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Kim Gouz (Archive)
Last update - 16:51 19/08/2008
Jewish World / Let's talk about sex(ism)
By Kim Gouz
Tags: Israeli society, Jewish World 

Studying Israel turned me feminist.

A moderate who grew up in white, middle-class suburbia, I was not the pro-choice pushing, anti-pornography ranting, condom-dispersing type. I've always defined myself as being socially liberal, and I've supported feminist issues privately for a long time. But until a year ago, you would have been hard pressed to find me on any street corner waiving the feminist banner.

In a lot of ways, I've always felt very conflicted about feminism in the U.S. While I never doubted that many women in America do experience gender marginalization, it was not something I'd dealt with firsthand. My earliest memories are of co-ed basketball teams and home-repair projects with my father, in addition to the more effeminate ballet and piano lessons. I was raised to believe if I worked hard enough I could do anything and, while I'm not sure "university professor hopeful" and "professional student" made the top ten on my parents' list of preferred occupations, I have been supported by family, friends, teachers and employers throughout my life.
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So how does one go from passively supporting gender equality to, say, participating in Women in Black vigils in Jerusalem and Haifa?

In my case, conversion occurred somewhere between discovering Israeli personal status law and studying the bastion of Israeli machismo, the IDF. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but there's something about a liberal democracy that allows women to be "chained" to marriages that seems inherently contradictory.

After all, If Israel really wants to be liberal and democratic like the United States, it should probably implement no-fault divorce law and aim for a 50 percent divorce rate . . . Calm down, I only kid.

The nature of gender politics in Israel is incredibly complex, both due to societal importance on military ethos and the fragmented and complicated forms of identity experienced by all members of Israeli society.

Jewish women may feel discriminated against because they are relegated primarily to administrative roles in the IDF. They may also feel discriminated because, upon completion of military service, they are expected to pop out babies exponentially to compete with their friends on the other side of the Green Line in what I will term the "great intifada of population growth."

These problems, which affect all women in Israel, do not account fully for many Israeli Arab, Mizrahi and Ethiopian women. In their cases, marginalization is experienced on the basis of both gender and ethnicity. Lesbians experience a similar multiple-pronged marginalization debacle.

It doesn't take a genius to infer that ultra-Orthodox and Ashkenazi male decision-makers won't necessarily have lesbian interests in mind when making and shaping the law. From the prospective of these individuals in power, what could possibly be worse for the spread of Jewish seed and Orthodox values than a partnership between two women?

HaShem help you if you happen to be an Israeli Arab lesbian or new woman immigrant. The state will allow the former to vote and will make half-hearted attempts to convert and assimilate the latter, but these women will be hard pressed to find adequate representation in the 85 percent male, Ashkenazi-dominated Knesset .

This blog will be focused on the Israeli Arab, immigrant lesbians of Israeli society. Or, lest I continue to speak metaphorically and be misunderstood, the fringe groups whose perspectives are generally ignored or marginalized by the state. I will probably be a bit preoccupied with the topic of gender, as this was the focus of my research in Israel. It's also pretty much the only thing I read about on a regular basis, in addition to updates on CNN.com and the things Matt Drudge pushes on his Web site like a heroin dealer of news.

If you're not a woman or someone who is concerned at least peripherally with women's issues, I am excited that you read past the word "feminist" in the first paragraph. I should also tell you that you may be a masochist, trying too hard to impress hardcore feminist types, or my father. In any event, you may want to check back for possible, unrelated rants on things like Israeli drivers and the fact that all computer labs, most buses and the lone bank at the University of Haifa were closed on the only two days I ever intended to use them: Friday and Saturday.

Until then, I'll be reminiscing about burning my bras in the safe room of my dorm-apartment at the university and cursing the religious establishment for leaving me bus-less and stranded for the better part of my weekends.

Kim Gouz is a 22-year-old American student who recently spent six months living and studying in Haifa, and volunteering at Haifa Feminist Center.

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