Dieser Post ist eine Dublette meines Facebook-Posts und in englischer Sprache, aus gegebenem Anlass. Doch mein Facebook-Profil ist nicht komplett öffentlich, was ich auch nicht für diesen Post ändern wollte, daher das reposting hier. Natürlich auch zur weiteren Verbreitung auf andere Plattformen, die weniger Zeichen zulassen, beispielsweise Twitter.

 

#metoo #Aufschrei #SchweizerAufschrei

you all may know what these hashtags are about, so I will skip the intro (if you are unsure, please educate yourself, there are many ways)

 

I personally was undecided whether I should participate in this. As being readable as male, as being not in a position of truly understanding the magnitude of this. On one hand, coming from a gender studies academical background, I must admit though my first thoughts were objections, like “seriously? again for the what, thousand time now? Is it necessary these persons* live through these experiences again by telling them to the public, by whatever that means? how can one, no matter what or if of any gender, not know that close to one hundred percent of women* have had to live through an experience like this and should/could/may post #metoo now? whoever thinks this may not be an issue must be living in a cave for ages, blindfolded and deaf.” But who am I to judge the knowledge of others? Of course, I know the numbers and I also know about the significance of solidarity, of non-isolation, the effects of “it is not only me” especially nowadays in an individualised and ongoing digitalised world, with all the hatred, rape culture and misogyny, misused power and neoliberalism. Hence, I was deliberating about it and the movement behind the hashtag. I reflected on my feelings, knowledge and thoughts on this topic and my privileges and how damn wrong I was. I noticed how this reflects the sexist structures and culture itself in my mind, despite all my training. I am part of it. And I grief stricken and angry. Therefore, I decided that I need to participate in the action, post something, continue to do something more beyond the social media bubble. This text now evolved around a couple of days, but I could have posted it earlier. Maybe I should have done so, hence I decided to use my lunchbreak today to finalize it. But this #metoo is to some extend also a personal shout out. I have had experiences of sexual harassment myself, which is not surprising after all, but I never felt helpless. And this makes my experiences different from many others. To me, it was shocking, degrading, disgusting and just plain wrong at least, but I had to struggle more on the acceptance that this actually just happened, in plain daylight, in public, and nobody gave a damn. I was concerned about the society so to say, about the frame I was in there, not about myself. I did not take it as personal, it did not harm me, so to say. Nothing new, nothing amazing, you might say. Thanks to my privileges, you know. For instance I knew I possibly could use just brute force, which would never be justifiable and would possible bring me into more trouble more likely than the harassers*, but I could escape the situation with rather ease. More than many others could, many of them posting #metoo these days. And this is what turns all of this even more unfair. So, I know how privileges protect me, I have been socialised to use them. Still I am not able to personally understand how people are just able to do such harmful things as sexual harassment and assault. I do not mean academically understanding it. I believe I learnt a lot about gender, power and sexism that offers me ways to understand these behaviours in a specific context. But how can a person*, a human entity, a being of the same kind, do such things to another? Why? And why are people still outrageous about the outcry around #metoo now? Why do they seriously justify harassment and even rape, why can’t they see the victim blaming they perpetuate and even though they do, not understand how harmful and just plain wrong this is? Again, I understand from an academic point of view the crucialness of maintain power structures and hierarchy within heteronormative order and these toxic phenomena as being part of it. But I refuse to adapt it, I learned from questioning myself.

Therefore, I decided to refuse to be guilty of complicity, and I sincerely hope I never was to an extend or I did not supplant such events. I am sure I did not stand up with enough courage and/or often enough against jokes, blunt sexism and rudeness, against discrimination and structures supporting all of this. Too many times I just let these pass by, without even shouting out a stupid “fuck you”, the least I could have done. It is easier to ignore sexism, it is, really. For those who are victimised, for the victims and for the sexists, too. Everyone goes easy by ignoring injustice. Nothing new I tell you here. But we all make ourselves accomplices to these crimes, to this everyday sexism, to all this injustice.

Therefore, I decided for myself to be more radical, so to say. To stand up more. To not ignore. To not stand by. To make also my voice heard, which is easier than for many others thanks to my privileges due to my gender, skin colour, name, identity, age etc. But nonetheless it is important. I decided I will never stay silent on sexism in any form, I will never ignore, I will continue to bugger advertisers with mails for their sexist marketing strategies, I will not accept any jokes, any blaming, any relativizing or normalizing of anything without protest. I will continue to protect victims and those to be wherever I can and I will help to stop blaming them for what happened, fighting for their rights and the prosecution of harassers*. And I will continue to educate my child appropriately to be strong against sexism. And I sincerely hope many will do similar things. #FightSexism for good!