when you have raised a daughter
We women. We don’t have for ever. Some of us don’t have another week or
another day to take time for you to discuss whatever it is that will
enable you to go out into those streets and do something ...
And I want one day of respite, one day off, one day in which no new
bodies are piled up, one day in which no new agony is added to the old,
and I am asking you to give it to me. And how could I ask you for less –
it is so little. And how could you offer me less: it is so little.
Andrea Dworkin
These are things I am thinking about in new ways lately. Thank you for those perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI was recently thinking of how last year about this time, I listen to the evening news with intent interest as the latest body count was given...how many cases in the US, and other countries, and how many deaths. Later the case count and body count was given on the local news about our state and county. I am amazed how long I was intrigued by those numbers. Perhaps it was to remind myself to stay safe, if possible.
ReplyDeleteOn the Men's Issue of "Violence against Women," I agree completely that our description needs to change to look for perpetrators rather than look at each incident as a victim has been added to the count - rather than perhaps that boy or man has already done the same thing before and gotten away with it.
I was raped by a stranger on September 17, 1970. I had been hitchhiking to work in those good ol' hippie days. After the assault, I went straight to the police and the first question they asked me was, "Did you learn your lesson?" Yes. Men are permitted the savagery of their genetics, and we women must learn to act appropriately. Never make a wrong choice. And always take full responsibility for what ever tragedy befalls you.
ReplyDeleteNo days off.
ReplyDelete"We women."
Thank you Sabine. Change is so very slow but it helps when we have new words, new ideas. So simple but not yet.
ReplyDeletethe second I have seen before and it is so true. even now. the patriarchy protects men and boys from blame and when blame finds it's way to men it's still not their fault because those women, you know, those women were the cause of it. apparently we cause this stuff by existing. another one...the lecturer who asked the men in the room what they did, how they prepared for safety before going out in public and they were all, huh, what? nothing. then he asked the women in the room the same question and the answers were endless.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Even as a former journalist, I'd never thought about the passive construction of those phrases and what that implies (or protects). Excellent post!
ReplyDelete