A mile in these shoes

These shoes lay abandoned by the streetcar stop where I was waiting, and I gazed at them and immediately started imagining who they belonged to, why they were left on the street, what life had been lived in them, where they had walked. But I don't know. I will never know. I try to walk in other people's shoes, but I can only go as far as my imagination takes me, and sometimes I'm totally wrong.

Today a friend posted on Facebook an article strongly critical of One Billion Rising, and I have felt sad and troubled by it all day. The gist of the article, written by a privileged white woman (scroll to the end of that article for a picture and bio of Natalie Gyte), is that the Rising was just one more instance of privileged white feminists telling survivors of violence what to do; the article says these privileged white people should stay home and deal with the patriarchy in their own countries and leave the rest of the world alone. There is truth in that. Many educated white people think their tastes are "universal" and love to find ways to "help" people in the developing world fix "their" problems. Without walking in other people's shoes, they think they can tell folks what kind of shoes they should be wearing. And then sell those shoes to them. They should take care of their own damn shoes. That is true.

But the article is snarky. Natalie Gyte calls herself a grassroots activist and writes, "The primary problem with One Billion Rising is its refusal to name the root cause of women's inequality; its outright refusal to point the finger at a patriarchal system...." That is a strange criticism. Patriarchy, a system of power based on prejudice about women, is exactly what OBR has named as the problem. Gyte quotes some British politician who said violence is not a gender issue, but this politician does not speak for OBR. Then Gyte quotes an unidentified Congolese woman and an unidentified Iranian woman who (she says) said they were insulted by OBR and called it "neo-colonial." She claims that unnamed, unspecified women of color have these opinions. I don't know if these unnamed sources ever worked with people involved in OBR. I don't know their experience. I just know Gyte used them to make her point.

I have watched Eve Ensler work her way to prominence, slowly and with great effort and vision, against resistance of every kind. OBR was not a white women's thing. "Break the Chain" was written and performed by a woman of color, the dance was choreographed by a woman of color, and the idea of political dancing as an act of joyful resistance arises in many cultures, I could name the Igbo, Basotho, and Zulu cultures for example; and it was local women in each country who made the Rising happen. There was no Ensler corps of privileged white feminists who invaded developing countries and forced this upon them.

Ever since Occupy was shut down violently by police all over the USA, I have worried for the non-conforming world: how can we protest against our government, if any protest is labeled terrorism? How can we speak out against injustice if a gathering of concerned citizens is met with a riot squad with tazers, shields, billy clubs, and guns? Peopletwitcher said this yesterday: "I worry about our right to protest being curtailed or abolished. Like free speech, it is something I value dearly and support whole-heartedly and this protest captures the imagination, which is so powerful. I mean, how ridiculous would any Government look should they object to dancing? It's a stroke of genius."

Ensler is a playwright and therefore in my field. She's a decade younger than I, so I was watching when she came onto the theatre scene. I have watched as she didn't just sit back and collect her Obies and Guggenheims and go home and plan her next outfit. She began to work with women in prison fifteen years ago. She raised money for safe houses for women. She used her growing NY theatre connections to give exposure to the work of poor women and women of color. I watched as she created V-Day and opened a center for the treatment of women survivors in Congo. I watched as she has consistently thrown her body, her mind, and her life against what harms and silences women. Secrecy and shame about sexual abuse serve the perpetrator, not the victim. OBR is a way to shine a light on rape, on the abuse of women and children, on patriarchy, and on domestic violence. It is an idea that gripped women all over the world who danced their defiance yesterday, wearing their own shoes.

I agree that we need to address the patriarchy where we live. But there's no need to trash Eve Ensler and the Rising while we do that.