Except for her and her entourage’s ostentatious, tardy arrival, no one at last evening’s Culver City Democratic Club meeting would have noticed.
When the door of the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium folded back, in swept Dr. Barbara Block and friends.
Heads yanked left, causing a slight ruffling over the first sightings of Dr. Block’s two-seat wide hat, a swirling, flouncy white dress that would have gotten her admitted to any prom, and she was trailed by a videographer, actively shooting as he faithfully followed the doctor through the entryway.
Invited by the Democratic Club to join a panel discussion about Women’s History Month and the hottest topic in the nation, she did not disappoint.
She entered and departed behind a veil of mystery and arcanity – declining to shine a light on her own life and motivation, and allowing identity of her group, her vehicle into public life, dangling.
From practice, she knew how to arrest attention although she was slightly short on precision. “I am here to talk about One Billion Rising,” she said in a low, modulated voice, building the drama. “I am not the CEO. I am just a part of the organization. One Billion Rising is not even really an organization. It’s a movement, a catalyst to get other organizations to get behind its message, which is:
“To stop rape culture, to stop violence against women and everybody else.
“Of course, that is a big, huge objective. It takes a big, huge number. That is why it is One Billion Rising.
“Speaking of statistics,” Dr. Block said as she wound up to deliver her main punch, “one in three women on this planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.”
The poll-tested data was received without startlement, challenge or, significantly, evidence.
No Reason to Pause
She kept on driving, never slowing.
The verity of the headline never was in doubt.
It did not occur to anyone to inquire how this astounding, unapologetic, encompassing claim was measured
The one-in-three assertion has been the principal newsmaking mantra of the organization founded by author Eve Ensler, who wrote “The Vagina Chronicles.”
For the next few minutes, Dr. Block steered a rhetorically craggy course between inveighing against those who commit violence – men – and an insistence that she was not anti-male.
Unrelated to anything else she was saying, Dr. Block rather dreamily, hazily kept making U-turns back to a wish that women should be able to go “dancing” – dancing was the go-to concept – anywhere, anytime.
In Spite of History
Staring blankly into the abyss of centuries of world history heavily to the contrary, she said that women should be able to wear any clothing they wish, say any words they wish without fear of an attack.
Mainly, her spirited, well-received presentation was tethered to the notion that rape is common as sunrise, and not nearly enough people are upset about that.
City Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells said that since she was born in the year Roe v. Wade was approved, she has been a lifetime beneficiary, the more so because she is a resident of the blue state of California.
“What can we, as Californians, do to support our sisters, and even our brothers because a baby is a baby, in the rest of the country who may not have the right-to-choose?” Ms. Sahli-Wells asked.
How to be Effective
The response was an exercise in discursivity.
“There are so many movements around this country to help women maintain our right-to-choose, which is at risk everywhere,” Dr. Block said. “I would say it is at risk in California when there are people harassing women who want to get contraception and abortions.
“We have to support a woman’s right-to-choose in various ways, both actively, counterbalancing their protests with ours, and of course on the internet. One reason this movement for women, against domestic violence, coming out for contraception is so powerful, is because of this very feminine phenomenon called the internet. Women thrive on communication. We wither when we are alone, when we are separated, when we are just barefoot and pregnant, separated from each other, left at home, not permitted out in the street, just basically dragged down. As women get out and dance, women gain power. And you can’t always get out and dance in the street. But you can on the worldwide web.”
