Who's Leading The Charge For Change? Women
Towards the end of the new movie, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein, author of the book that inspired the film, notices something about who's leading the charge for change.
They come from sacrifice zones, the very same places the powers that be have written off for environmental or ecological devastation. There's another thing about those leaders too. From Beijing to Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands, those in the front lines of resistance are women.
Towards the end of the new movie, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein, author of the book that inspired the film, notices something about who's leading the charge for change.
They come from sacrifice zones, the very same places the powers that be have written off for environmental or ecological devastation. There's another thing about those leaders too. From Beijing to Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands, those in the front lines of resistance are women.
"Women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed."
In one stirring scene, Indian grandmothers plant themselves in front of the filmmaker's car, refusing to let it pass until they're sure its bound for the village not the nearby coal mine. In another, a Chinese filmmaker asks her daughter if she's ever seen blue sky and the film of the encounter attracts millions of viewers in a week.
There's Naomi, too, of course. In her book, she touches on her struggle to get pregnant and her suspicions about pollution.
My point though, isn't that female biology explains female behavior. I don't believe it. But women's experiences are relevant.
I think women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed. Take right now. Every armed force from ISIS to the UN seems to agree that women's bodies can be sacrificed for the purposes and pleasure of soldiers.So too, women's work. A new McKinsey study reports that women are still doing 75 percent of the unpaid work around the world. In the U.S. alone, that adds up to $1.5 trillion in value each year - sacrificed.
All too often our lives and life-chances are just too inconvenient to mention. When Pope Francis on his trip to the US, met for a moment with an opponent of marriage equality - it caused a firestorm. The fact that he was surrounded the entire time by men and an institution that opposes female equality - was met with a respectful hush.
"Women," as Barbara Kruger so famously said, "your body is a battleground." So It's no surprise we know a thing or two about sacrifice zones -- and for that matter, about resistance.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Towards the end of the new movie, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein, author of the book that inspired the film, notices something about who's leading the charge for change.
They come from sacrifice zones, the very same places the powers that be have written off for environmental or ecological devastation. There's another thing about those leaders too. From Beijing to Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands, those in the front lines of resistance are women.
"Women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed."
In one stirring scene, Indian grandmothers plant themselves in front of the filmmaker's car, refusing to let it pass until they're sure its bound for the village not the nearby coal mine. In another, a Chinese filmmaker asks her daughter if she's ever seen blue sky and the film of the encounter attracts millions of viewers in a week.
There's Naomi, too, of course. In her book, she touches on her struggle to get pregnant and her suspicions about pollution.
My point though, isn't that female biology explains female behavior. I don't believe it. But women's experiences are relevant.
I think women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed. Take right now. Every armed force from ISIS to the UN seems to agree that women's bodies can be sacrificed for the purposes and pleasure of soldiers.So too, women's work. A new McKinsey study reports that women are still doing 75 percent of the unpaid work around the world. In the U.S. alone, that adds up to $1.5 trillion in value each year - sacrificed.
All too often our lives and life-chances are just too inconvenient to mention. When Pope Francis on his trip to the US, met for a moment with an opponent of marriage equality - it caused a firestorm. The fact that he was surrounded the entire time by men and an institution that opposes female equality - was met with a respectful hush.
"Women," as Barbara Kruger so famously said, "your body is a battleground." So It's no surprise we know a thing or two about sacrifice zones -- and for that matter, about resistance.
Towards the end of the new movie, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein, author of the book that inspired the film, notices something about who's leading the charge for change.
They come from sacrifice zones, the very same places the powers that be have written off for environmental or ecological devastation. There's another thing about those leaders too. From Beijing to Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands, those in the front lines of resistance are women.
"Women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed."
In one stirring scene, Indian grandmothers plant themselves in front of the filmmaker's car, refusing to let it pass until they're sure its bound for the village not the nearby coal mine. In another, a Chinese filmmaker asks her daughter if she's ever seen blue sky and the film of the encounter attracts millions of viewers in a week.
There's Naomi, too, of course. In her book, she touches on her struggle to get pregnant and her suspicions about pollution.
My point though, isn't that female biology explains female behavior. I don't believe it. But women's experiences are relevant.
I think women are in the forefront of the struggle against sacrifice zones because women and those seen as female, know a thing or two about being sacrificed. Take right now. Every armed force from ISIS to the UN seems to agree that women's bodies can be sacrificed for the purposes and pleasure of soldiers.So too, women's work. A new McKinsey study reports that women are still doing 75 percent of the unpaid work around the world. In the U.S. alone, that adds up to $1.5 trillion in value each year - sacrificed.
All too often our lives and life-chances are just too inconvenient to mention. When Pope Francis on his trip to the US, met for a moment with an opponent of marriage equality - it caused a firestorm. The fact that he was surrounded the entire time by men and an institution that opposes female equality - was met with a respectful hush.
"Women," as Barbara Kruger so famously said, "your body is a battleground." So It's no surprise we know a thing or two about sacrifice zones -- and for that matter, about resistance.