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Johanna Constantine (JC): Future Feminists, as a group right now, is consisting of the five of us. We couldn’t find anyone, in our personal lives or outside, to discuss these issues [of feminism] with, because people were saying it’s unnecessary, it’s outdated, and we didn’t feel that that was correct. The words Future Feminist were coined by Antony, and we’ve just kind of applied it to everything we’ve been working on. We’re looking at it as a new wave.Kembra Pfahler (KP): Dark times require loud voices, and we got together to formulate a very clear message and to make an incantation for these times, to envision a utopia that has not yet been realized. [We are] allowing ourselves to admit that we have dreams that we want to have come true, rather than just pretending or giving up, the way that they gave up in the late 60s when they realized that the revolution would never happen and it was over. If anything’s over, it’s over for the patriarchy.
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JC: Absolutely. It’s a future that we envision for everyone, meaning female systems and female processes and female spiritual principles. That’s the Female that we’re talking about. Also, looking at the past, it’s always been male hierarchies and male systems and male decisions for years and years, and it’s run us into the ground. So, we can look at the past as male and the future as female.Antony Hegarty (AH): [In] past incarnations of feminism there’s been a movement towards integrating equal rights for women within the world’s system. We’re not interested in equal participation within male systems. We’re interested in designing and implementing new, feminine systems in order to create a sustainable future, not only for ourselves but for biodiversity and for the future of nature.Bianca Casady (BC): I also think a lot about this idea that things haven’t been gendered, even though things have been very male-centric, especially with religion and language, with who’s predominantly in the limelight. Basically, we’re all so used to the male image being the common denominator image that it’s also this illusion of neutrality. So when we say "a female world," or "feminize the planet," we actually are looking for restoring the balance. Women have been having to pencil themselves into the male story, and it’s a conditioning process which we’ve even stopped noticing. It’s shocking to suddenly have that shift, to propose that men have to start trying to fit into female archetypes. We’re inviting that process, which is awkward and uncomfortable and something that the planet’s not used to.
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BC: Your question reminds me of the subject of racism, which comes up a lot. And throughout observing this concept of racism in conjunction with feminism, I started focusing more and more on the idea of racism against the female race. It’s a really touchy subject, of course, but we do have a tenet that talks about setting a global standard which is not partial to any culture. Women need to be treated at this particular standard everywhere, and we can’t make exceptions according to different cultures and different religions. We’re taking a pretty clear stance that women deserve to be treated humanely and ethically and have power over their own bodies.AH: And equal access to every area of civic and political life.JC: And also not to be denigrated for our natural qualities. It’s constantly being said that women are too emotional, we’re too soft, and it’s like what, why don’t you check your testosterone? Why are you angry all the time? Why are you aggressively wanting 15 percent more money than this other guy? To be higher on the list on Forbes? Why is that shit important? We’re constantly being pushed down for these natural inequalities that are actually quite valuable. They’re not to be dismissed. They should be cherished and held up as a critical solution, not a weakness.AH: Empathy, emotionalism, intuition, connectedness to the earth through menstruation—all of these are reasons why women have been disqualified from participating in the rational political conversation. In the past, feminists have been loathe to identify their biological differences or to validate this notion that men and women are different physically or constitutionally, because they’ll only be more penalized as a result of it. Even now, some of our heroes are loathe to use words like feminist to identify themselves for fear it will diminish their access or ability to participate in culture or society. We are not afraid to embrace the differences between men and women, precisely because we want to elevate those primary, archetypal differences in the feminine form and feminine processes as our governing processes.
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KP: It’s 2014, the future’s here. We can’t survive and we can’t exist unless we acknowledge that this future that people wrote about in the 60s, the strange, android, computer-ridden, technologically fueled future [is here]. We’re really living that now, and our level of consciousness hasn’t risen to the level of consciousness of technological improvements. Our consciousness is still very turn-of-the-century.
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AH: The 13 tenets of Future Feminism, but it’s mutable. There could be more than thirteen.BC: I keep talking about feminizing the planet. I don’t know if this is new language but it keeps coming out of my mouth.JC: Feminatus Super Totus!The Performance Schedule:Sunday, September 14: The Factress aka Lucy Sexton, Clark Render as Margaret Thatcher, Laurie AndersonWednesday, September 17: Narcissister, Dynasty Handbag, No BraThursday, September 18: Ann Snitow speaks with the Future FeministsFriday, September 19: Kiki Smith presents Anne Waldman, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, and Anne Carson
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