Gender and heteronormatism

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We are still living within a patriarchal system. We were born into a patriarchal system, we grew up with a more or less patriarchal education, probably complying with some of the expectations, and resisting others. We are living with our wounds and scars caused by patriarchy, sexism, a binary gender system and heteronormatism.

When we organize ourselves in groups, campaigns, and social movements to struggle for a more just and egalitarian society, our patriarchal history is like some ballast that impedes us in our struggle, if we do not question ourselves. If we do not work about our patriarchal and heteronormative heritage it is very likely that we continue to reconstruct structures of domination and patriarchal structures within our struggles, groups, and organizations.

Workshops on gender and heteronormatism can help us with our reflection about how our patriarchal legacy impacts on how we act, how we participate in the recreation of structures of domination. They can serve as part of a group process to raise collective awareness, as a learning process, to create a group – and a society – that is more egalitarian and inclusive, and less patriarchal and heteronormative.