Daily Skirmishes

I read yesterday that the leadership in China is again cracking down on women’s rights. The article is titled “China’s male leaders signal to women that their place is in the home.” Apparently, the country is experiencing a drop in population, so they feel women need to stay home and have babies. I wonder also if the government was feeling that the growing population of educated, professional women was a threat to the authoritarian regime. We have the luxury in this country to “skirmish” with the patriarchy. The citizens of China do not.

I was fortunate to be invited to Beijing in 2018 to speak at the Baturu Festival (formerly, China Women’s Film Festival). My powerpoint was screened by the censors before I arrived and the only image they did not allow me to show was this one.

The drawing and the trip coincided with the surge in MeToo accusations in this country. China did not want such a movement to take hold, and the article I read implies that this was and still is a concern for the male leadership. When I spoke to groups of women in China, many of them asked about MeToo; they knew of it, and wanted to understand more.