On the heels of growing public awareness of the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event in the summer and the “Sisters In Spirit” walk in the fall, concerned Athabascans are joining another worldwide event to decry violence against women, this time on Valentine’s Day.
One Billion Rising for Justice involves any interested person attending a few weeks’ worth of dance classes to learn choreography to a song that calls for no more gender violence. The dancers then descend on surprise public locations Feb. 14 in a highly visible display of solidarity with women who have faced violence of any stripe.
But how can learning a few dance steps change a staggering statistic: that one in three women will be physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime?
Pirouettes may not seem as concrete a way to address gender violence as, say, pushing for policy change. But take a closer look at the One Billion Rising for Justice mission statement: “that we cannot end violence against women without looking at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy.” The event only began last year, and already organizers are trying to delve deeper into ways to spark change, inviting survivors of violence to share their stories through art, spoken word or testimony if they want to go beyond set choreography.
This movement is bigger and more thoughtful than a kinetic statement that “violence is bad.”
Numbers-wise, the 2013 One Billion Rising for Justice event has been credited with being the largest mass action in human history. Attracting one billion participants wasn’t just an effort to set a record, however: it was a direct response to the United Nations’ acknowledgement that more than one billion women will be beaten or raped over the course of their lives.
If that many people rise up and say no more, the logic goes, the scales have to tip ever so slightly.
You may find events like this — events that ask men to walk in women’s high heels or for dancers to flash mob a business or government building — gimmicky. You may think the time could be better spent; the participants could volunteer at a shelter or work a crisis line.
But many of the people involved in organizing these anti-violence events are already on the front lines of addressing violence against women in our community. One of the first things they will tell you is that secrecy and embarrassment cling to gender violence.
Make no mistake: every statement that gender violence is unacceptable is needed in this community, and if that statement is loud, flashy and even aerobic, so much the better.
