16 Days of Activism

Please accept my apologies for my lack of enthusiasm for activism this year. I am worn out, and have neither the energy nor the inclination to find out exactly what activism activities are happening in my part of the world. I also have no desire to wear a symbolic white ribbon. (I don’t do ribbons.) Not that I’m unsympathetic to the cause. Of course I don’t want women and children to be beaten up, raped or violated in any way. I don’t want to be beaten up, raped or violated either. I recognise that it is mostly women and children against whom violence is perpetrated and that it’s mostly men who are the perpetrators. I’m just not convinced that I have any activism of value to add to these two weeks plus two days — except perhaps to write this blog.

The 16 days come at a particularly inconvenient time in South Africa. Most of us are on the verge of having a break from the accumulated obligations and responsibilities of the year. Excluding those preparing for the Polokwane conference perhaps, most South Africans are probably anticipating a few moments of freedom from routine, and time to relax and “chill” — as my offspring would say. It’s not a time of year I feel particularly motivated to spend engaging in activism against the baser qualities of humankind. It’s a time for “inactivism”.

It turns out that the 16 days were decided in 1991 in Canada by women attending the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute meeting. So rather than being on the verge of a summer holiday, they were on the verge of a possibly very cold, gloomy northern-hemisphere winter. The linking of International Day against Violence against Women on November 25 with International Human Rights Day on December 10, and incorporating along the way International Women Human Rights Defenders Day on November 29, World Aids day on December 1 and the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre on December 6, must have seemed so fortuitous at the time. The International Day for People Living with Disabilities on December 3 seems to have been declared and incorporated after 1991. Six recognised observances in the space of 16 days — all of which can be set within a gendered perspective — should surely sustain people’s interest …

The Montreal Massacre occurred in 1989 when a clearly misogynist, 25-year-old Marc Lépine indiscriminately killed 14 women university students, although his suicide note indicated that it was particularly “feminists” that he hated. A heinous crime indeed.

Apart from the minor “inconvenience” of being reminded of oftentimes horrific abuse of the more vulnerable at this time of year, there appears to be very little activism actually associated with the 16 days. Perhaps it depends on the definition of activism. It’s certainly not the same kind of activism in which many courageous individuals and groups engaged in highlighting the atrocities of, and eventually helping to overcome, the reprehensible illegitimate apartheid regime. The 16 Days of Activism campaign seems to be a much tamer, less passionate kind of activism altogether. In fact, it’s frequently described as being mainly about awareness-raising, and this is what appears to have been considered the main impact of the campaign over the past few years. But awareness of what? Of the 16 days — or of the very real issues that these days are supposed to address?

Are we ever going to get beyond awareness-raising? What would effective activism look like? What measurable changes would indicate success? Surely not more marches and placard waving (whether by men or women or both); more petitions; more speeches from political heavyweights; or more ribbons.

Call me selfish and uncaring, but as I said before, I am letting this year’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children slip by virtually unnoticed, while I plan my holiday.