Womyns' Land
No Men Beyond this point
In these times of extreme backlash against women, women'spaces are crucial for our survival and severely missing or violently under threat. Refuges, rape crisis centres etc are losing their fundings and/or forced to accept men, single mothers are being evicted from their homes, domestic violence victims have nowhere to turn to and at so often forced to live with their abusers or go homeless. The property market left unregulated is pushing women out of the renting market and on the streets.
Patriarchy ensure women never get "a room of our own", because patriarchy wants women dependant on men and enslaved by them.
As an woman artist, I was personally affected by some of these issues and know many women who were. Unable to find a safe living space of my own, I started to fantasise about it. Fantasy became obsession. Obsession became art.
Dreaming the feminist utopia is the first step in the process of making the feminist utopia possible.
Sisters welcome to "Womyn's Land"! Make yourself at home !
I rememebr a time when we "were not slaves"*
I remember a time when we "walked alone, full of laughter, we bathed bare-bellied." *
I remember a time when women where the Goddess and the Goddess was every women.
I remember a time when the body of the Goddess was the Land, the Earth, the Soil where Life herself grew. Sacred, Powerful, Respected.
I remember a time when the body of the Goddess was village, temple, sanctuary, shrine and burial mound.
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And I dream !
I dream of a place "of our own". **
A place where 2 women do not get murdered every week by their male partners.
A place where women are not raped every 9 minutes.
A place where women are not trafficked, bought and sold for sexual or domestic servitude.
A place where being a woman is not a sentence for sexual harassment, discrimination, oppression and murder.
A place where women are not scared to walk down the street.
A place where women’s culture is not suppressed and invisibilised.
A place where women's work is not undervalued.
A place where women's creativity and talent are not systematically destroyed but encouraged and can fully grow.
A place where our bodies are our own
A place where our sexuality has never been colonised.
A place where our love for each other is not suppressed but can grow freely.
A place without men.
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I call for separatism !
Our desire for separation from men comes from a need for survival. We need to separate mentally emotionally and physically from that group of people who have been (and still are) actively annihilating us for several thousands of years.
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I remember that our bodies are lands, our lands, and as such also can become women only spaces! Take your body back ! Declare independence!
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I celebrate those women, Sisters and Fore-mother, past and present who’s bravery, imagination and disrespect for men’s rules created and sustained Womyns’ Lands across the world.
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I hope for many more !
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*Monique Wittig, Les Guérillères
** Virginia Woolf, A room of our own
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