Why should a woman feel she has to whisper to us about birth control and then add, "I hope no one hearing this gets offended"? Why should a woman be embarrassed to tell us how humiliated she has been because, "Every guy I have ever dated has begged me to let him ejaculate in my face"? Why should a woman break down in tears not because she feels guilty about having had an abortion but because she had gone her whole life without anyone ever saying to her that it is okay to feel good about her abortion?
It is time for women to stop choking on their anger and pain, to stop turning it inward. And it's time for the men who want no part of this to stop going along.
We know that the body count of battered women -- three to four women killed every day -- never makes the front page. We know it's easier not to consider the crushed spirits and ravaged bodies of the trafficked women who are locked inside the "massage parlors" we walk past. We know it's degrading to consider how many of the men we interact with get off on depictions of women being "throat-fucked" til they gag. We know its a lot of energy to respond every time a religious fascist insists women "keep their legs closed" and be forced to bear children against their will. We know it is painful to confront that most people--including most progressive people --have learned to accept and to live with this escalating hatred of women.
But we also know that this is not the only way the world can be. We know there is a reservoir of people, women and men, young and old, who hate this relentless assault on women's lives, rights and futures. We know that there are millions more who can be won to see that all this is intolerable. We know that not all men hate women. We know that women are not innately weak and passive and destined to lay down for this sh*t. We know -- and we have already seen in our work building up for this protest -- that, when people come together to confront the woman-haters and speak up defiantly in an uncompromising voice, tears and whispers can transform into righteous anger and defiant political action.
By standing up together, by confronting the institutions that concentrate the war against women, we can shake off our own passivity. We can plant a pole that challenges and changes what other people feel they just have to accept. We can create a situation where the anger that is simmering, often stuffed very deep down in women everywhere, can be brought to the surface and unleashed to fuel powerful thinking and action. We can give inspiration and backing to people of all genders who everywhere who want to be part of bringing a better future into being. We can forge a vehicle, a new movement, that changes the terms throughout society and gives people a meaningful way to act.
On Saturday, our protest is not symbolic. It is a beginning. It is a declaration. From now, until we win the full liberation of women, this war on women will be resisted with conscience, anger, imagination, massive mobilization, and relentless determination to turn the tide.
End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!
Fight for the Emancipation of Women All Over the World!
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
3
2
