Closed. The boat sank, the sharks won.

Some days you watch the world with utter disbelief.

Some days you sit and see and reality hits you, repeatedly, like a sock full of sand.

Some days life beats you so hard that you end the day so punch drunk that you can’t care any more.

Some days the evil that men do is so huge that you can’t see a way round.

Some days are bleak.

Some days drain you, sap you and eat your soul.

Some days words are not enough.

Some days you look around you and see this world for what it truly is and you see the scars of what we have done torn deep into the core of our being.

Some days the wounds of simply living are raw and bleeding. 

Some days you can’t feel the life around you.

Some days the constraints and controls set on us are more like a gallows. 

Some days you can’t hear other voices, only meaningless noise. 

Some days friends are too far away.

Some days the futility of doing anything other than stopping is overwhelming.

Some days you can’t even gather enough energy to care if you wake up tomorrow or not.

My kids love the film Horton Hears a Who. For them it’s a simple film about an elephant in the jungle trying to save the tiny people of Whoville, while being chased by other jungle creatures.

But there is a deeper message. 

Horton is the only creature with the imagination and vision to believe the microscopic (invisible) people of Whoville actually exist and he is convinced that "A person’s a person, no matter how small." He rescues them and tries to take them to a place of safety despite the ridicule of his fellow jungle creatures and he is persecuted and hounded into admitting that Whoville doesn’t exist, after all that is the only way he can return to jungle society. 

But he won’t. He stands firm, alone but firm and he is caged, imprisoned and isolated until he admits he is wrong - which we know he isn’t. 

When faced with annihilation the people of Whoville finally believe their Mayor that they are in danger and unite, raising their voices to scream into the wind, "WE ARE HERE!" Together they are just loud enough that the jungle children can hear them and they are saved in the end. 

Last week I was here, with Witchy and several thousand other women and we shouted many things but regardless of the words we used we screamed "WE ARE HERE!"

WE ARE HERE!

We are human.

WE ARE HERE!

We will be heard.

WE ARE HERE!

We are women, we exist, we are strong and we are LOUD!

WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE!

I’d like to try something. Yesterday this blog had around 200 hits/visitors. I know some of those will be repeat visits and some will be bots, and some will be trolls. But to the rest of you I issue a challenge. We need to shout together and be heard. 

Go to your own blog and post up the words "WE ARE HERE!" and then comment here to say where it is, or link back. Then get your readers and friends to do the same. Just how far and how loud can we make this go? 

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

WE ARE HERE!

Little boxes….

Do not put me in a box.

Do not make me conform to your patriarchal rules.

Do not define me with your labels.

Do not force me to accept your limitations.

Do not constrain me either politically, emotionally or literally.

Do not impose your boundaries on me.

Do not make me who you want me to be.

Do not tell me what I can and cannot do.

Do not limit my dreams.

Do not enforce your domination and desires upon me.

Do not expect me to blindly agree with you.

Do not bombard me with your misogyny, bigotry and prejudice.

Do not accuse me of your misogyny, bigotry and prejudice. 

Do not accuse me of intolerance while your own intolerance flays the skin from my back.

I need only a very few labels unconditionally and those are my name and the words "friend" and "mother".  All else is irrelevant and slides like washed off dirt.

I am myself and that is enough.

Have you ever tried to talk to someone who refuses to listen or engage? Someone who latches on to a single argument and refuses to discuss in a productive way - even if you don’t agree, a good discussion can often be had.

Bring on the Trumpets!

Have a watch, it’s only 30 seconds long. 

So, as a semi regularly blogging, kinda leaning towards the radical, feminist I find myself, on frequent occasions, having discussions with people about my politics……

I’m a fairly open person and like to chat and explore, usually over a large mug of tea and in a reasonably amicable way. I don’t want to argue or be beaten about the head with a poorly presented repetition of the same old stuff just said over and over and louder and louder as if that makes it more true. I’d get more sense talking to my kitchen sink, or a jelly teddy bear …. Well, at least I can eat him if the trumpets thing gets too much.

But what about a march for men who are victims of domestic violence?

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

But what about the sex workers who enjoy what they do?

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

But what about the nice porn, it’s not all nasty….

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

But porn use/paying for sex/abuse of a women is my choice, you can’t infringe my human rights…..

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

What I do in my own home is my business….

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

But don’t you see that….. (insert spurious argument intended to divert attention from that actual point) …..

(Bring on the Trumpets…)

Patriarchy? What patriarchy? I see no patriarchy, said the woman with the blindfold on and her hands cuffed above her head so she doesn’t even have the power to remove the blindfold and truly see that the trumpets are only there to hide the sound of women being abused, raped and murdered every day, to hide the sound of control and of domination and of repression.

Quit with your bloody trumpets and quit trying to excuse what is happening, quit trying to make it look like you choose to be squashed and diminished. Just quit, just take off the blindfold, hear beyond the trumpets and really see what is being done to you and to women all over the world.

We mustered and we waited.

 

It took ages to get going but while we waited the numbers and noise just grew and grew.

We were about in the middle and it was HUGE!

There were rather a lot of women, marching, singing, shouting and generally being very very obvious through central London, which we brought to a complete standstill and we clearly made for excellent pictures….

We blocked roads and brought everything to a complete standstill for hours.

 

The roads were closed.

 

We took up loads of police time!

 

Several days later we reached the rally… Well it felt like several days, it was a couple of hours of stop start walking, shouting and banner waving and I still hurt!

 

But you know what? I reckon I’ll be there again next time, possibly sooner if I can at other marches and rallies. 

This blog post has been brought to you by SharkBait and HUGE thanks are owed to fellow bloggers Witchy Woo; RMott and Stormy along with the other fantastic women I met, bumped into, hugged and was deafened by.