What is Awareness?

Awareness means awareness and mindfulness in relation to power and discrimination. It describes a mindful and conscious approach to those affected by (sexualized) violence and discrimination. Awareness structures create offers to support those affected in a partisan and intersectional manner. In addition to concrete support, this includes prevention, which includes further training and education. (Sexualised) violence and discrimination are not seen as individual deeds/acts, but an examination of social power relations such as racism, transphobia, sexism and ableism is included. Because these are not individual cases, but are part and result of social structures.

There are different awareness approaches globally. We refer to the awareness approach that emerged in Germany in 2007. In the course of the protest against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, feminists founded the ›Antisexist Contact and Awareness Group‹. They provided a response tent and a safer space for the more than 15,000 people who stayed in the protest camps around Heiligendamm. In Germany, the awareness approach comes from the queer feminist movement. As a movement approach, it is a power-critical, collective approach. Awareness requires a power analysis and can be learned in self-reflection and in reflection in a group/collective. Partisanship and power of definition are two basic attitudes of awareness. The awareness approach is based on a focus on those affected, which means on the one hand that those affected have developed the approach together with allies and they have created the (experiential) knowledge together and on the other hand that the names and needs of those affected are the focus.

There is an awareness crew at Fusion to support you if you have experienced (sexualized) violence or discrimination of any kind. You shouldn't think that you've only experienced a "little thing". Any (sexualized) violence or discrimination that makes you feel uncomfortable, upset or still thinking about it is worth discussing and you can count on our support.

The awareness crew can be reached in rotating shifts around the clock from the start of the festival on Wednesday to the Tuesday after the festival. You can reach us via the info points, the main counter next to the tower stage, via security, the festival office, the telephone number in the program booklet and on the awareness flyers that are available. Basically anyone who has a radio with them or works at a location where there is a telephone connection can be addressed.

We'll get to where you are and pick you up. Our awareness crew consists mainly of white, abled people, so that we can bring little experience to the support in the case of entanglements with racism or disabilities. We try to support you as best we can. Support can mean that you can talk to us about what happened to you or how you are doing now or what you need to get better. We also have an open ear for anger and criticism. If people on the Fusion site have discriminated against you or have done (sexualized) violence to you, we can also talk to them or confront them. We can also intervene when it comes to making your tent situation safer again. In consultation with Kulturkosmos (the organizer of the Fusion Festival), people who have used (sexualized) violence can also be expelled from the festival site. We will try to help you with all small and large matters as far as it is in our power.

Awareness At Fusion Festival

I know when I'm overstepping another person's boundaries, discriminating, or engaging in (sexualized) violence.

As part of a society with various structural and institutional mechanisms of oppression, we must assume that we too reproduce these mechanisms. This is usually not bad intentions at all, but often has to do with one's own privileges, so that certain experiences of discrimination are simply not part of our everyday life and we can therefore hardly understand them. In many cases we don't even notice it ourselves when we cross other people's boundaries, discriminate against or use violence because it is so internalized. The aim here is to reflect on one's own actions and thoughts again and again and to change them in the long term. Actively ask what about your behavior may have offended or hurt another person. Try to understand and accept what you may not fully understand. Take responsibility, stay open to constructive criticism and see it as a learning process for better cooperation.

I know my friends. They are not sexist or violent.

People usually like their own friends, trust them and know them well. It's hard to imagine that a friend of yours behaves in a (sexist) discriminatory manner or even (sexualized) violence.
"They're really nice!"
If it happens anyway, there is often doubt or questioning at first:
"That can't be, did that really happen?"
Excuses or trivialization patterns often take effect:
"That was definitely not meant like that!", "That was misunderstood!", "That can't have been that bad!", "It's been completely exaggerated!"
The fact is that encroachments very common and the amount of actual slander is negligible. People can be sensitive, kind, funny, and super awesome, and still sometimes (unintentionally) behave in a discriminatory or violent way. It is important that we encourage our friends to take responsibility in this case and to act in the interests of the person concerned.

That was just a joke. I don't mean anything like that.

It might be fun for one person, but what about the other person?
Who is laughing and who is being laughed at?
Who can take their space and who is listened to? Who can talk and crack jokes and who doesn't have that space or is more likely to be put on the defensive?
A space in which some feel comfortable can at the same time be a restrictive space for others, which often has to do with different privileges. That's why it's good to be aware of one's own social positioning in groups, the environment, society and to make sure that (if possible) everyone can participate. Even things that are supposedly not meant that way can hurt. Especially when statements reproduce stereotypes, the person concerned has probably had to listen to them many times and is probably quite annoyed/hurt.

It's over. But now it's good again.

If an incident happened some time ago, many believe that it must be "good again" now. It is expected that the person can get back to business as usual and not need to talk about it as much. The assumption that the consequences of (sexualized) violence and discrimination, for example, may only last for a certain period of time is also reproduced in medicine and divided into what is still considered “normal” and what is already considered “sick”. According to medical textbooks, after a death, mourning is only allowed for half a year, otherwise the mourning is pathological.
But the consequences of the death of a close person can accompany affected persons more or less strongly throughout their lives and keep reappearing in the form of memories, images or feelings. The same goes for those affected who have experienced violence or discrimination. Only the affected person can say whether the experience is over or whether everything is “well again”.

SOURCE: Vgl. Wiesental, Ann: Antisexistische Awareness - Ein Handbuch, 2. Aufl, Unrast Verlag, Münster 2017.

Imprint   |   Privacy