Tarana Burke, Amandla Stenberg and more Join together for a surprisingly hopeful Summit on Gender Equality
I am exhausted. I know this is not an original or even particularly illustrative statement to make in 2022, but it is true. The news is bleak and often unwieldy. United States, reproductive rights are collapsing, the LGBTQ+ community is under attack in state legislatures across the country, new wave COVID is upon us, all the while a brutal war rages in Ukraine and severe climate change, shrinking into every available nook and cranny. It wasn’t a particularly hopeful time — which is why I was surprised to see it in an auditorium at Barnard College this Tuesday.
That evening’s event, titled “22 for 22: Decisions for a Feminist Future,” was a global gender equality summit organized by the media company. The Meteor and Gucci’s Chime for Changeand will be virtual broadcast on May 9. The speakers are an intergenerational cohort of activists, organizers, journalists, and artists — who are tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time. ta. Some are names you’ve heard (actors Busy Philipps and Amandla Stenberg); others have just entered the public consciousness, like Chris Smalls, who recently organized Amazon’s First American Union at a warehouse on Staten Island. Question The focus of the conference was: what is the future for women, girls and non-ethnics? But the reason we’re really there, the basic poll, is a little more complicated. Even if we can imagine it, how can we get to that future? How do we stay motivated until that future finally arrives?
Sometimes people ask this directly. As Smalls took to the stage with legendary labor leader and National Farm Workers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta, he asked her about how to take care of your mental health in the process. labor organization. Huerta recommends reaching out to your supporters and celebrating “a lot with song, with music, and with friends, so that it doesn’t become so heavy that it crushes you.” Philip asked Paula Ávila-Guillena human rights lawyer and activist who has worked to eliminate abortion throughout Latin America, what the United States can do against Upcoming decision of the Supreme Court is expected to overturn or rupture the intestines Roe v. Wade. It’s frustrating, Ávila-Guillén said, “when I see what’s going to happen in the United States, and I don’t see people protesting every day.”
When asked behind the scenes about the “Me Too” movement’s upcoming 5th anniversary this fall, founder Tarana Burke said it was imperative to focus on what the movement’s work has accomplished, rather than specific successes and failures. “I could give you a list of the laws that have been passed and the laws and who will go to jail, who will lose their jobs and all the rest, but all of that is fleeting,” she said. ELLE.com. “For example, Harvey Weinstein has had many years; Bill Cosby is released from prison. Imagine if that was our measure. It’s like watching a tennis match. And our hopes will be tied to that. Imagine trying to live like that. Imagine trying to direct such a movement.” Instead, she said, the conversation should be about how “Me Too” changes culture and creates space for “an international dialogue we couldn’t have five and a half years ago.”
That’s not to say there isn’t much left to do — there’s a “ton of crap” to use in Burke’s word. She is acutely aware that the fire does not always burn brightly. “The interest in sexual violence has abated — check out this fashion show the other day,” she says, presumably for reference. Alexander Wang returns to the runway in LA, his first show after being publicly accused of sexual assault. “You can’t drive people crazy about that. You can’t embarrass people about it. And I’m not going to make war about it, because it’s not a fight… I’m more interested in the people who came out and had the courage to say what he did, how they felt. I don’t want to embarrass the people who attended that event, because they have to live with their decision. But what I was really thinking about day in and day out [is], how do those who came first feel? That’s our fight.”
Of course, the speakers also tackled that original question – what an inclusive and equal, secure, and feminist future might look like. “I would love to paint a future with a few more nuances in the cinematic space — a few more nuances and dimensions,” says Janicza Bravo, co-writer and director of the film. Zola, told ELLE.com backstage. “One of the first times I went to Sundance on my own, I remember reading this story,” she continued. “There is a director who has made a small, independent film and now has the opportunity to make a big film. Part of the story is that the opportunity he was given was because he was sitting across from this very famous white filmmaker, who said, ‘I just look at him, and I see myself. ‘ I remember reading it and thinking, that will never happen to me. No one can sit across from me and see themselves. So how can I do that? I really want in 10, 15, 30 years to sit across from a young person who looks like me and tell that story: I saw myself, and I was able to create this opportunity for them. ”
Because even in the midst of horrors and setbacks, the night’s presenters had hope that such a future was possible. Many at “22 for ’22” argue that perhaps the reason the country feels so fragile right now is that we are nearing the end of an era when bigotry is seen as acceptable. Okay. Actress Amandla Stenberg told writer and activist Raquel Willis during the final panel session: “Sometimes I think of the efforts of this anti-LGBT law like a deadly fever. “It is becoming increasingly clear that we are having important conversations about gender, about gender expression, beyond the traditional binary that we have internalized. So while it’s overwhelmingly disappointing, I try to document it as really just a death cry in response to the fact that things are radically changing. ”
Backstage, Burke also told ELLE.com: “I really think the reason why it feels so bad right now is because of these horrible people, they’ve seen the end. They have seen the end for a long time, so they are preparing. They are fighting for their lives, for it is the last bit of their lives left. Their way of life is not sustainable, and this next generation won’t tolerate it.”
She continued, “I just don’t feel very nervous about this next group. Because, God, they’re ready. ”
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