hello! i am very interested in the reading list on the transformative power of defensive violence, if you still want to share. also i like your pinned post writing a lot :)
Yes, meant to post it at some point anyway, thanks for reminding me to do that - (and thank you, it always means a lot to hear that that bit of writing resonates with someone.)
Here's what I've got so far -
And the Last Shall Be First: On the (Im)possibility of Revenge
"...what happens when revenge is aimed in the direction of revolt? In the direction of insurrection? What happens when revenge is itself not a complete project, or a bad infinity, but a break, an opening onto something else, be it terrifying or wonderful or both?”
Towards a Gender-Disobedient & Anti-Colonial Redistribution of Violence
"The redistribution of violence is a practical demand when we are dying alone and without any kind of reparation, be it from the state or from organized society. The redistribution of violence is a social justice project in a full state of emergency, and it should be performed by those for whom peace has never been an option."
"The basic premise of this proposal is that violence is socially distributed, there being nothing anomalous about the way it intervenes in society. It is all part of a world-making project, of a policy of termination and normalization, guided by racist, sexist, classist, and cis-supremacist principles of differentiation, among others. To redistribute violence within this context is a confrontational gesture, but also one of self-care. It has nothing to do with declaring war. It is, rather, a matter of sharpening the blade so as to better inhabit a war was declared behind our backs, a war which is structural for the supposed peace of this world, and which is waged against us."
Dangerous Spaces: violent resistance, self-defense, & insurrectional struggle against gender
Thirty-One Theses: A Manifesto (Toward an Anarcha-Transfeminist, Youth Liberationist, Anti-Racist, Anti-Rapist Prison Abolitionism)
The reading list is still very short and still feels like an incomplete sketch of these concepts and their interconnections. I'm gradually adding to it (I'll update this post as I do), and I hope to be able to include some of my own thoughts soon.
I hope the readings make it clear that this way of thinking about violence isn't a call for people to go out and commit indiscriminate violence against anyone who's ever hurt them, and that it challenges rather than endorses the notion that experiencing trauma preemptively justifies all acts taken in the name of that trauma. Really, what I'm after here is an understanding of the use of violence that takes into account context, direction, and power, and whether it perpetuates or interrupts oppression.
A few more relevant readings on anti-carceral feminism:
Against Innocence
Of Complaints and Apologies: Feminist Theses Against Carceralism
Intimate Authoritarianism: The Ideology of Abuse
