Yesterday was the pilot project for the University of Alberta IDEAfest, an event for those in the Edmonton community to present their ideas to attendees. Presenters were given half-hour slots for their presentation and questions, and at any given time there were three presentations happening, each in a different lecture theatre, allowing attendees to choose the sessions that interested them most.
The sessions were varied, from Ian Bushfield’s “Atheism, Alberta and the 21st Century,” to Ross Lockwood’s “Zymurgy and the Physics of Beer.” In some sessions I learned a lot, in others, I was watching the clock tick the seconds away. All that being said, though, it was a decent pilot project, and some problems could have been fixed with more time to plan (it was all coordinated in two weeks, I believe), and better promotion.
Other problems, however, require a bit more attention. For example, the fact that most of the participants (presenters and attendees) were white.
Yes, there were some People of Colour at the sessions, but we were very clearly outnumbered by white people. Everywhere. And yes, I realise this is Alberta, but it’s also Edmonton, at the University of Alberta, both of which are hardly impenetrable bastions of white supremacy. Despite this, though, we (for the most part) had white audience members listen to white speakers, who at times spoke about issues facing POC. For example, Kevin Kutchinski presented a session originally titled “How global free trade will cure poverty.” Apparently he realised the problems with this and changed it to a slightly less offensive title that I’ve since forgotten.
Embedded racism aside (for now), Edmonton has also been facing some gender issues in some circles, including the activist community, and, as was demonstrated to me yesterday, the online community*. At IDEAfest, I presented “Putting an End to Rape Culture: Challenging Attitudes and Misinformation.” I didn’t expect to get much of an audience (only about 100 people dropped by throughout the day), but I did end up getting between twenty to thirty people, which was an average turnout.
The problem, then? Only four men showed up.
Let me repeat: There were only four men who showed up because they gave at least a bit of a damn about strategies to end the sexual violation of women, at an event dominated by men–over 20 presenters were men and less than 10 were women. The attendees were somewhat more balanced, from what I saw.
I want to make it clear that I’m not phased by the size of my audience, but the gender imbalance. When men don’t pay attention to or ignore information on what they can do to help end rape, especially when it’s practically handed to them, they reinforce the idea that’s it’s up to women to stop rape. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates that the majority of men just don’t care.
I fully recognise there were two other interesting sessions being put on (both by two of the under ten women presenters), so I don’t feel entirely comfortable blaming individual people for not showing up, but it is interesting when presentations on the history of clothing or the importance of arts for children take precedence over ideas on how men can end the violation of their mothers, sisters, daughters, and partners (if they showed up to any of the sessions at all).
So although I can’t blame all individual men who didn’t show up to the session, I do believe that every man there had a responsibility to the women in their lives to attend. The number of men who showed up is a clear example of embedded sexism within the men at IDEAfest. Rape doesn’t affect men (to the same extent), so no need to show up, right?
So what are the solutions? For the embedded racism of the event, it’s a simple matter of talking to more POC. Why weren’t more POC invited to speak? Why not have POC talking about the issues that affect them, rather than getting whites to? These are pretty easy first steps. As for the gender representation, again, the first step is ensuring an equal number of men and women speak. Finally, regarding the rape issue, I think we all need to hold the men in our lives accountable as a first step. I hope this post causes some of the men to think about why they couldn’t spare a half hour to learn how they can end the rape of women.
To reiterate, I’m not saying my presentation was the best one to choose from, or that I chose the greatest topic, or that I executed it perfectly. What I’m saying is that all men have a responsibility to end gendered violence, and when gendered violence is a result of so many things, from sexism in general to gender roles, all men (and certainly all men who are unaware), encourage the rape of women to some extent, whether they commit the act or not. The fact that most of the men in attendance were “decent men” does nothing to discount the fact that their gender politics are fucked.
*The event was largely promoted through Facebook and Twitter, so many of the attendees can, I think, be classified as being part of the active online community in Edmonton.
