From The Guardian: "Playwright and activist Eve Ensler explains One Billion Rising, a global day of action and dancing, in protest against violence against women." (Check the Guardian's webpage for more articles and videos)
Who Is Eve Ensler?
One Billion Rising Website
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution"
~Attributed to Emma Goldman
Jill Filipovic writes in TheGuardian: "...That basic necessity that so many women lack – being safe in our own bodies – is what made me finally come around to the One Billion Rising call to dance. It's our bodies that are violated. It's our bodies that are politicized and subjected to laws about what we can or can't cover or how we can or can't reproduce or what our families should look like.
It's our bodies that are blamed for the harm that comes to us, when we're told that we were hurt because we're too tempting, too sexual, too ugly, too loud, too easy, too feminine, too manly, too vulnerable. It's our bodies that too often feel like the enemy, when our own self-worth is worn down by cultural myths that we're too fat, too dark, too poor, too awkward, too shy, too sexy, too female, too masculine, too strong, too weak, too big, too little.
And so it's with our bodies that we should act. When our bodies have been politicized, targeted and defined for us, there's power in the simple enjoyment of that body. When women are supposed to be small and inoffensive, taking up public space is a radical act. It's unladylike. Dance, One Billing Rising reminds us, is both free and freeing...''
It's our bodies that are blamed for the harm that comes to us, when we're told that we were hurt because we're too tempting, too sexual, too ugly, too loud, too easy, too feminine, too manly, too vulnerable. It's our bodies that too often feel like the enemy, when our own self-worth is worn down by cultural myths that we're too fat, too dark, too poor, too awkward, too shy, too sexy, too female, too masculine, too strong, too weak, too big, too little.
And so it's with our bodies that we should act. When our bodies have been politicized, targeted and defined for us, there's power in the simple enjoyment of that body. When women are supposed to be small and inoffensive, taking up public space is a radical act. It's unladylike. Dance, One Billing Rising reminds us, is both free and freeing...''
I'd just like to point out the 'unmentionable' male part in the phrase 'violence against women'- if we are going to talk about what is not said, we should not be afraid to call it what it is, and that is 'Male Violence against Women' or even better 'Men's Violence Against Women'. Let's not keep the focus on it as a women's issue, that we are somehow responsible for fixing because it cites women, and not men. Let's implicate men, because they are. and Thankyou for your great work in saying what has not been said, ever.
ReplyDeleteHello Barbara,
DeleteIt's true. Male violence is greater than female violence. That doesn't exclude females from committing violence against others, even partners and children. And its also true that a man's fist does more damage so a woman grabs a weapon. The more I've delved into destructive relationships, the less binary the question becomes. It's not male versus female. Violence and aggression are human problems.
If you notice in Ensler's video, women were carrying out violent traditions against other women and we can say the System is Rotten and that's why people do what they do. But still and nonetheless, women participate in a violent culture.
What I loved about Eve Ensler's approach is that she's breaking a woman's sense of isolation...showing her through visual imagery that resistence is possible. That joy is possible. That aligning herself with other women is empowering.
If every woman looked at other women as herself and wanted to dance with joy as a result, oppressors would have a hard time carrying out their nefarious deeds. ;-)
“On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself -- on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life . . .” ~Simone deBeauvoir
Hugs,
CZ
Thankyou CzBZ for opening up this space so we can talk about things that have been unspeakable and continue to escape definition. While I agree with you that women perpetrate violence against other women, systemic violence is largely due to inherent power structures and the disempowerment and lack of education of women and girls. As educated women I think we have to look closely at the many ways and shapes these acts of violence against women take shape. My brain may be digital and my mouth analog. I really have to slow down to spell out such slippery, evasive often taboo thoughts. The accurate naming of something, the diagnosis, can release us from its grip and move us towards health. (as has been so powerfully demonstrated with defining narcissism) So let’s us women start to name what goes on more specifically under the generic heading of violence against women, and not be afraid to do so. Let’s call a spade a spade- and then dig with it.
ReplyDeleteHere’s some ways of accounting for what has yet to be made accountable because it goes unspecified, taken for granted, mythologized or unrecognized, unutterable unmentionable, and is otherwise slippery and elusive:
State and religious sanctioned male sexual entitlement. Men’s violence against women and girls in patriarchal cultures. Men’s systemic abuse of women and children and others who are disenfranchised. Men’s financial abuse of uneducated women and girls. Men’s torture and sexual abuse of Native women and girls in Canada. Men’s participation in domestic abuse where it is traditionally accepted. Men’s sexual and domestic abuse of their girl children in traditional patriarchal societies. Men’s sexual abuse and state-sanctioned rape of pre-teenage girls in traditional societies. Men’s sexual abuse and rape of boys within the Catholic religion. Men’s sexual abuse and rape of boys within Islam. Men’s participation in the mass rape and violence against women during war. Some men’s sexual arousal when they anticipate violent acts. Women’s violence against other women and girls where they are traditionally oppressed and uneducated. Women’s sexual abuse and genital mutilation of other girls when they are oppressed and uneducated. The kind of spousal abuse, rape and violence against women that many men engage in within traditional religious cultures. Women’s acceptance of domestic abuse and enslavement in traditional religious households where they are uneducated and disempowered. The violent rape and abuse of girls and babies in Africa where men think they will be cured of AIDS. The traditional rape and abuse of boys in boarding school/all male sports situations. The kind of sexual and physical abuse that takes place wherever there are power differentials of money, privilege and physical strength. The systemic rape and abuse of women in caste societies in India. The perpetration and perpetuation of violence against women wherever men turn a blind a eye to it. Men’s arousal through violence. Women’s participation in violence against women in societies where they are otherwise disenfranchised. Men’s violence against women. Women’s violence against women. men’s violence against women and girls. Men’s violence against women and children. Men’s violation of women and girls in situations where they know they will not be held accountable. Women’s violence against men and children in situations where they know they will get away with it. Women’s violence against their own children. Familial violence, abuse and scapegoating. Condoned sexual violence in the military. Men’s violence and abuse of gay men.
I hope other women can find ways to name what happens to us, so we can pick apart and disassemble what hides behind generic banners, and get used to naming it so that we can better understand what we mean. For me, beginning to understand narcissism has meant freedom.
"My brain may be digital and my mouth analog."
DeleteI'm analogital! Doing my best to integrate cognition and behavior. Changed behavior results from awareness, albeit slowly. Allowing one's self to recognize domination and control demands emotional and voluntary suffering. Not everyone can hold a broad view of reality. It's no surprise people escape the truth through out-and-out denial, or collusion---believing that if they play by the rules, they won't get hurt; or, they'll be hurt "less" than they would by defying the system. Or, purporting the patriarchal system to be divinely inspired thus removed from human inquiry.
As your comment documents, the system in which men and women have existed and continue to exist, disempowers the many and privileges the few. People can argue to the pragmatism of patriarchal agrarian cultures but that's about as far as my feminist leniency extends. Any system granting privilege to a specified group of human beings (especially by birth, not meritocracy) is corrupt; and because patriarchy is a male power system, we continue to see abuses such you've written about. Abuse flourishes when any person believes they are entitled to treat or use or acquire people at their will. Any system socializing a specified group of people to believe they have dominion over others, that they are superior to others, breeds Narcissism.
On the 'healthy' end of the patriarchal system (based on power over others) is the benevolent dictator to whom recipients are loyal admirers/adherents because of his magnanimity. On the other end of the patriarchal system is the malevolent misogynist, the 21st narcissist.
No matter how beaten he may be, how removed from POWER he may be, there's always a BootJack upon whom he can restore his superiority. We have joked about this as the boss kicking the man, the man kicking his wife, the wife kicking the dog. 'Trickle down patriarchy' is a perfect example of a corrupt system, the legitimacy of which most people never question. They rail against the horrors of sex trafficking, without looking upstream to see why this practice exists. We mock voluntary labiaplasty without examining internalized misogyny inherent to patriarchal (male) superiority.
So that's where I stand, Barbara. Being a bit of a pragmatist and having talked with many women(ever since my Gerda Lerner awakening) polarizing conversations pitting women against men, NEVER WORKS. NEVER. I've been with women friends who even after being beaten by their husbands, blamed themselves as 'deserving it'.
Socially sanctioned violence against women needs to stop and that is why Eve Ensler's idea is so inspiring. I know from my life experience as a typical American woman, that a woman must first believe in her worth and value as a human being before she will look outside herself and question her aggressor(s) or "the system".
Once we awaken, our Inner Knower never goes back to sleep---not completely. She may nap every afternoon but she never slumbers in the passive denial of the unawakened woman. Perhaps her revolution begins with dancing.
Hugs,
CZ
Add me on to your dance card!
ReplyDeleteOkay! You're on! How about this song?
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBwZMe1-A14
"The Women Gather"
by Sweet Honey In the Rock
He was her only child, her baby boy
She was his second daughter, a father's pride and joy.
Somebody's mother, brother, best friend, sister, lover
Maybe an A-1 student running, hiding, taking cover.
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living,
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living
The women gather
People say, "Not in this neighborhood!
It doesn't happen here!
Our kids have everything,
What do we have to fear?"
But what about the ones who say, "This happens every day;
Drugs and violence take our children.
How much more death can come our way?"
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living,
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living,
The women gather
Don't you know?
Some bullets find their targets
Bombs can take you right on cue
Some in the hands of babies
Or officials and their crew
Claimed the brother had a gun
She fit the profile in my book
Running, hiding, taking cover, didn't take the time to look
Somebody's mother, brother, best friend, sister, lover
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living,
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living,
The women gather crying tears that fill a million oceans
It doesn't matter where you're living
It doesn't matter
It doesn't matter
It doesn't matter where you're living