Choose a different weapon

Was talking with N about helping out at an Aware event. At some point in the conversation, she talked about how we were fighting gender inequity using the exact same weapon that is used to perpetuate gender inequity, how smart is that?

It suddenly hit me as she said it - we are using anger and distrust to fight anger and discrimination. It works, but it's like a blunt weapon.

Her words really shook me up. I had been thinking about how Aware can be more effective for some time, and approaching it from the point of view of strategy. Our position papers are very well-researched and well-reasoned, but that doesn't stop the government from shoving them in some dark corner somewhere (kinda like how certain inconvenient X-Files get stored away in a huge warehouse never again to see the light of day). How many people read the forum pages of the newspapers anyway? Are we just preaching to the converted? Or alternatively, wasting our breath with those who will never see our point of view?

I was also conscious that the change has to come from within – we literally have to manifest all the values we espouse. But somehow, I continually get myself angry when I work on issues. The question that always pops up is – why isn’t someone doing something to help that woman? Whether it is the pregnant employee who was fired, or the woman experiencing domestic violence but doesn’t get out of it, or the woman who is over 50 and can’t find a job. So in the end, I am still using anger to solve issues created by anger and distrust.

It’s time for subterfuge!!

Perhaps it is time to reconcile the “new-age” part of me with the feminist?! It’s all about love and acceptance. Of ourselves, of the “victim” and most importantly, of the “perpetrator”.

Perhaps when every civil activist can embody that, we would have truly succeeded in changing society.

Hmmm....??