At the Victoria Women’s March in February, the prevailing mood of those watching us take our protest to the Parliament Buildings, as well as online commentators, was an incredulous: “what do you have to complain about?” and “What rights don’t women have in Canada?” And if they were looking at me, they would have been right. White, educated, financially secure; I’m of the generation that was told I could do or be anything (if I worked hard enough). No particular person has stood in my way or held me back and I find myself living a life where I feel valued and respected by my colleagues and my family. Lucky for me.
Yet I often find myself enraged! It’s 2018, over 100 years since women got the right to vote in Canada, yet women on average earn less than men, are victim to more violent crime and are subject to much higher levels of sexual assault and harassment. In addition, women continue to be under-represented in politics and positions of power in the workforce, and continue to be responsible for the majority of caregiving.*
My thought here isn’t to complain about the way I’m treated, it’s to speak up for all the women who are not only under-represented, but who are consistently unheard. Indigenous women, Muslim women, women of colour, sex workers, gay women, trans women, poor women: voices that we don’t hear or don’t listen to. These were the voices that spoke to us at the Women’s March, and it was in support of them that I was happy to take my privileged self downtown and add another body to the crowd.
I was unsurprised but disappointed to read the responses to our “Word on the Street” question this month (pg 42), and I worry that Seaside Magazine is complicit in perpetuating the myth that everyone here has equal opportunity. Me shouting “take your head out of the sand” won’t change anyone’s mind, but I am interested in getting better at telling different stories – and representing experiences different from my own – more regularly.
I challenge you to question what you are fed by books, movies and the press. Make no mistake: there’s a whole patriarchal system in place to tell us things can only look one way, and if someone doesn’t keep pressing we’ll never get the chance to experience a world that has a different narrative.
* don’t believe me, check out the stats: https://goo.gl/XHa2Fj
