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Feminist Discernment in the Family
Transforming Romantic Partnerships, Parenting, and Consumption

created and written by:
Emily Knurek & Cecilia Yu

Transforming Romantic Partnerships: An Introduction
From the "Natural Family" to Feminist Love and Marriage

“If women and men want to know love, we have to yearn for feminism. For without feminist thinking and practice we lack the foundation to create loving bonds.”
- bell hooks (1)

Feminism strives for equal rights of women in the work place, at home, and in relationships. Too often we hear about domestic violence against women in their homes, often by their partners or husbands. Unfortunately, many women remain silent, in fear of more pain if they express their resistance to this kind of abusive behaviour.

With regards to marriage and relationships, the discernment feminist transformative process looks at how women have been oppressed and abused in their romantic relationships, and how women and men can redefine and reconstruct their relationships into health and mutually respectful partnerships. Here, we look at feminist transformation to symmetrical relationships, as well as the feminist transformation of love beyond masculine domination and feminine submission. Click on each of them to read more.

"Another Women" - by Carol Geneya Kaplan (2)
From: http://www.domesticviolence.org/

Today another woman died
and not on a foreign field
and not with a rifle strapped to her back,
and not with a large defense of tanks
rumbling and rolling behind her.

She died without CNN covering her war.
She died without talk of intelligent bombs
and strategic targets
The target was simply her face, her back 
her pregnant belly.

The target was her precious flesh 
that was once composed like music
in her mother’s body and sung 
in the anthem of birth.

The target was this life 
that had lived its own dear wildness,
had been loved and not loved,
had danced and not danced.

A life like yours or mine 
that had stumbled up 
from a beginning
and had learned to walk 
and had learned to read.
and had learned to sing.

Another woman died today.
not far from where you live;
Just there, next door where the tall light
falls across the pavement.

Just there, a few steps away
where you’ve often heard shouting,
Another woman died today.

She was the same girl
her mother used to kiss;
the same child you dreamed 
beside in school.
The same baby her parents 
walked in the night with 
and listened and listened and listened
For her cries even while they slept.

And someone has confused his rage 
with this woman’s only life.

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