Mary Daly calls women to make courageous steps towards liberation. The first two courageous acts she mentions are “to be and to see.” When I first read this I was angered. To often as I’ve seen in organizing, people fight to long to understand the systems that oppress them. They spend too long establishing themselves in comparison to that system. When I first read this, this angered me. Then I realized again that I have no idea what it means to be a woman, especially before so much amazing work had been done when this speech was delivered. I have very little of a concept of being hidden from my true human dignity, which is rarely done to white males who identify themselves as heterosexual. I’ve never had an opportunity where asserting my true self when that so greatly contradicted the world that surrounded me.

This is how I, along with too many other male revolutionaries, fall into the trap of androcentrism. We rarely have to make the initial stand of defining ourselves, because there is little about this class of revolutionaries that goes against social norms. We are pushed ahead, and more ready for direct action to change society, as our place in society has already been comfortable defined for us.

We need to learn to step back and redefine who we are in this patriarchal society, rather than exist as we do. Revolutionary men often decry the situation of others, but rarely take time to understand the interconnectedness of the oppression in the world. This allows us to feed into paternalistic organizing. “I’m comfortable with where I’m at in society, but I’ll help you be comfortable,” can no longer be acceptable ideology.