Hi all,
Wow, I just went back to see when we started this exploration of narrative, changing narrative and story and realized that we began at the beginning of the year. Surprising and not surprising considering my personal obsession.
But also considering how prominently we are surrounded by the swirl of narratives.
Last week, I was a bit speechless with all the stories swirling around about things that are happening in the world. I am tempted to say “the news”, but really it is about what is happening in the world. All the things – and there are so many things.
In terms of the spin of narrative, though, it is fascinating and devastating to see how narratives are being spun to either cover up what is happening or to justify it. Just like we do in our own lives.
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For example, in my country, there is the swirl of narrative around a case of the pedophile and human sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. So many narratives swirling and then other stories being swirled around it in an attempt to detract from the unfolding issue of the Epstein files being released or not released. One party ran a presidential campaign partially on a promise to release all the information. And now that they are in power, they are not releasing the information. Backpedaling. Releasing other stories about other presidents and other celebrities to distract. The conspiracy theories about who is in the files and what governments were involved. Theories that say the president is in the files, which is not a stretch. Swirling stories.
But here is a one true story under that story that gets lost in all the swirls – that many young girls were groomed and trafficked to older, wealthy men in a very elite class for years. Some of the men even bragged publicly about their preferences for “young women”.
To me, the story is about what happens around the girls and where are they now? The ones who were trafficked, sexually abused, used. To me, where are the stories about the girls.
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And the other very real narrative about how women and girl’s bodies are not really their own in my country and in many places around the world. The real narrative about the larger issue of how women are losing rights around out what to do with their own bodies. Not just around abortion – but even around birth control. Even about getting basic medical care.
Which has been an issue in so many other ways. How women’s health care has been not funded, studied, given priority. The issues around menopause are just now being explored in depth because it is an issue around the body of women which has not been something to study in “the science” of medicine.
With the swirl of political narratives, the girls are lost. Just as they were when they were trafficked. With the swirl of political narratives, women’s lives are being affected in terrible ways.
Underneath is – what happened to the girls? And what is still happening?
The real story underneath is how girls and all children are not protected. How the culture and many laws protect the perpetrators and the culture of power instead of the kids.
Which leads to a larger context. The real story underneath is how women’s rights, immigrant’s rights, people of color’s rights are being taken away [again] under narratives of “decency” and “wanting to protect our children”.
How libraries and schools are being stripped of books that tell stories about race, gender, historical fact and sexual identity because they are labeled “not age-appropriate” or because “they make people feel uncomfortable or guilty”.
How censorship is being spun under the narratives of “protection” and “creating safe places” and “taking care of children”.
How censorship erases people and erases history. Erases the larger context. During some book purges in recent years of books in schools that have any mention of sexual identity outside of heterosexuality, other books were also being thrown out – including history books, stories about people of color, stories about women. So many stories thrown away.
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So who is protecting children? Who is protecting kids who are being trafficked? Who is protecting kids who are being sexually attacked by family members, people in authority? Girls who are impregnated through sexual assault and have to carry babies to term?
Who is being protected in the swirl of narratives? And what is being protected?
What is protected are mythologies and narratives about our culture. About my culture. Meaning Western culture, meaning American culture. We have mythologies that this is a land of freedom, a land of democracy, a land where people’s rights are protected.
We have had an influx of stories that challenge those narratives these last many years. Challenge them not in terms of condemnation, but so that we can grow and change as a culture. These stories are not about punishment but about naming truth so we can course correct, so we can make repair and keep striving for what we say we stand for.
But changing narrative means shifting and changing power. Means taking the power away from a small group of people in elite classes [based on wealth] who can use or make decisions about other people’s bodies at their whim.
Who can take away rights of other people at whim.
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What happens in a general culture influences, obviously, what happens in our own personal lives. Even in our internal lives.
We are in a swirl of narratives that says we do not have to be present to truths that make us uncomfortable. That says we do not have to look at history through facts because it is uncomfortable. That says we do not need to be present to our own fears and prejudices when it comes to seeing people as other.
When we live in a culture that avoids truth to cover up atrocities large and small, then people are given permission to not look at themselves. To not question prejudices and assumptions.
To not ask the question – what kind of culture do we have that girls were trafficked for decades in an open secret kind of way and no one spoke up for those girls? Are still not speaking up for the girls, the boys, the kids.