Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Newton, Nanci" <>]

I appreciate and applaud Monica's speaking out and speaking up on this
listserve, and regret my own silence (our silence will not protect us!).
As a white middle-class woman I know that I must be constantly vigilant
to my own sense of privilege and how it leaks out in what I say and do.
I also know that it is not up to those with less privilege than me to be
my guide-but they have every right to tell me when I am offending.  Then
it is up to me to do the self-examination and truth-seeking that it
takes to recommit myself to that constant vigilance I must embrace.  As
a woman, a lesbian, a survivor, a 60-year old, and a battle-scarred
warrior in this movement and this beloved work, I know what it is like
to be offended against, and to have those with privilege attempt to
define my reality or to claim my reality as theirs.  I add my voice to
Monica's by asking the men on this listserve to listen and to think of
serving, not laying claim to.  There is much to be done-it must be done
together.  I rejoice in men as allies and brothers in this work, but I
challenge them to commit themselves to constant self-examination and
vigilance.  I would like to add another reference work that has meant
much to the men who have worked by my side to end violence against
women: John Stoltenberg's Refusing to be a Man.

 

In sisterhood to you all,

 

Nanci Newton

 

Director

USF Advocacy Program

University of South Florida

4202 East Fowler Avenue, SVC 1138

Tampa, Florida 33620-6922

Direct Office Line: (813) 974-9904

(813) 974-5756

Fax (813) 974-8589



http://www.usf.edu/advocacy