"Think"
So, working part time means that I get to hear part of the radio show, "Think" on my way to pick J up from daycare. Today's guest is giving a lecture tonight and has a PBS show coming up on "Women in War."
It sounded fascinating, if disturbing, and ultimately hopeful. Kind of weird for one show to be all that, but it was. The disturbing part was about how women are targeted for sexual violence during conflicts. Not just in a "this is what soldiers do as they are in the barbarity of war or being rewarded by their commanders or something" but in a strategic, "let's target the heart of the family and community" kind of way by raping women. One of the things that they said that I liked, however, was that as more women came into the international justice system, rape was being seen now as a human rights issue, not just a 'women's' issue (unlike the Nuremberg Trials, for example, where they decided that rape was too distasteful to bring up.)
The host said something about how all the men she knew were outraged when they heard about these kinds of things, and the guest responded that yes, not only were women often not in the room when these decisions were made, but the men she knew (or who were like the men she knew) were also not in the room. And women speaking up about it allowed more men to do so. Apparently, Matt Damon is the narrator of the portion of the show on sexual violence and he was chosen purposefully for that segment becasue of who he is- but also because he is male, and having a male voice expressing the outrage over it was a different impact than a women doing so.
All of that struck a chord with me for some reason- I know that my male friends and family members would respond in extreme ways if I or one of the women that we knew was targeted. And, I know that they are ceratinly against rape regardless of who is involved. But, I don't know how many of them would, currently, speak out publically on the subject unless it had struck someone close to them. That is something that should change. Women are generally outraged by all rape, it seems sometimes that men are outraged by someone they know being raped.
A cool fact mentioned was that studies have shown that when parliamentary or other legislative bodies contain at least 35% women, they begin to change. Less deadlocks, more balanced budgets, etc. Currently, we, in the U.S., have 17% of our legislative bodies being women, behind many places that we consider behind us in women's rights (like Afghanistan, for example.) If we continue at our current rate, we will reach parity of representation in 500 years. That was sobering to hear- especially as there seems to be a movement under way to undermine women's rights in terms of medical areas and prominent politicians saying that women should submit to their husbands, etc. I feel like here these things are still "women's" issues and not "human" issues. We still have a long way to go on this.
The ultimately hopeful part of things was that women are standing up and asking for justice and not hiding behind silence any more. Bosnian women want to testify against their rapists, Rwandan and Congolese women (especially the elderly ones who were most targeted for sexual violence due to their positions in their villages as leaders and spokespersons) are standing up and saying "this happened and we will not let it be forgotten", etc. The guest said that for her, the most important thing was making these women the subjects again, not the objects. They are not just someone that something happened to, they are the subjects of their own stories and their power is in being seen that way and living their lives that way.
I don't really know why I felt the need to post all of this, but I did. So, for those of you who read it, hope it provided some thoughful moments for you, too.
It sounded fascinating, if disturbing, and ultimately hopeful. Kind of weird for one show to be all that, but it was. The disturbing part was about how women are targeted for sexual violence during conflicts. Not just in a "this is what soldiers do as they are in the barbarity of war or being rewarded by their commanders or something" but in a strategic, "let's target the heart of the family and community" kind of way by raping women. One of the things that they said that I liked, however, was that as more women came into the international justice system, rape was being seen now as a human rights issue, not just a 'women's' issue (unlike the Nuremberg Trials, for example, where they decided that rape was too distasteful to bring up.)
The host said something about how all the men she knew were outraged when they heard about these kinds of things, and the guest responded that yes, not only were women often not in the room when these decisions were made, but the men she knew (or who were like the men she knew) were also not in the room. And women speaking up about it allowed more men to do so. Apparently, Matt Damon is the narrator of the portion of the show on sexual violence and he was chosen purposefully for that segment becasue of who he is- but also because he is male, and having a male voice expressing the outrage over it was a different impact than a women doing so.
All of that struck a chord with me for some reason- I know that my male friends and family members would respond in extreme ways if I or one of the women that we knew was targeted. And, I know that they are ceratinly against rape regardless of who is involved. But, I don't know how many of them would, currently, speak out publically on the subject unless it had struck someone close to them. That is something that should change. Women are generally outraged by all rape, it seems sometimes that men are outraged by someone they know being raped.
A cool fact mentioned was that studies have shown that when parliamentary or other legislative bodies contain at least 35% women, they begin to change. Less deadlocks, more balanced budgets, etc. Currently, we, in the U.S., have 17% of our legislative bodies being women, behind many places that we consider behind us in women's rights (like Afghanistan, for example.) If we continue at our current rate, we will reach parity of representation in 500 years. That was sobering to hear- especially as there seems to be a movement under way to undermine women's rights in terms of medical areas and prominent politicians saying that women should submit to their husbands, etc. I feel like here these things are still "women's" issues and not "human" issues. We still have a long way to go on this.
The ultimately hopeful part of things was that women are standing up and asking for justice and not hiding behind silence any more. Bosnian women want to testify against their rapists, Rwandan and Congolese women (especially the elderly ones who were most targeted for sexual violence due to their positions in their villages as leaders and spokespersons) are standing up and saying "this happened and we will not let it be forgotten", etc. The guest said that for her, the most important thing was making these women the subjects again, not the objects. They are not just someone that something happened to, they are the subjects of their own stories and their power is in being seen that way and living their lives that way.
I don't really know why I felt the need to post all of this, but I did. So, for those of you who read it, hope it provided some thoughful moments for you, too.