Persist and Resist

 

Persist and Resist

The quietly polite phrase ‘I prefer not to’ appears repeatedly in a strange short story by Herman Melville (yes, he of Moby Dick fame). The story ‘Bartelby the Scrivener’ written in 1883, concerns an unassuming clerk in a law firm, who, when asked to do a routine task one day simply replies, ‘I prefer not to’. After that, he responds to every request with the same phrase, and the result is chaos, incomprehension and tragedy. It’s a story that has been interpreted in different ways, and the meaning of his response has been the subject of intense argument. Although it seems to be a fairly ordinary low-key statement that simply indicates a courteous refusal, the Slovenian philosopher Zizek, for example, says that its use in the story suggests that actually doing nothing can be more powerful than violent resistance.

Resisting Oppression: Women and the Arts

Women are often associated with quiet and persistent opposition, using different methods and strategies, often to great effect. In the Arts there are powerful examples of women’s creativity cutting through with clarity and focus to tackle oppressive structures. This is in spite of the barriers that women artists continue to face.

In 2014, in her acceptance speech on receiving the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the writer Ursula Le Guin said: ‘Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art.’ She had been speaking specifically about her own art as a writer, and earlier in her speech had said: ‘Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope’.

Precise language can help us to see things differently. In the wake of Donald Trump’s state visit and the banquet given in his honour last week Carol Ann Duffy, the former poet laureate, published a poem with the title ‘STATE/BANQUET.’ She places the glittering pomp and the sumptuous menu of the banquet in the context of the horrors of war that people are facing daily. She forces us, the readers, to focus on this grotesque juxtaposition:

 ‘Yum-yum. Let the trumpets sound on the bombsite /as the great and the good pick their way through / and a famished child peers through a bullet-hole in a wall.’

The former US Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, uses ‘erasure’ poetry - removing or erasing words from an existing text. In her poem Declaration she takes the text of the American Declaration of Independence, with its praise of freedom and liberty, and erases words and phrases. A new poem about slavery emerges, reminding us that the men who wrote the fine words of the declaration were themselves owners of enslaved people.

In music and the visual arts women’s voices also cut through, in spite of the barriers that women continue to face.

In 2024 a parliamentarycommission on women musicians noted that ‘Female artists are routinely undervalued and undermined’ and that ‘Despite increases in representation, discrimination and mysogyny remain endemic.’

And yet the voices of challenge from women artists persist and haunt us. Once heard, it’s impossible to forget Billie Holliday singing the chilling ‘Strange Fruit and once you begin to think about the music of opposition, women’s names tumble forward – try Ethel Smyth’s ‘March of the Women’, Nina Simone’s ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and P.J. Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’ just for starters.

A Chorus of Dissent or a Single Voice?

Women have long played a key role in organising and participating in peaceful opposition movements - from the ‘sit-ins’ of the American civil rights movement in the 1960s, to the Black Sash movement in apartheid-era South Africa, and to current anti war and climate action protests. Some women speak out as individuals, like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, while others work collaboratively. And even single, anonymous actions can have a remarkable impact - the boycott for example, which was central to the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa. Ordinary consumers, hundreds of thousands of them (most of whom had never joined a demonstration) participated in a boycott of South African products. And boycotting goods and services remains a powerful tool for individuals to express displeasure and say that they ‘prefer not to’ support companies with poor records on tax, employment, and human rights.

Sisters Acting Together

Let us end with a bit of human interest that perhaps we can all relate to. Last week pictures of three elderly smiling nuns popped up in the world’s press. Sisters Rita, Bernadette and Regina had escaped from their care home in Austria and returned to the convent where they had spent most of their lives. They had been removed from the convent against their will in 2023, having previously been assured that they could spend the rest of their days there. The provost of the Augustinian monastery that orchestrated their removal was very cross, but the nuns were helped by supporters, including many former students. The nuns made their feelings about life in the care home very clear, one of them saying: 'Before I die in that old people's home, I would rather go to a meadow and enter eternity that way.'

We are left with a bit of a cliffhanger with this story. Will the nuns prevail or will the provost evict them again? All of that remains to be seen, but this act of resistance by three women in their 80s who ‘prefer not to’ spend their final days in the retirement home allocated to them by men, is unusual, interesting and rather inspirational.

SEPTEMBER UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

  • We are co-organising MK's Annual Commemoration of the United Nations' Elimination of Violence Against Women and White Ribbon Day aka The Orange and White Ribbon Vigil. This year the organising group have been joined by the centre:mk, who are sponsoring a photographic exhibition of local Craftivism to raise funding for our local support services for survivors of Domestic Abuse (MK Act) and Sexual Assault and Abuse (SAASSBMK). The free exhibition in Silbury Walk (alongside the John Lewis Store) will opened by the MK Mayor at 5.30pm on 25th November and will be open until 10 December. The Annual Torchlit Vigil at The Milton Keynes Rose will take place at 6pm.
  • The latest Evidence Paper, a compilation of data relating to Milton Keynes and our Safer, Healthier and Fairer manifesto, will be ready to disseminate in October
  • We have arranged to meet with our Milton Keynes MPs again in October; they have all shown support for the manifesto
  • All political parties who may stand candidates in next year’s local elections have been reminded of the importance of seeking, and supporting, women candidates
  • We continue to engage with MKCC officers over the draft Domestic Abuse strategy
  • MK Fawcett was represented at the inaugural conference of the OU’s Centre for Protecting Women Online. The two days offered a highly varied programme, stimulating and challenging, allowing participants to share ideas and strategies on preventing online violence against women and girls. It was also good to meet up with Penny East, CEO of the Fawcett Society. More information HERE
  • We will welcome the CEO of Healthwatch MK to our October meeting to speak about the NHS 10-year plan and women’s health, as well as what the demise of Healthwatch could mean for the city
  • We are now regularly attending and reporting on the stakeholder events arranged by the BLMK Women’s Health Network to better understand what advances in service provision are being made to address inequality in women’s health
  • We are meeting with the Milton Keynes Youth Council in early October
  • We will continue to promote the manifesto campaign and encourage people to become more involved with the political process
  • We have contributed to the planning of the annual Fawcett Society conference, to take place in February
  • MKF now has a Linkedin presence as well as being on BlueSky. Please follow us on these platforms as well as at www.fawcettmk.org.uk



Location: Milton Keynes, UK

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