Preaching to the Choir: Questions and Doubts
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Sometimes I wonder if our struggle makes any sense at all. You may think I am pessimistic but I am not. I am just trying to be realistic and critical of the situation. We take one step forward, and society, along with the government, pull us back, forcing us to take ten steps in the wrong direction.
Feminists fight for women’s rights; yet, most of the time, women themselves are too ignorant to know what their own rights are. Yes, we try to raise awareness among people but it only seems a minority, an elite, which really understands what is at stake. What’s the point of fighting when most people find nothing wrong with songs like “Joumhouriyet Albi”? What’s the point of fighting when ads that belittle women keep growing in number as if advertising companies were doing it on purpose? Most of the time, these ads are not even related to the product or service they are marketing. Can someone tell me what football and whether women are interested in it or not has to do with a mall? Can someone explain to me how “permanent youth and beauty” are related to a bank? I apologize if I am not smart enough to understand the logic behind most of today’s advertising campaigns. Is pissing us off their only goal?
What is the point of raising our voices against oppression, when the government keeps limiting our freedom with constitutional articles such as 534 or the new laws for the Internet?
What is the point of raising our voices when the government bans a video-clip because it could offend Turkey, but doesn’t care about songs that offend women, when society, at its core, is deeply homophobic and transphobic?
Let me tell you what I witnessed recently. A few weeks ago, I was on my way back from work when two women got on the bus. People started staring at them as if they had seen something incredible. Then, after the two women got off the bus, a guy says that he would have killed them immediately, had he had a gun. Why? Because they were two transsexual women.
Are our causes lost causes? Are we going after utopian ideas? Are we making progress? When we write articles here, aren’t we preaching to the wrong people, to those who are already believers? What about the rest who need to be “converted” to our causes? Are they reading our articles? How many homophobic and transphobic people actually read our articles? Are we reaching the right audience?
Am I the only one to ask these questions or do some of you have the same doubts?
- Contributed by St.
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