We are angry. The Pepperspray Movement arose out of anxiety and concern. We have led a tortuous path to where we today belong and we wanted to make it easier for other people. We knew much before any of about a dozen entries through our forms were received of the discrimination, oppression, molestation, indifference, prejudice ingrained in this institute, from personal experiences and anecdotes shared by our friends. The administration has failed each of us, and we were growing hopeless. Our insecurities and fears were at a fever pitch after over a year of discussions on this matter. Libraries and bookshelves were trawled. Revolutions and protests were scrutinised. One could hardly go around and find the perfect way of going about the business of change. Our anxiety became terminal to the point of exhausting us and would not relent, becoming indeed into almost a pathological condition, so to say. Finally a grain of wisdom was elicited. We are angry. The downtrodden always is. And since we feel trodden upon, there is a hierarchy of power that exists. Someone has pushed us down and is keeping us there by exercise of power. This we seek to change. We desire to disturb this equilibrium so that an equality is reached and to that end we direct our offensive. We have very clear political ends. We seek to upturn whatever we have seen as wrong to set it right. We want the 10 pm curfew revoked; we want unwelcome, non- consensual advances or preferences to stop; we want the administration to work on its prerogative of providing us with equal opportunities and rights by ensuring a safe campus for all; we want molesters, eve-teasers, abusers punished; since counselling can be expensive and bad if not so, since people can be lonely, depressed, and terrified, we also seek to provide a platform to people to share their experiences without having to face constant irrational criticism from people with no agenda of their own except furthering their own power. Whatever will be required to achieve this will be done by us. Yes, you read it. Whatever. Whatever that appears just to us. We with great conviction do only care for the notion of justice that we have taken from our fellow feminists on the globe, which we have with much assiduousness learned after a lot of diligence. We do not care for any piffling contorted asserted irrational idea of justice that is shoved down our throat by the very people in power. If we find by our own standards, our own rubric, something to be unjust, we will deal with it even if that takes us a step back or slows us down; since that will only be to gather momentum because all those standards are still aimed at guiding us to our final goal.
We fight for lesbians, gays, and against sexual abuse of men (and we would if need be assist the colonized or the racially abused as well) because we find that their conflict is the same as ours in its nature. We seek to disturb the hegemonic discourse and destroy the repressive structures of those discourses that seek to oppress us. This in effect means that we don't need to be patient, calm, and attentive to everyone who goes on finding fault with us. We will listen to and act upon any advice that helps us achieve whatever we have listed above (or any other end that we might realise as our own in time). We have only so far been patient to gauge the health of the discourse in this campus. If it becomes a roadblock to our goals, we will not shy away from strong-arming the discourse into the direction that we want to travel. As a footnote, we would like to add that the position of disinterestedness is unavailable. Everybody has already been infected by top-down patriarchal values from the very beginning. In case we happen to symbolically use a phallocentric or male-dominated idea, it is unfortunate but inevitable. Point that out only if you think that it can radically help us in speeding up the change we wish to create. For, instance, we will not mind using expletives that were earlier used only by men because their propagandistic shell has been broken and everybody uses them today irrespective of their gender. We would also like to inform you that anything that we have said is not originally cooked up by us. All of this is learnt, memorised, debated, argued and amended by hundreds of thousands of people every year. This is public knowledge and known by a huge multitude and they fight exactly like us. We are cunts and we are not cunts. This is a very personal war and we will take it to its logical conclusion with great expedition. Hence, we work with chutzpah. Today. Tomorrow. Ad infinitum. P.S.- For people who have trouble understanding our ideas, we suggest that they read at least elementary books on feminism, structuralism and de-construction, lesbian and gay theory, queer theory, post-colonialism, or at least an introductory survey of all these theories. Care to know before reading whether that is the stand of contemporary feminists. We will happily share a reading list with anyone who shares privately the amount of reading that has already been done. We only want those people on board who wish to seriously and whole-heartedly achieve the ends that we have listed (and which we might update over time). So, even if you haven't or can't read anything, but can relate to what we say owing to your experiences, you are welcome.
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