It’s a been a heck of a month for women’s rights hasn’t it?
From Brittany Higgins to Grace Tame, to tone deaf politicians and the #NotAllMen brigade it’s incredibly tough to break this down to a micro and tangible level.
First off, let’s dispel the language of “the angry women”. No, we’re not angry and please don’t minimise our experience by gas lighting us into thinking we’re just “emotional”. We’re tired. Down to the bone tired. All of us. Even the women who display internalised misogyny, just so dang tired.
We’ve seen social media flooded with women’s personal experiences with sexual harassment, discrimination, assault, domestic violence and rape and for many of us it’s the first time sharing these experiences with anyone outside our trusted circle of friends.
Why is that? Why now? It’s because we felt supported and seen … by other women. Women have been subject to the male gaze since the dawn of time but there is power in women, when we are seen, and more importantly heard, by other women. I heard Clementine Ford talk about this last week and it resonated deeply.
The shared experience is so powerful, it’s got people rattled.
The March 4 Justice was an opportune time for politicians, and more importantly, our PM Scott Morrison, to make the effort to step outside his Canberra bubble to be present, not talk, and listen to women’s lived experiences.
For we are faced with a mammoth task: the duality in our existence as women.
Many of us who strive to change the status quo do so in a community or relationship that still isn’t congruent with how we want the world to see us. We have to balance, every day, the risk and reward for speaking up – and it’s exhausting. The role of partner, wife, mother, worker, protester, activist, sometimes exist in a complete dichotomy of existence. It’s wearing us thin, but women are strong, and we can weather this storm, just like all the storms that came before us in the suffragette movement, the fight for our vote, for our right to work and for our very existence.
This doesn’t even take into consideration the added complications that come from intersectionality in the community. To my sisters, whoever and wherever you are, solidarity to you.
For there is nothing more terrifying for men than when women organise.
Women have a voice and are now more visible and are ready to take control of their own narrative and journey.
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Women Dead in March so far: 2
Women Dead in 2021 so far: 8
DO YOU NEED SUPPORT?
- Domestic Violence Line
1800 65 64 63
Rape Crisis Service
1800 424 017 - 1800 RESPECT Call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or visit their website.
- Safe Steps Call 1800 015 188 or visit their website.
- Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit their website.
