belongs to the problems and struggles of women is being diverted to a man (even on my own damned blog!). Once again, the problems and struggles of women that rightly belong to women are being taken up by a man. Once again women's voices are being silenced by a man.

Allow me to let you in on what is apparently still the best-kept secret in the entire world. Women don't need a man to speak for them. Let me say it again: we do not need a man to speak for us. It's not rocket surgery. These were not good intentions - a good intention would have been to help your lesbian friends set up their own blog, anonymous if need be, but still their blog. A good intention would have been to start a blog detailing what you think are the abuses suffered by lesbian women in Syria, with a clear disclaimer that you are, in fact, a man.

MacMaster states in his "apology" that "I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about."

Dude, of course you don't believe you have harmed anyone. The correct response would have been "I am sorry for the harm I have caused by my hoax", but a person who can admit to the harm he's done would not have started such a hoax in the first place. Even more damning is the idea that he "created" a voice when there are thousands, hundreds of thousands, of voices already out there who were not heard and now will not be heard through the din of Tom's fiction. Tom believes his fake voice to be more important than the authentic voices of women who are living and have lived under Syrian rule and that is entirely inexcusable. It is also entirely typical, and that has to change.

The result of these fictions is that now every blog run by a woman is suspect. How to trust? Who to trust? We, the people of the greater internet, did not need this added confusion blasted into an already sensitive minefield of misinformation. And I say it again, in case you missed it the first time:

We women do not need a man to speak for us.

And yes, I actually am a woman, although I'm not a lesbian. I admit that I have, upon occasion, loved a man.

First post: the past.

Middle age brings with it a whole new host of "women's issues", and a clarity unobtainable until one's hormones have been vanquished by time and use. I was raised by a woman who probably never heard the word "feminist", or if she did, she would not have approved. Burning a bra would have been considered a blasphemous waste of perfectly good fabric, and men were not a problem because she barely acknowledged their existence. Into this climate, a tiny Lizzie was born.

For all of my life I have observed the gender wars, and kept silent. The elders in my life say that one reaches an age when one no longer gives a shit, when one finally says what they have to say and the rest be damned. It seems I have reached that point, or am at least sailing rapidly towards it, pushed on by the mighty wind of man.

I have been told that I am not your average feminist, whatever that means. I personally have yet to meet an average feminist. I also don't go in much for the sub-labels applied to feminists, and I even use the word "feminist" with a grain of salt. Like the old woman who raised me, I refuse to acknowledge a need for the word. I refuse to admit to any inherent inequality. I refuse to see myself, or any woman, in comparison to any man. I accept gender division as a biological imperative, as evidenced by the fact that women give birth while men cannot. I will not accept the idea that any woman should in any way be subservient to any man. I believe in balance, and when I see an imbalance, I intend to speak out.