Hi fam! We’re at the #OWS National Gathering. Tonight, we’ll be livetweeting the #NatGat #FemGA (Feminist GA)! Follow here, @LibertySqGA2.

Also, @TesselizaTC is live streaming the #NatGat #FemGA: http://t.co/gWXaNZGp #OWS #Occupy

The facilitator right now is running through some announcements about the #NatGat — check out http://t.co/pBJC48V3 for more info!

Facilitator: “Welcome! I’d like you to know our participation guidelines today for a hope-filled safe space. We’re asking everyone here to..

Cont’d: “…be curious and open to learning… we’re asking for balanced advocacy with inquiry. We’re seeking to learn and understand as much..”

Cont’d: “…as you want to persuade. This is about listening as much as talking — and let’s not forget about doing!” #NatGat #FemGA

Cont’d: “We’d like you to seek alignment rather than agreement — alignment is shared intention, vs. agreement is a shared opinion.” #FemGA

Cont’d: “Be short and to the point,” make sure you’re on topic and not redundant. Speak quickly and be honest and integrous. #FemGA #NatGat

Cont’d: “Look around you, and actively support getting yourself and others back on purpose when needed.” Speak from your own experience.

Cont’d: “Important… this is not an ‘i hate men’ fest. Nor an ‘i hate women’ fest either. What we seek to do in this space is bring men…”

Cont’d: “…and women together to succeed. Together in this balanced process we can move forward.” #FemGA #NatGat

Next, “let’s check in on how we’ll communicate. #FemGA is about cooperation and transparency.” Fewer handouts than ppl on purpose. #NatGat

Cont’d: “We don’t have enough pens,” either. Hope folks will share their own pens and paper. “And we ask folks to help each other grow.”

Next on the #FemGA agenda: “We’ll go around and introduce ourselves, and get a checkin on where folks are from around the country.” #NatGat

Intros: Nancy from @OccupySF and Code Pink! “I’m so psyched to be here!” Remy from Portland, Jose from Portland… #FemGA #NatGat

(Not gonna make you read all the names, but in the house: Buffalo, Portland, Long Island, New Mexico, Philly… etc. Lots of people! So many!)

.@gomelanie: “For me, the purpose of #FemGA is to make sure that everyone can be heard,” and to counter perception #Occupy is maledominated.

.@gomelanie now explaining that #FemGA came out of realization that most GAs didn’t have enough space for feminist voices. #NatGat

.@gomelanie: “To me, #Occupy is a feminist movement.” Means we hear every voice, work horizontally, actively reach out to margins. #NatGat

.@gomelanie: “#FemGA isn’t anti-male in any way; it’s about including everyone. Thanks everyone!” #NatGat

We’re now “popcorning” shared values: love, justice, respect, cooperation, equality, truth, honesty, equity, job security, accountability…

Cont’d: …trust in women, cooperation, collaboration, respect for Earth, consent, no gender roles, redefining masculinity.. #FemGA

Cont’d: ..food security, ending rape culture, supporting mothers, wages for housework… #FemGA #NatGat

Facilitator: “With so many, we need to record them.” We’re writing these vales down on paper, will send them to facilitators. #FemGA #NatGat

So many shared values being shouted out — some more: “End war,” “Moving beyond the gender binary,” “patriarchy has no gender”… #FemGA

Cont’d: …”accessibility”, “sex-positivity”, “sex workers’ rights”, many more. “We’re all here together as community.” #FemGA #NatGat

So, we’ll have breakout groups now. Lorena: “Hi, I’m with Women Occupying Wall Street!” Introducing the breakout questions. #FemGA #NatGat

Question 1: “What personal experiences have drawn you to or alienated you from feminism?” #NatGat #FemGA

Question 2: “How does being a feminist make your life easier or harder?” [If tweeps have answers, we'll RT them!] #FemGA #NatGat

RT @chapeaudefee: @LibertySqGA Life easier: Feeling confident and empowered as a woman Life harder: Emotional distress fielding hatred o …

RT @chapeaudefee: @LibertySqGA Drawn me: The beauty of empowering those who feel disempowered Alienated me: Ignorance regarding ethnic d …

OK, more questions: “What do you think are 3 main goals for feminism today?” “What are you already doing for those goals?” and… #FemGA

RT @FemArchy: @LibertySqGA I’ve felt judgment about the kind if woman I choose to be by Feminists .

Cont’d: Question 3: “What help do you need from your allies? What can we collectively do to bring change going forward?” #FemGA #natgat

[We'll LT the reportbacks later, tho as always, breakout groups are best experienced in person! -Ed.] #FemGA #NatGat

[But again, please tweet us your own thoughts and we'll RT! -Ed.] #FemGA #NatGat

OK, we’re moving to the next piece. Cal & Matthew will explain: “We’ll have a bit of male facilitating here” in support of #FemGA. #NatGat

Cal, Michael, and Matthew are “feminists… and proud of it!” Here comes Chris Hedges: “I lived for 20 years of my life with ppl who weren’t..

Cont’d: “…white, overseas, and I learned something very important that as a white male, you can never claim to speak for the oppressed…”

Cont’d: “…including women — because when you’re a white male.. as my relationships deepened, I had to confront my own blindness…”

Cont’d: “…which is inevitable when you are a white male in a position of privilege and power. There are some things you just can never see.”

Hedges suggests he can never call himself a feminist because “I am incapable” of bridging certain understandings. #FemGA #NatGat

Cont’d: “It’s once you accept that blindness that you can start to build solidarity with those who are oppressed.” #FemGA #NatGat

Brandy gets up. “The #Occupy movement has helped me see my own oppression– before I was just mad and frustrated a lot, and now I…” #FemGa

Cont’d: “…understand why.” Next, the facilitator draws comparisons between gender oppression and class oppression. #FemGA

Cal says he is “white, straight, male, and older– the quadruple whammy.” When he lived in CA, he was the only such person. #FemGA

Cal: “My psyche was sandpapered through that experience” — it was painful, he says, but now he feels he can call himself an ally. #FemGA

Cal: “So, here’s what I’ve been asked to do: ask anyone who wants to share to share something someone else said” during breakouts. #FemGA

First: “I heard someone say ‘collective wisdom access’ – we need to get voices out there that we don’t hear, and that’s how that happens.”

Next: “Women need to be supporting women.” Next, Barbara: “I heard someone say she’s really tired of men saying, “We don’t get it..” #FemGA

Cont’d: “…”we thought you got what you wanted, what’s wrong? And I agree, I’m tired of hearing men say, “What are you talking about… hon?”

Next: “One thing said was, it’s in the culture, the media — when you see women on TV, you think that’s how they’re thinking…” #FemGA

Cont’d: “…and it’s always ‘women shouldn’t get raped’, not ‘men shouldn’t rape.’.. It’s a circle of no good, on media & TV.” #FemGA

Next, Sara from Occupy Philly: “In our group, we talked about breaking down gender roles and building your own gender identity, and..”#FemGA

Cont’d: “…embracing, you know — don’t do stereotypical female things to fulfill a stereotype – do things that empower you.” #FemGA #NatGAt

Next: “One thing I heard – when you’re out of money, you say ‘you’re broke’ — like broken down, useless — this is one way we punish…”

Cont’d: “…ourselves when we don’t reach the American Dream. In response to this insight that the language holds us back, I had a flash..”

Cont’d: “…that I want to say, I’m of use! What did you do that was of use today?” #FemGA

Next, Christina, Eugene, OR. “1 thing I heard was that when participants suggested that we could apply critical thinking not just to big..”

Cont’d: “…issues, but also personal issues and the things we do and say and whether they actually reflect our values — i.e., buying..”

Cont’d: “…products that harm women — even if they’re on a different continent, we should think about it. Also, we want to see less…”

Cont’d: “..trivializing of violence against women — even with things like “the banks are raping us” – it’s not an apt analogy.” #FemGA

Next, Jerry: “In response to our critics: 50 million americans have no health insurance, 1 mil lose homes to foreclosure, 1/3rd…”

Cont’d: “…is at or near poverty level, and our government spends more on our military than everything else combined. No problem at all!”

Next, Nathan: “I heard for the first time tonight the idea that women are raising men- so, integrating feminism into raising feminist men.”

Sarah, Philly: “Someone said he was tired of his daughter being sexualized, and he wants women to be able to express themselves without..”

Cont’d: “…being sexualized.” Vivian is next: “Heteronormativity was a big issue for us in our breakout, and virginity is a construct to..”

Cont’d: “…make women more desirable.” [To recap, these are insights from our breakout groups. -Ed.] #NatGat #FemGA

Next, someone says “growing up, I wanted to be a small, white, skinny blonde.” (She is some of those things). “We should encourage…”

Cont’d: “…children to” love who they are to avoid those kinds of disconnects. #FemGA #NatGat

Next: “More talking; people need to talk about things that aren’t normally talked about. Celebrate femininity, redefine yr own masculinity.”

Next, Kelsey: “We had someone mention in my group: gender is really just a made-up oppressive tool. Why have a he or she? Why do you…”

Cont’d: “…need to know my gender on my job application? What does that have to do with whether I’m qualified?” #NatGat #FemGA

Next: “We need equal pay, toys should be de-gendered b/c that’s where a lot of it starts, not all women were included in earlier feminism..”

Cont’d: “… in fact, some prefer words like ‘womanist’.” “We are not from Adam’s Rib; we can all lead in different directions.” #NatGat#FemGA

Next: “We talked a lot about having young women take ownership of their bodies,” ignore “dumb patriarchy.” #NatGat #FemGA

Next, from Occupy Raleigh: “I want to read an excerpt from a poem I love: the whole poem is about ‘how does it feel to be a man.” #NatGat

[Can't keep up with the poetry, but check that out. Hafez? (sp?) -Ed.] #NatGat #FemGA

Next, Jesse, OccupyDC / Pittsburgh: “One great idea I heard was about more women running for school board and helping take schools..”

Cont’d: “..back from corporations that are buying charter schools and high-level politicians to make that happen.” #NatGat #FemGA

Cont’d: “And we should have those women keep working higher in the system so we have greater representation across the board.” #FemGA

Facilitators say time is up, but continued discussion will happen about actions we can do at #NatGat to advance feminism! #FemGA

RT @sugarmaple77200: @LibertySqGA hafiz the subject tonite is love http://t.co/73zlQsGP

RT @sugarmaple77200: @LibertySqGA raise boys to respect & care for everyone

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA What a twit. Feminism: The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equ …

OK, thanks for following, fam! That’s it for tonight’s #NatGat #FemGA. Cont the discussion, if you want, by replying to the discussion ?s!

Here are the #FemGA questions again; we’ll retweet responses and try to facilitate some discussion. You ready? #NatGat #Occupy

Discussion question 1: “What personal experiences have drawn you to, or alienated you from, feminism?” #NatGat #FemGA

Discussion Question 2: “How does being a feminist make your life easier or harder?” #FemGA #NatGat #Occupy

Discussion Question 3: “What do you think are the three main goals for feminism today?” #FemGA #NatGat #Occupy

Oops! Twitterjail! Oops. #NatGat #FemGA

Discussion Question 4: “What are you already doing regarding these goals, or what would you like to do for them?” #FemGA #NatGat #Occupy

Discussion Question 5: “What help do you need from your allies? What can we collectively do to bring abt change toward these goals?” #FemGA

[Those are the questions; we'll RT replies! Much love and have a good night. -Ed.] #NatGat #FemGA #Occupy

RT @ladyotomoofsaka: @LibertySqGA equal pay, educating males re advocacy for women, more women in office at all levels (with financial h …

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Q1. rewire social programming B. Stop scapegoating of women/minorities/etc C. excavate internalized oppres …

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Easier: understand and can guard against some tactics. Harder: Still have to fight every day. #FemGA #NatGa …

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Lol, oops Q1 was really Q3 :) #FemGA #NatGat

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Q4: I speak up about what i see, and will continue to do so. I keep an eye on my own responses. I’d like to …

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Neg: Pitbull feminism hurt us. I don’t want to associate with strident, unhumorous people of any gender. Po …

RT @aliathabit: @LibertySqGA Q5: Young folks are key. Teach your children well. Model change to give permission. #FemGA #NatGat

RT @icurnsane: @aliathabit @LibertySqGA Fair is a world that can afford one parent to stay home and raise the children.

RT @aliathabit: @icurnsane @LibertySqGA Fuck YES! I chose to be poor and stayed home with my kids. Never regret for one moment. good par …

RT @icurnsane: @aliathabit @LibertySqGA God bless you and all those who are at home and/or want to be home raising their own children.

RT @aliathabit: @icurnsane @LibertySqGA Not everyone is suited to child-care. Those who choose to should be allowed to, not punished by …

RT @homegypsy: @libertysqga Q5 My 25-yr-old lives, acts, & thinks like a feminist but hates the term.

RT @chapeaudefee: Answer to Q 5 RT @LibertySqGA Male allies can work to be awesome partners & to appreciate femininity in themselves …

RT @icurnsane: @aliathabit @LibertySqGA True, but children need there parents and nations need strong families. Sometimes we have 2 make …

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