11/25/11 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: Women Dismantle Wall Street
Jasmine Burnett
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/
On this day the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women we have to be more firm, direct and vigilant then ever before in our fight for Women’s Liberation! Women are the victims and survivors of Economic, Political, Sexual and Economic Violence!
The images that drive the sexual, political, economic and military violence against women globally must be challenged. A sister feminist whose analysis I’m going to reference throughout this speech is Elaine Charkowsky who simply said let’s just call it what it is and that is “Male Violence Against Women.”
When I look at the billboards around this city, various ads banking billions of dollars on the sexualized images and bodies of women, I’m clear that its not women making these decisions. When I look at the racist and sexist anti-abortion billboards splashed all across this country with African American and Hispanic children, claiming the most dangerous place for an African American and Latino is in the womb. I wonder why we aren’t outraged at the justifications against control of our bodies without shaming our decisions that is not liberation!
Let’s talk about the images that are subliminal that around violence that we must directly address.
Breaking the silence
Male violence against women must be named specifically for it to be isolated and eliminated. Dealing with male violence is not a part of being a woman! All men are responsible and must be held accountable for ending violence against women. In their families, homes, on the street and in the boardroom where decisions are made that construct our images.
Some of the excuses for watering down violence against women are as follows:
Not all men are violent
Men do collectively hold more power than women and since men benefit from our society being sexist and male supremacist, non violent men are responsible for holding violent men accountable
This also must be applied racially! All whites benefit from living in a racist society because it applies unearned privileges and advantages, even those who do not commit racist acts! We must hold each other accountable!
Women are violent too
Men commit 88 percent of violent crime (US Bureau of Justice statistics). Women don't build rape camps to torture and molest men to death. Women don't control the U.S. government which spends more than half a trillion dollars a year on mass murder (war). Globally, women can't walk alone without the possibility of men assaulting them. The reverse is not true.
Token Women
Even though some broken token women may collaborate with patriarchal men to gain power it doesn't change the fact that patriarchal men are in charge and allow selected token "honorary men" into the boys club–if they identify with, and behave like, patriarchal men.
We cannot be lump acts of violence in a universal language, male violence against women must be named specifically.
The power disparity between women and men is the reason for some women’s dysfunctional behavior. It is not an excuse for it:
“We know that Some lesbians also batter their partners”
This results from internalized dysfunctional heterosexual behavior absorbed from a patriarchal society in which the dominating partner (the man) batters the woman. Male violence against women is the blueprint for lesbian vs lesbian battering.
“Some women also commit racist violence against women”
Racism (male violence based on race) was created and implemented by dysfunctional men to “divide and conquer.” Male violence based on the “otherness” of the oppressed is the blueprint for racist attacks inflicted by some women upon “other” women. This results when women internalize racism and identify with the dominating race (including men)-instead of bonding with oppressed women. Racism is only possible when inflicted by the race possessing the most political and economic power (racism=prejudice+power over). Thus, women of dominated races cannot commit racism against women of the dominating race-only prejudice.
Racism and Sexism
Male violence against women of the same race is clearly seen as sexism. However, male violence against women of different races is often obscured by being seen as just racism instead of racism and sexism. It is racism and sexism outside of our race and it is sexism within our race.
“Some women also exploit women sexually and economically
Hatred and contempt of women-including themselves-is the underlying issue. Women who exploit other women identify with and see themselves through the eyes of women however they also see themselves through the eyes the oppressor (male supremacists who have contempt for women).
The absent referent: Stop the omissions
Agent deletion is common, concerning male violence against women. Timid terms such as "sexual violence," "domestic violence" "gender-based violence," and "violence" refer to men without naming them, even when describing instances when it was obviously men who raped hundreds of thousands of women in Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda and many other nations.
Even Amnesty International, which calls it "a global scourge," uses the term "violence against women" and “sexual violence” instead of "male violence against women." http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/stop-violence-against-women.
"Men also rape men and boys."
Rape is a male hate crime against women. However, this use of universal language around violence attempts to portray rape as a gender-neutral atrocity. The fact that men also rape men and boys doesn’t change the fact that in every nation on earth, in all levels of society, men rape women. Even when men rape males, contempt for women is the underlying issue. Men rape males to degrade them by treating them like raped women.
If white supremacist men batter a black man, it’s clearly seen as a racist hate crime, even though white man also batter white men. In the same manner, rape is a hate crime against women, even though men also rape men.
"What we resist persists."
You are resisting today by just being here, showing up and standing in solidarity. Opposing women's oppression directly is only one tactic. Another is using Sonia Johnson’s tactic of not confronting oppression directly in other situations where you aren’t under immediate threat of physical violence. This is done by being proactive by supporting women in their efforts to gain universal human rights. This can be done by volunteering at women’s shelters, donating to groups that help women in impoverished nations and many other ways. Both tactics are necessary.
Let go of the “passive voice”
In English grammar, using the passive voice (women were raped by men) instead of the active voice (men raped the women) shifts the focus from the perpetrators and their actions (men doing the raping) to their victims (the women being raped).
"Boys will be boys"
Patriarchal cultures promote "nature over nurture" (biological determinism) and claim men are "naturally violent." This legitimizes and perpetuates war and men's abuse of women. Abnormal violent "manhood" is regarded as the norm.
However, men are naturally peaceful. It's proven today by famous non-violent men such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other men who organize against warfare and who speak out against male violence against women.
It takes years of traumatic conditioning (while being immersed in a violent society) to make men violent. "Military training camps, police academies and even some self-defense pros are constantly searching for more effective methods of suppressing the human revulsion to taking human life.”
If men were “naturally violent,” years of brutal conditioning by violent media and in boot camps would not be needed.
As a movement, we MUST change the way we think, speak and act about male violence against women and how that affects how we see ourselves and treat each other. What you can do today hold yourself and the institutions like Wall Street accountable, vote, write, blog, tweet about it, call it what it is and use your active voice! We can no longer passively participate in maintaining patriarchal acts of violence against women!
