On February 14 this year, One Billion Rising for Justice are calling on women and men everywhere to harness their power and imagination to rise for justice — the largest global action against gender-based violence (GBV) yet. Thousands of us across southern Africa will be taking part. There is an ever-increasing number of men who […]
One Billion Rising
Beyond the noise: Acting against rape
I am a panellist on SABC2’s Big Debate. The subject is violence against women and the discussions dense with the mismatch of ideas. A sample: Satanism stalks our schools. We live in a demoncrazy — not a democracy. Women who wear 3cm skirts abuse men. Patriarchy is deeply rooted in our lives and thinking. The […]
One billion bodies reclaimed
In the past few years there have been waves of feminine revolution that have been directly rooted in body, art and the carnivalesque. Not essentialism mind you, but with the clear mandate of deconstructing the patriarchal hold over language and behaviour which defines feminine sexuality and controls, oppresses and destroys the combined woman. The Slut […]
From Slut Walk to One Billion Rising: Losing the protest plot
Following her wildly popular Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler, the American feminist playwright and activist, has a new campaign, a new activism, a new brand. One Billion Rising. The concept is simple. Motivated by the popular consensus, that one woman in three worldwide β that is one billion β experiences some form of violence in her […]
One Billion Rising — South Africa
(Scroll through to hear the voices of women as they call for an end to violence against the feminine.) βIn my mind we need to transcend the Cartesian mind/body dualism and bring back the pantheistic experience of the body with its sexuality and intellect indivisibly united — in a celebration that dances wildly in the […]