This isn’t the post I had planned for today. It’s not the post I’ve been meditating on, writing mental notes about, trying out phrases for. All my smart words and measured arguments have been shelved for a more appropriate time.
I’m not sure when that time will be. I’m not sure when there will be a right time to discuss the semantics of feminism, given what has happened today.
It’s utterly horrific. Apparently people are calling for life or death sentences for rapists there. I don’t support capital punishment but I can understand the visceral reaction of calling for a life for a life. Would it change anything? I don’t know.
Surely the change has to be at a different level to the justice system though. Surely the change has to run through society at every level, that the perceived value of women’s lives has to change. That has to come from parents, from educators, from news, in popular culture. It’s tweaks to language, to the world of work.
Just today I read an article where a woman commented men are never described as bossy. They might be competent, controlling, assertive, aggressive, but not ever bossy. It made me pause, and think about it. It’s not a word I often use, but when I think about it it does have connotations.
It’s not a word I’ll use again.
I don’t know what else I can do, what other changes I can make. And whatever I do do will have no effect on the culture of a country around the world from here. But perhaps it will make a difference here, for my daughters and for my sons. Because an unequal society is no good for any of them.
Leave a Reply