It has been a tough week for Radio … and Canada
It has been a tough week in Canada. If you are a listener of radio or if you have been on twitter or facebook you know this has been a tough week. I woke up many times this week from a restless sleep imagining and connecting to the pain of being a woman in a world where our bodies become the playground for men’s violent, misogynistic, and sexist behaviour. I continued to think about what women encounter everyday when they go to work in particular industries that are controlled and handled by men who drool of power and privilege. I thought about how women’s stories of survival and encounters of rape culture are not believed, are minimized, and as a result silenced.
I was worked by the events of this week. But, as much as I was triggered, hurt, and disturbed, there were also moments of hope that have clung onto. There is a needed conversation that I have been having in my activist social justice circles for years on ending gender based violence, and for once I was seeing this conversation happening in all corners of social media. Women were coming forward with stories of being hurt and not believed. There were blogs and commentaries with an analysis that I have been starved for in these public spaces. There was so much discussion happening about violence against women for once I couldn’t’ keep up. I spent the week reading, and breathing in the discussions, so fascinated, overwhelmed and excited by the discussions that were pouring out of everyone, women and men. I realized this conversation is one we are all longing for. Whether we are coming at it as newbie’s or have spent our entire lives fighting against it…violence against women and how our world is complicit in perpetuating violence against women was on everyone’s lips this week. A conversation has started, now the question is will we remember to continue the conversation? What will come of this week’s events? Yes, it has been a tough week for Canada, but we have an opportunity to make change even if it is just words shared, I believe it is happening.