(en) WSM.ie (DABF) - Marriage as a Bourgeois, Patriarchal
Tool Which Has Been Used to Trap Women by Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird
Fionnghuala is calling for a Yes vote but she also argues from an anarchist feminist
perspective against the institution of marriage. It is a bourgeois, patriarchal tool which
has been used to trap women, our sexualities, as well as to force reproduction and to
force a woman to enter into reproductive labour. ---- She presents an anti-capitalist
argument against marriage claiming that it is the state's most efficient way to corral the
family as a source of revenue, not to mention that it has been used to concentrate power,
privilege, and property into family ties and that it also makes transferring these things
a lot easier from one privileged person to the next. ---- Instead of calling for queer
acceptance in a straight society Fionnghuala calls for a change of society and the
destruction of the nuclear family as well as the heteropatriarchy. Borrowing Andrea
Smith's definition of the heteropatriarchy Fionnghuala went on to describe it as "the way
our society is fundamentally based on male dominance—a dominance inherently built on a
gender binary system that presumes heterosexuality as a social norm."
She then presented a brief report on the growing homophobia north of the border primarily
emerging from the DUP and certain segments of the Church.
She finished with a quote from the radical queer group, Against Equality:
"Even if you wrap it in a rainbow flag, a cop is a cop, a wall is a wall, an occupation is
an occupation, a marriage license is a tool of regulation".
Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird
Fionnghuala is a queer anarchist-feminist from Belfast and a member of WSM. Her main
activism has been around Palestine and Pro-Choice politics. She will talk from a northern
perspective where the majority party is openly homophobic and where there has been an
upsurge of homophobia recently.
This text accompanied the video recording of the ‘Voting for Marriage Equality while being
critical of Marriage’ session at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWpfJAZScMQ
http://www.wsm.ie/c/marriage-bourgeois-patriarchal-tool-trap-women
