I went to a workshop on Chinese Feminism Activism invited by a friend studying sociology and it’s a four-day event with multiple feminism speakers and group discussions in-between. Since last year, there has been increasing debates of gender issue along with multiple heart-broken incidents, and it’s unfortunate to see that the discussions online are getting more polarized and inflammatory. I didn’t know much about Feminism and mostly get information through we media blogs or social media, so wanted to participate in the workshop for a better understanding.
One activity for today is to recall all feminism incidents in chronological order of 2020 and discuss why you think they are important. My groupmates shared a list of feminism events related to COVID-19, Me Too, and domestic violence that has evoked heated discussions online at different times of the year. We also talked about challenges faced by women with disabilities and the possibly ignored needs of elderly women. The memory of the Internet is short and feelings responding to these events could easily fade away. In the end, these incidents might just become a tag, a phrase, an image for people who are watching in front of the screen. Nevertheless, they open the space for debate and empower people not only in similarly vulnerable situations but also those who want to help and support.
So the title for today is Vulnerability and Empowerment. In fact, the original intention is not for the workshop, but just a personal reflection of myself. I had a little mood swing yesterday and somehow I was overwhelmed by a feeling of vulnerability. As result, I missed yesterday’s journal writing after just putting a title there and were not as motivated to do stuff as before. Somehow the snow in the morning healed me and I felt great peace and calmness by just watching snowflakes falling. Maybe my point here is that vulnerability doesn’t only happen to special groups of people but is such a normal thing in life. We need little empowerments to overcome those little difficulties, that could be the slowly falling snowflakes or maybe just the writing here.
