Should men be leaders in the feminist movement?

[thucythucy]

88. BB: I'm not sure this is a good example.

See my post 85 below.

All else being equal, I personally, as someone involved in the disability rights movement, would prefer to see peer advocacy, by people with disabilities themselves, as opposed to able-bodied people doing it in their stead. I recognize this might not always be possible, but the limits of what is "possible" in disability politics have been hugely expanded in the past 50 or so years. Instead of a group like "The Association for Retarded Citizens" leading the charge, we have People First and Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered. Instead of social workers, psychiatrists, and able-bodied family members, we have MindFreedom, the National Empowerment Center, and (back in Boston during the seventies) the Mental Patients' Liberation Front. There is now a growing Autism advocacy movement, joining groups such as the National Association of the Deaf (founded in 1880!) and the National Federation of the Blind (1940) and ADAPT and such. Notice, it's the "National Association OF the Deaf" not "for the Deaf."

So "even" among people with the most profound disabilities, the impetus is for oppressed people to lead themselves out of oppression, not to have others outside our community and our experience do it for us.

Anyway, I really like your posts here. Excellent stuff.

Best wishes.