Last Words and Words to Last

Many people say that the Pill and feminism in the early 1970s were the turning point of the 20^th century.  In the name of freedom, ‘sisters’ began doing it for themselves and in many ways that change is still sending shockwaves around the globe.  Like any revolution worth its underwire, there were some pretty extreme moments, but that is not to say it wasn’t, at the heart of it all, correct in theory.

How do we know?  Life as we know it bears little resemblance to the days of 50 years ago.  The Baby Boomers may be older but so too is Generation X. Now Gen Y emerges as the surging generation. The Internet is the new connection for us all. 

Females living in the West take for granted that we can be educated to the highest levels if we so desire, get a job and work for decades, marry – or not; have children – or not; clean the kitchen – or not; become an explorer, or whoever we decide we are destined to become.

The choices have been extensively widened concerning what we can now do with our lives.  We do in fact have freedom of expression regarding our life choices – if we choose to believe it and act upon it.

So how then can we best express ourselves?  Rebellion is overrated and anger only begets more of the same.  Without having an answer that is not a cliché I would like to suggest this:

We should express ourselves creatively in all formats available. And fortunately there are many options for us to do so.

We should also express ourselves on subjects where other women don’t have the voice or the opportunity to do so. There are still many hundreds of millions of women – maybe billions – around the world, living in oppressive cultures where the desire to have them on equal footing in patriarchal power structures is simply non-existent. There are many socio-economic, cultural and political reasons for this.

We, who have gained a measure of freedom, owe it those who cannot have theirs, to speak out where and whenever we can to maintain pressure and a presence on their behalf. We must do the right thing, as Arundhati Roy says, ‘To never look away, and to never, ever forget’.

While others among us are not liberated, none of us can truly say we are.

Photographer: Anthea Paul