http://972mag.com/in-her-shoes-in-her-world-a-thought-experiment/37830/

In her shoes, in her world: A thought experiment

Tuesday, March 13 2012|+972blog

By Roy Wagner | Translated from Hebrew by Libby Lenkinski

I am writing this for those who are prepared to acknowledge that just because they don’t understand what feminists want, it doesn’t mean that feminists are wrong.

Several weeks ago, the Israeli activist group Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah launched a campaign against funding and whitewashing of settlements that used pornographic associations and rape imagery. It was met with harsh responses from within the community and quickly taken down. But it got me thinking. For the sake of full disclosure, “some of my best friends” are Solidarity activists. I know that most of them think that the campaign was harmful and are working to prevent these sorts of things from happening again. So I wanted to suggest a thought experiment not against Solidarity, but for activists who do not yet understand what was so hurtful about Solidarity’s Migron campaign and why the responses were so intense.

I write this as someone who has not always been a feminist, and who even today is not always sure what a feminist is supposed to do. I write this as someone who took a long time to understand, for example, the hysterical reactions around “sexual harassment” and all sorts of other expressions that seem paranoid, like “culture of rape.” When I go out clubbing, it happens that a stranger passes by and fondles my ass. To be honest, I enjoy it. It also happens that an annoying nudnik leeches onto you and it’s impossible to lose him and that’s infuriating, but to make that into an existential struggle? And I have a friend who was raped, which is terrible. But to say that I live in a “culture of rape”?!

I write this for those who don’t totally get it but also don’t assume that because you don’t get it there simply isn’t anything to get.

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When I try to understand it, I put myself in her shoes. I imagine what it feels like when they cat-call me on the street, calling out, “hey hottie.” But I don’t get it, because I imagine a symmetrical swapping of roles, and if you want to understand someone else, it isn’t enough to imagine swapping roles. You have to also take into account the power dynamics.

As leftists, we understand the failure of the following claim: “Israeli violence passes legal checks and balances, and even if there are some bad seeds, or even if some civilians are harmed during an attack on wanted terrorists, what we do doesn’t count as a terror attack against civilians like the Palestinians commit.” As leftists, we understand that this is a ridiculous comparison because it is precisely because of the occupation that Palestinians can’t implement an organized resistance that would constitute “legal war” against military targets. And when we think about Israel’s operational capacity, wild violence and scope of action, the result is no less an act of terror than what Israelis experienced in 2002. Because there is no symmetry in the power dynamic between Israel and the Palestinians, there can’t be a symmetrical comparison between their tactics. So when a man attempts to understand how it feels to be a woman, it isn’t enough that he imagines himself in her shoes; in order to understand a woman, the man must imagine himself in her world.

I came up with an analogy; it is far from perfect but it may be helpful for left-wing men to understand something that’s hard for some of us to grasp. Imagine that you live in a society in which half of the people walking around are armed soldiers and cops in uniform. Imagine that they can see that you are a leftist-anarchist-Arab lover. It’s true that after all, you’ve only been arrested or beaten up rarely, but once in a while it happens. It’s part of your reality. And from time to time someone that you know is shot in the leg or the head.

And in this reality, where half of the people in the street are armed cops and soldiers in uniform, almost every day some soldier on the street suddenly aims his weapon at you and makes shooting sounds and laughs. And at least once a week a cop screams at you from across the street, “Hey! Lefty! You’re arrested. Get over here. Nah, just kidding, just playing around.”

And it’s happened to you, while walking alone down a dark street, that a gang of Border Police officers came out of a bar and smacked you around, just a little. And your uncle who is a cop sometimes takes you aside and begins asking questions that quickly turn from casual interest to straight-up interrogation. You know that there’s nothing you can do except go along and wait for it to be over and when it is, not make a big deal because your family, even the left-wingers, feel that if he’s a cop, he must be right.

It isn’t every day that you get beaten or arrested, but every day they make sure to remind you that it could happen. When you go out you must consider whether or not wear the T-shirt with the political slogan, where it’s best not to be alone, and if there’s a lawyer on call that you could turn to if you were arrested, which could happen just like that.

Maybe, through this story, some leftists might figure out what it feels like for some women (not all women, as there are many different women). The analogy is far from perfect, but … Let’s take it one more step.

You ask them to take it down, and they do and they apologize. But your friends also send you the clear message that you really messed up a fabulously successful campaign. Because people would have finally understood that the relationship between the university and the junior professors is truly inhumane, and its as bad as police beating up protesters. And they really aren’t minimizing your experiences, they say, because your friends are actually pro-human rights of leftists. And maybe you’re just too sensitive.

But it’s not the first time that something like this has happened, and you’ve already discussed these things with them, and it’s most painful to take these responses from people who are supposed to be on your side. If for all these reasons you got angry, showed hurt, and yelled on Facebook – then they look at you and say you’re self-righteous, a purist, and because of people like you it’s impossible to advance workers’ rights struggles, and frankly, you’re the one who’s violent here.

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Almost 15 Israelis and no internationals joined the weekly Palestinian demonstration in Bil'in. When the marchers reached the wall, the army had already been busy gassing and skunking the shabab. While the soldiers' attention was drawn to one side, a protester sneaked in between the wall and the barbed wire and sprayed anti-occupation and pro-Palestinians graffiti. Then a relatively low key exchange of gas for stones followed, both because the the wind blew in the soldiers' faces, and because the stones, as usual, didn't place the over-protected soldiers in any real danger.

קרוב ל 15 ישראליות ואף לא בינלאומי אחד הצטרפו להפגנה הפלסטינית השבועית בבילעין. כשהצועדים הגיעו לגדר, הצבא היה כבר עסוק בלהמטיר גז ובואש על השבאב. בעוד תשומת ליבם של החיילים היתה נתונה לשבאב בצד אחד, מפגין הסתנן בין החומה לגדר התיל וריסס גרפיטי נגד הכיבוש ובעד פלסטין. אח"כ התקיימו חילופי גז ואבנים בעצימות נמוכה, גם משום שהרוח נשבה בפני החיילים, וגם משום שהאבנים, כרגיל, לא היוו איום ממשי על בטחונם של החיילים הממוגנים-לעילא.

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