Reading Lev Lafayette and Anthony Leong's opus, "The Sex Industry:
Socialism or Censorship", was more like watching myself in a funhouse
mirror, distorted and misconstrued beyond recognition.
Lafayette and Leong wrote: "Wu is a recently converted disciple of the
sexual sectarianism". FALSE. I was a radical feminist since my first year
of university study in New Zealand, although there was a brief period of
time when I became interested in postmodern theories, political commitments
in helping the feminist movement convinced me that being an Asian (a blend
of Chinese and Taiwanese cultural heritage at that, too!)radical lesbian
feminist, is the best political identity I can identify myself with. It is
disturbing that Lafayette and Leong should choose to attack my ethnicity,
feminist belief as well as my sexual identity as "sexual sectarianism".
Lafayette and Leong's claim that my comment of "Lafayette claimed that
feminism is merely a 'sectional interest', rather than of 'universal
concern'" to be "distortion" and "misrepresentation" is both ridiculous and
cowardly in that Lafayette is trying to deny what he has written to
feminists ( or could it be an evil twin brother, or a temporary amnesia?!)
who have written to him in protest of the absence of independent feminist
representative at the conference. I will quote what he has written to
Sheila Jeffreys and to Heather Benbow:
"As the first conference of this nature we are interested primarily in
universal concerns rather than sectional interests. However, we do have two
speakers on specific, contextual matters: Gary Foley, on indigenous issues
and Anthony Leong, on multiculturalism. Which of these two do you propse we
replace for a speaker on women's issues? And what women's issues relevant
to Victoria do you propose have political priority over reconciliation with
our indigenous people or enhancing mullticulturalism?"
"I do not see (but acknowledge that I might be wrong) that the political
and economic rights of women are about to undergo a rapid advance or are
seriously under threat."
Lafayette has also written to Green Left Weekly demanding an apology for
printing my article because he sees my comment as "fabrication". After
reading the letters exchanged between Jeffreys and Lafayette, GLW has since
then written back to Lafayette to refute his claim, which Lafayette then
wrote back to GLW in agreement: "Your suggestion is, in the main, a
balanced and reasonable response."
If Lafayette has agreed to Green Left's decision, then why is he still
whinging in public forums about an issue he has already agreed upon?
Lafayette and Leong's attempt to use biological reductionism to argue that
"sexual desire is a biological function" is hilarious. Human sexual
conventions are one of the most artificial constructions in the social
practices. After all, how many monkeys do you see wearing fishnet stockings
or flashy ties during mating seasons? Many feminists have always been
critical about sexuality as a social construction, perhaps the two men
would care to read more feminist texts before whipping up pseudo-feminist
theories themselves.
Lafayette and Leong also claimed that I'm absolutist in saying that: "as
the practice of patriarchy, which seeks to justify its status quo and
domination through the construction of women as expendable
object-commodities for the consumption of the male consumers" (7).
Before they jump into a witch-burning frenzy, I might just point out one
thing: the extract was from an essay I'd send to Lafayette for comments
before we had the dispute regarding the Left Labor conference. Lafayette
and I were friends for over a year, and sometimes we would look at each
others' work for feedbacks and discussions. However, I NEVER gave Lafayette
permission to quote my personal works in public (after all, he's not my
publisher!), nor do I consider quoting lines out of their context to be a
fair way to rebut opponents. Rather, Lafayette has abused our former
friendship when I had considered it safe to entrust my works for his
viewing. Now I am wondering of just what other personal information he know
of me to exploit for his own personal motivations.
Lafayette and Leong also claimed that I've never protested to Lafayette
regarding the conference. False again. Lafayette might care to stretch his
memory back to the afternoon of Saturday 9th June: in a conversation with
Lafayette, I raised a concern about whether it is suitable that Peter
Torney is speaking at the conference when he is also a member of the Eros
Foundation. Lafayette then assured me that I'll be interested to know that
Maureen Mathews, a "feminist", will also be speaking at the conference. Not
knowing who Maureen Mathews at the time (member of Eros Foundation and
proprietor of a sex shop), I took Lafayette's words to be true, and hence
my enthusiasm for looking forward to the conference, until it became clear
two weeks later that Lafayette has no interest in allowing feminist voice
to address to women's issue.
Nearly a month has passed by since the Left Labor conference, yet Lafayette
still seems to be upset by the objections raised by feminists both within
Labor Left as well as those outside of the political faction. This is shown
in his co-authored article with Leong, his repeated inflammatory posts
regarding Professor Jeffreys in various public newsgroups, as well as his
attempt to silence dissenting voice with threats of defamation to me in
private communications despite my repeated request of him to stop. I am not
sure whether this is standard political tactics, but it sure sounds like
alot of right-wing facism to me.
Sincerely,
Joyce Wu
=====
"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to
me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it
bruised and misunderstood." - Audre Lorde
--
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