About a Slogan

The slogan is "The personal is political."

I've heard it for almost 40 years now.

flip flopping joy's bfp, in the context of the death of Gloria Anzualda and her own coping strategies, analyzes the motto's meaning and how it has changed. Brief sample:

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. The personal is political as an organizing strategy was NEVER meant to be what it has become today. In a world where “choices” and boot straps dominate our ideology, I’m not surprised that the “personal is political” has become about lipstick wars and “what choices will best support the movement” show downs.

But that’s not what the concept ever meant or what it was intended to interrogate (personal choices). In fact, as an ideology, it explicitly refused to interrogate women’s choices–as it argued the choices women make are all choices of survival. Some may be privileged choices that are made by women who are further away from the burn of survival than other women are–but they are still choices of survival.

[crossposted to Dreamwidth]