OUR BODIES OUR RIGHTS OUR VOICES
Starting in the month of March: read the thoughts,feelings,opinions, and ideas that have inspired women using ‘Our Bodies Our Rights Our Voices’ as prompts. I want you to be inspired to share your own thoughts, feelings, opinions and ideas. Let’s start a conversation. use the hastage #ourbodiesourrightsourvoices
May 16th OUR BODIES OUR RIGHTS OUR VOICES by Marie
Our Bodies: Cannot be taken away from us; you will not have control of me!; when I say No, I mean No!; my body my health my descision.
Our Rights: Are uniequivocally ours!; you will not take them away; what gives you the right?
Our Voices: Will be loud!!!!
May 9th:Our BODIES, OUR CHOICE, OUR HEALTH, We Decide, it is a personal choice, YOU SHOULD NOT DECIDE WHAT IS BEST FOR ME! We love life as much as you do, do not play me as the devil!
Our Rights are under attack, we need to fight back!
Our Voices CAN NOT BE SILENCED!
By Susan
May 2: Our bodies are beautiful, should be treated with respect and love, are to be nurtured, made love to, are ours to say yes or no; DO NOT DISRESPECT ME
Our rights-we have had to fight for-WHY? And Still Do!
Our voices should NEVER be silenced!
By Karen
April 25th: Our Bodies-ARE OURS!
Our Rights-Should be a given, should never be questioned!
Our Voices-Should always be expressed, should always be heard, should always be taken seriously, should never be dismissed!
By Gayle
April 18th: Our Bodies Our Rights Our Voices By Lois
OUR BODIES store pain, trauma, stress, love, fertility, happiness
Offer hope and safety with our arms extended
Nourishment
Are strong and resilient
Offer joy and excitement
Look beyond the external, look within, see yourself, who is inside?
Love yourself
Nurture yourself, as we hold our fate
Our bodies are ours!
“We as WOMEN of the world will fight for equality, justice for all, a safe and peaceful environment, will fight for unity, will promote health, happiness and prosperity for ourselves and our families and secure our freedoms. We will use our creative voices for truth, for communication, for healing, for self-expression, telling our stories through our eyes in our own ways.
We are strong, independent, and powerful. Your voice, One voice, Our voice.”
I ask myself; what does it mean to be creative; what does it mean to have a creative voice; to use it to be strong, to tell our stories, to tell truths!
A creative voice is within all of us.
It is looking at life and your environment a little different than most,
It is not only using your senses but feeling through your senses,
It is taking life in and expressing it in your own special way, it is a give and take with your environment and your environment is that definition that you impart upon herself.
Being creative is unique to every individual who attempts in any way, in any form to transform and express anything no matter what it might be.
A creative individual is a translator of a process that goes on within, the tools, whatever they are, however you use them, can be a means to an end, that end could be a piece of writing, a canvas, a project; something that is expressive, or it can just be the process itself, a creative process [a part of the self-]!
Everyone in our own way and on many different levels is creative, we all have that creative soul, we need to learn to tap into it and trust the process.
Please use your CREATIVE VOICE!
April 11:Please watch the most recent creative response to 'Our Bodies Our Rights Our Voices' by Dr. Diane Kaufman
"Women of the World” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojstb3DFIhY&ab_channel=ArtsMedicineforHope%26Healing.
Here’s the description to the video: "Women of the World" is a poem anthem dedicated to women's empowerment. It was written in response to Harvey Weinstein and the #metoo movement, as well as the
endlessly devastating reports of domestic violence, murder of women, child abuse, and sex trafficking. The "Women of the World" author, Diane Kaufman, is a poet, artist and child psychiatrist. The poem was
given voice by Cortni Jordan. The media design animator, Lucia Martinez, who lives in Colombia, South America, joined the project through what felt like divine providence as she was chosen amongst many
applicants from a freelance site. Ms. Martinez's artistic skill, emotional sensitivity, and her involvement with women's rights made her the perfect partner for "Women of the World."
April 4th:Christina Helferich-Polosky ‘Engraved Disruption’
"A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life. And we feel that, because of the impact on the woman, this certainly in as far as there are any rights which are fundamental is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved that she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or terminate her pregnancy." The words of Sara Weddington, attorney for the plaintiff, Roe v. Wade, 1972.
I burned these words spoken to an all-male Supreme Court in 1972 by the indomitable Ms. Weddington into a wood panel canvas recently--in preparation to explain to my 15 year daughter the idea of fundamental and equal rights--because it's time to have 'that talk' with her. And I personally needed the hours it took me to burn these words into this panel to come to grips with the idea that we live in a nation where before Roe v Wade became law in 1973, that it was fundamentally believed that women did not have the power over their own bodies that men did. That women could be forced, against their will, to disrupt all aspects of their life (body, education, employment, family) that would never be forced upon a man in this society, if men had been endowed with the XX gene. Fundamentally, we are all supposed to be created equal, endowed by the same creator--with certain unalienable rights; and while these rights were not specifically written into the Constitution (Yes, they were supposed to be inspired from the Declaration of Independence and then put immediately into the Bill of Rights and in some form inspired into many of our amendments afterwards) these are the ideas we all learn that our nation are founded upon right? It's certainly what the best of us marched about in the history books and what we want to pass on to our daughters and sons of tomorrow, correct? So why does it all seem to be slipping away today? Are our daughter's bodies today becoming less than to our son's? I am surely not raising my one daughter any differently than my four sons today to think any differently for themselves and I trust them each to make choices for their own bodies--but my son does not have the right to decide what is best for my daughter simply because he was born with a penis. This does not distinguish him differently under the Constitution, or does it? It did before 1973. Think about that. It goes beyond the idea of pregnancy here--we are talking about fundamental rights and who is entitled to them based on your sex. When we are talking about choice, we are talking about fundamental rights and if you take away our choice, you take away our rights to our bodies and our voices will follow. Is that what you want for your daughter? Not me. #ourbodiesourrightsourvoices
March 28th: Katha By the numbers
My inspiration was twofold.
Currently my life is spread out over hundreds of spreadsheets:
budgets, mailing lists, statistics, submissions, ticket sales, reports, rsvp lists, lists of lists.
I find it painful.
The other inspiration comes from the sheer volume of instances that every woman has had to deal with
unwanted actions. It just seems like everyone has dark memories about that kind of thing.
Katha by the Numbers
50 The times that the handshake was a test to see what my boundaries are…at least.
3 The times that I had sex with someone I didn’t want to, had said I didn’t want to, but realized
that the situation would get beyond me if I didn’t agree.
1 The number of those people who later apologized.
1 The time that someone close to me whom I adored put his hands where they didn’t belong.
11 How old I was when it happened.
7 The number of people I told.
3 The number of people who believed me.
1983 The year he came looking for me to ask me if it really happened because he thought he might
have done it again.
53 The number of years I have thought about it.
6 The times I have asked a woman on the street if she was ok.
1 The times my granddaughter was with me.
0 The number of other people who stepped in to help.
11 The number of times I was afraid of someone hurting me because I didn’t let them touch me.
That time on the ditch bank.
That time in San Diego.
That time in Chino.
That time in LA.
That other time in LA.
That really bad time in LA.
That time in Eugene.
That time in the Village.
That time on the Upper West Side.
That time in Midtown.
That time on the Upper East Side.
13 The Lbs. I would like to lose.
4 The number of hours I can sleep at a time.
3 The number of teeth that will need attention soon.
20 The years I promised my husband that I would survive as they took me into a surgery.
5 The number of surgical scars that remind me I am a survivor.
15.5 The number of supplements and pills I take each day to accomplish that.
.5 The dosage of the medication that I should never have been prescribed.
2 The number of weeks I have left in the process of weaning off that medication.
16 The hours I work each day.
17 The number of To Do lists I can see from where I am sitting.
March 21st: Our Bodies, Our Rights, Our Voices by Leigh
I am not male. I am not female. I’m human.
You can’t really know much about me because of what’s between my legs. Yet so much of how the world responds to us based on gender. Then, within this gendered construct, there are a thousand contradictory messages that we must be negotiate, every day.
~ Women are precious - princesses in need of rescue – but we must shoulder a lifetime of abuse, inequity and gaslighting.
~ We are evaluated in terms of our bodies – our sexuality - yet no matter what we wear we are in danger of ‘asking for it’ and being ‘slut shamed’.
~ We are held to an unachievable standard of beauty – then, devalued for every flaw, every pound, every passing year
~ We are called shrill and silenced because after all, ‘things have gotten so much better’ and ‘not all men are that way‘
-- yet, we still are not paid an equal wage and must fight for the most basic right – the right to have choice over what happens within our own bodies.
I am so tired of having to discuss and debate and protest but will persevere
I am not male - I am not female. I am human.
Women’s Rights are Human Rights!
March 14th: One woman’s perspective/ (she/her) By Victoria; Our Bodies… I believe in an ever present mission to shift away from what I call the “Marionette Mindset”. The ideology that our bodies are empty vessels, designed for reproducing, entertainment, and agreeability. And, worst of all, the completely erroneous belief that women are incapable of making autonomous decisions. It’s the shaping, modeling, and manipulation of women to fill voids that runs deep in our society. To break this chain of thinking is an outlet towards claiming full control over our bodies. Our Rights… This is largely unfinished business. Each of the rights we own, are milestones on the path to an equal and ostracized future for women. Our Voices… In my lifetime, I have only observed upward progress in making our voices heard in previously unrepresented arenas. I’ve seen a shift in the recognition and acceptance of our intellect, validity and strength by making herself heard in society. This being said, I also continue to encounter incidents of blatant ignorance. The broad belief that in the 21st century, women do not earn their accomplishments, rather are “given” them based on their sex is unsettling. And yet, is it not something we commonly hear on the news in an impromptu interview? I consider this ammunition to continue raising our voices, in support for positive change in the world
March 7th: My initial reaction is a question for our society: Why? Why do we police women's bodies, oppress women's rights, and silence women's voices? We would never collectively do that to men and think "it's ok." By Christine
Our first response: By Coni
Upon graduating from Penn State University with my degree in theatre, I realized that my job options were very limited. Funding in arts was minimal. Many people literally laughed at me, saying “So what are you going to do with a degree in the arts other than hang it on your wall?”
It wasn’t funny to me. I knew firsthand the healing power of the arts and its potential to cure the ills of this rapidly crumbling society. I think the reason people laugh at artists is because they are afraid of them, afraid of their creative power. They know they have it too, everyone does, but in order to tap into it one, must give up fear of the other and embrace unity. We all know that this fear is rooted in social constructs and conditionings, yet many people want to hang on to these fast-decaying myths. So how do we change? How do we stop people from thinking that the way to self-knowledge and human potential is by stepping on others to get ahead. And we have certainly come to realize that gender, race, nation, and class are merely imaginary boundaries used to divide people rather than unite them.
I learned early on at the tender age of fourteen that the gender myth was not only false, it was downright dangerous. My entry to the world of the sexes came quite suddenly as I had been beaten and raped by a strange man almost ten years older than me. I saw the corruption of how this myth taught my attacker the idea that he was entitled to do whatever he wanted with my body. Lois Saperstein’s “ Our Bodies, Our Rights, our Voices” caught my eye. It triggered a memory that I can never forget. As I looked further, I realized that it proclaims that women’s rights are human rights and that we have the right to live free from violence and discrimination. What a wonderful thought, yet we must walk the talk. Art allows us to do just that.
Like myself, Lois Saperstein has worked for years to raise the awareness that art has the power to change these kinds of poisonous ideas in the world. Art creates culture. I am thankful to people like Lois who understands that real change can only happen when it is embraced through programs, partnerships and nonprofits. She is making a difference; allowing great things to happen through ARTHOUSE and many other initiatives she has taken on. She is a mover and shaker, and now is the time.
In the nascent stages of the 21st century, I finally realized what Bella Abzug and the NOW organization meant by “Agenda 21”. Indeed, it is time for a change. Time for equality for everyone. Most importantly for women and for women in the arts so that they cannot be afraid to be who they are. It is our right to live in our bodies without fear of abuse. It’s our right to let our voices be heard. It is our right to love one another in peace and unity. Art can connect us to creative selves to see that we are truly “one human race”- and seeing division and difference is blatantly wrong.