Book Review · Storytelling | #AmINEXT in "On Violence and Violence Against Women"

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#MeToo was created in 2007 by an African-American, Tarana Burke, to empower grassroots women, especially women of color. Its motto is "Empathy stamps out shame". Later, due to the Weinstein sex scandal in Hollywood and the subsequent Epstein incident, #MeToo was pushed to the forefront and attracted worldwide attention. In China, #MeToo always reminds people of Xianzi’s lawsuit against Zhu Jun’s sexual harassment. Supporters who support Xianzi online and offline may never imagine that when entering the Year of the Tiger, female victims and “Am I next?” The question will be smashed into the minds of many women like a hammer hitting a nail.

The old and the new alternate, and in a blink of an eye, it has entered March. March is "Women's History Month (Women's History Month)", and tomorrow is International Women's Day. However, the "Li Ying" incident that was chained by the chain has not only not been resolved, the official has not even made any substantive Sanctions, punishments, even the identity of this woman can't be said. The doubts on the Internet have not been overwhelming, but the iron chain girl incident in Fengxian County has indeed left Chinese women with lingering fears - there is only a sap between you and her. So, the point of reflection becomes "Am I the next"? On this issue, women of different classes seem to be connected indiscriminately. Whether it is the middle class or the bottom class, under a "sap", it is possible to become a "chain girl" who has been abandoned by the whole world. So, should #MeToo be changed to #I will be next?

Jacqueline Rose opens with the example of South Africa in her collection of essays On Violence and Violence Against Women. Rose pointed out that today South Africa is still the most sexually violent place in the world, and Cape Town has even been called the "rape capital". It is for this reason that while movements for women's empowerment and women's resistance to sexual violence elsewhere may only use "#MeToo", such movements in South Africa are "#AmINext" . Because in South Africa - where a woman is murdered every three hours and more than a hundred rapes are reported to the police every day - misfortune can befall anyone. [All data quoted from "On Violence and Violence Against Women"] #AmINext , in Rose's view, clearly circles all potential victims into the same group, bringing them together like never before, warning the world of the ongoing abuse , and even prevent impending violations in the future.

There may not be many people in mainland China who know about the resistance and empowerment movement of South African women #AmINext , however, the "Chain Girl" incident in Fengxian is to a large extent rudely rubbed into #AmINext in another extremely terrifying way Our eyes are open. Who will be next? Will it be me next? Why not? If it was me, who could save me? How can I not care when a series of questions break into a "quiet" life?

Jacqueline Rose came from a Polish Jewish immigrant family and went to South Africa to do research in order to write this collection of essays. An African-American woman who happened to be working "in the system" told her that the students who participated in the #AmINext women's empowerment movement were warning the entire nation, the entire country. In South Africa, silence is not without it. For example, Khwezi accused South African President Zuma of rape. The process must have been difficult and ended in a fragmented dossier, Khwezi was forced into exile, and her home was torched. However, no matter how terrifying it is, it is very courageous to stand up and accuse the president. At this point, the one that has to be compared is Peng Shuai's accusation of Zhang Gaoli's sexual assault, because this is probably the highest level of sexual assault that has been exposed in China. Then, there is no then. It seems that in such a "great land and abundant resources", there is nothing that cannot disappear.

I still remember the first book I bought in Macau, called "3096 Days", a memoir written by Natascha Kampusch, recalling her story of being kidnapped, imprisoned for 3096 days and subjected to physical and mental torture when she was in elementary school. However, her kidnappers were not able to tie the girl with a subway chain and get a marriage certificate with great fanfare.

Women's empowerment, shown in Rose's essays, is that when she talks about Sylvia Plath, she asks not "how did she die?" but "how did she live?" "It's always the end, and Rose's paper always has a wide variety of data showing that a very large number of women are subjected to violence, including but not limited to sexual violence, by current or ex-partners. They are not dead, but how do they live ? Even in the three Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden) known for their equal rights, the number of women abused far exceeds that of the United Kingdom. Rose's data is always like a cloudy sky, so that we can't see the sunny day. However, when we see the "Chain Girl" and read the above data, we will eventually think that every woman is far from a sunny day . How far ?

In fact, after reading "The Addiction of Men's Words" last time, I felt powerless about the endless violence against women listed in the paper, and wanted to read it again slowly. Unexpectedly, Rose's collection of essays is also full of violence suffered by women in various countries, and it is chest tight to read. Do you feel that there is also an invisible iron chain around your neck that you can't press for now, just one feeling has been suppressed beyond words: "Women really don't have a motherland." All women in the world are connected, suffering from a change of soup. The training and torment without changing the medicine, and is expected to be silent forever.

In silence, everyone is scared, Am I next?

If the silence is broken, then who's next?

The pen with the words "Women's Weapon" written on it was surrounded by other dreamy's colorfully. It would be nice if the women’s empowerment path could be as colorful as this. However, after reading the essay collection, I still think of the poem written for women. On this Women's Day, I dedicate it to all women [will not be translated]——

 Art of Empire
--Eavan Boland in "A Woman Without A Country"

If no one in my family ever spoke of it, 
if no one handed down
what it was to be born to power
and married in a poor country. 

If no one wanted to remember
the noise of the redcoats cantering
in lanes bleached with apple flowers
on an April morning. 

If no one ever mentioned how a woman was, 
what she did, 
what she never did again,
when she lived in a dying Empire.

If what was not said was never seen
If what was never seen could not be known
think of this as the only way
an empire could recede --

taking its laws, its horses and its lordly all,
leaving a single art to be learned,
and one that required 
neither a silversmith nor a glassblower

but a woman skilled in the sort of silence
that lets her stitch shadow flowers
into linen with pastel silks
who never looks up

to remark on or remember why it is
the bird in her blackwork is warning her:
not a word not a word
not a word not a word.