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Reclaiming Reclaim

26/11/2012

7 Comments

 
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Image: Morten Watkins
Reclaim is an interesting word; or rather the use of it is interesting. Baggage reclaim, reclaimed wood (for the new floorboards, so much more ethical darling – you know), reclaim PPI you never took out but you simply must have, why else would you be getting all those texts? Reclaim words you didn't know you ever owned. I assume you are all aware of brilliant women and men across the world taking a lazily worded warning from a Toronto police officer to task and reclaiming the word slut whilst getting some gentle exercise.

But can you reclaim something that was never yours? Not that anybody has a monopoly on the English language (strictly speaking...). I don't think slut has any kind of proud history. Unless you're really into insults, or misogyny. But I suppose you can turn it around. Now we can accuse those who imply a woman is some how to blame for a crime, or those who recoil at the idea of a woman discussing her sex life of slut-shaming. Is that a reclaim or a confiscation? 

What about the word queer? 'Oh yeah, no I think that's been reclaimed'. What does that even mean? It meant 'a bit weird' or unusual, then in the 20th century was bastardised into a derogatory term for gay. Now many people identify as queer or gender queer, one can (and one did) attend queer theory modules at university. LGB societies have gained letters to become a more inclusive LGBTQ. Is that an act of reclamation or simply 2 fingers up at those who use homophobic language. It's not a slur, it's a correct definition. In fact it's somewhat right on – if you will. All of a sudden Great Aunt Casual Racist appears to be down with the bois when she discusses that gay agenda over Christmas Dinner.

If this were an essay* I was struggling to get going with on the subject of 'reclaiming' (which I suppose it is) I'd tell you that the Oxford English Dictionary definition of 'Reclaim' is this: v. 1. Retrieve or recover. 2 bring (waste land or land formerly under water) under cultivation. Recycle. 3 dated redeem from a state of vice. Archaic tame or civilize (an animal or person). n. the action or reclaiming or being reclaimed...ORIGIN ME: from Ofr. Reclamer, from L. Reclamare 'cry out against'...
Cry out against. Isn't that perfect? Goodness but I love dictionaries. As the nights draw in Reclaim the Night marches come out. The 17th of November saw Brighton Reclaim the Night, led by The Brighton Feminist Collective. Queer, trans, cis, all of Brighton was invited to cry out against. Against rape, against violence, against domestic abuse, against, against, against! The object was to retrieve, recover, 'redeem from a state of vice' as it were. 

are we just afraid to say it's a power grab? A Coup.

The Brighton march unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb, throbbing with all the colours of the rainbow. The Brighton Reclaim the Night march is the only one I attended and had any intention of attending this year. During the march we were shouted at, on West Street (if you're from Brighton perhaps I'll throw a 'natch' in there for you) by a group of young giggling men to look up to the windows of the Travelodge Hotel where 2 nude men were thrusting their shaven genitals at us. HA HA penises in your FACE feminists. 

Now, because I was in a group – a huge group of over 500 – I was able to point, report the men to the police, I'll even admit I laughed. Had I been alone I would have been frightened. Because you know what flashing is? It's an act of (attempted – no one was going to have their eye out that night) intimidation. 
I would wager that these men heard us, saw us and were frightened. They so took against a misunderstood idea of feminism and Reclaim the Night that they wanted to cause distress and laugh at us. When I was 17 walking home on a foggy afternoon through the deserted Tervuren Park I was flashed. On telling the story to friends the next day they laughed. Ha-ha willies. But I have to tell you at the time I was very frightened. And then angry because there is nothing more annoying then someone who has never been in the same situation telling you what witty thing they would have done.
I am a great believer in using laughter as a weapon, it's the most powerful weapon when used properly because unlike violence no one gets hurt but the guilty. This belief is also why I know that the actions of these men was a defence technique. 

When the march was covered in the local paper the following week comments predictably ranged from remarks on our looks (because we all know one thing about rapists is how very discerning they are) to how Brighton doesn't need a Reclaim the Night because Brighton's a hippy town (in the early hours following the march a woman was attacked on the Level and that's an attack we know about). We are used to seeing women being dismissed, unfortunately. But you can't dismiss a mass of people with a comment on their looks. That's not a woman's whine that's an intersectional holler. It is a mass of people driven to cry out against!

This is what makes an inclusive march so much more powerful, so much more meaningful than a woman only march, or a segregated march. This is why as I mentioned earlier I did not attend other Reclaim marches because they weren't mixed. I understand the sentiment but this hands power to those people shouting you down. It blurs the message. It isn't Us versus Them, it's Right versus Wrong.

Is this reclaiming? Or are we just afraid to say it's a power grab? A coup. A 'This is why we can't have nice things!' scolding. You abused the night, so we revolted. We should all be Proud Revolting Feminists.

*Any students reading – sorry, everybody and your marker knows that dictionary definition trick. 

Squeamish Kate

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7 Comments
Frau_bh
25/11/2012 07:09:40 pm

Couldn't agree more. It is about power and Brighton can have all the hippies it likes, it won't change the fact that is also full of people who would prefer to keep us scared, to lock us away and control us, simply because we are people who want to go about our business without worrying about whether it will get dark before we get home, like victims in a cheap horror film, trying not to get attacked by vampires and werewolves.

We needed the march, we needed to cry out and be heard. We needed to march together - regardless of how we identify - because its time to grab back the power and make it safe for everyone to go out at night. And if that makes it a coup, I'm glad we are on the front line.

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Squeamish Kate link
26/11/2012 12:07:53 am

Good, then we are agreed. Yes fear can be used as a way to control as well.

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Joanne Fraser
25/11/2012 08:24:20 pm

I'd like to print this out and roll around on it. Instead I'm gonna send it to some people who I think should read it in Glasgow. Can we reclaim We're all in it together while were at it!!!

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Squeamish Kate link
26/11/2012 12:06:02 am

Thanks Joanne! Is this regarding the uncomfortable "women are not for sale" slogan?
Yes we should reclaim "We're all in it together."

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Imo
27/11/2012 07:23:37 pm

As ever spot on. I got flashed when I was 15 on the way to school. The guy, I kid you not, looked like Adolf Hitler in a blue Ben Sherman (but of course this is Essex in the 90s). The whole event was taken completely seriously from friends,who supported me to go to teachers that morning, to the school who contacted the police and made me a cup of tea and the science technician who told me in sympathy how it happened to her when she was my age, to the police who interviewed me and got me to look through books of mug shots (FUN!), to my brother and his mates who were quietly angry about it. What that experience taught me is that it was not ok and that I was right to be wierded out by it that actually there was nothing for me to 'reclaim' because everyone had my back.

What concerns me is that my experience went against everyone else's I've heard since. If I'd been a couple of years older, walking at night in Southend, I don't know if I would've been so lucky. What I do know is, I never wanted to go out, before or after, to go to the local clubs where my mates went because, as everyone freely admitted, they were 'meat markets'...But perhaps they felt more confident than me that people's boundaries would be respected and if something had happened everyone would have had their back...I wish I could be so sure.

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Squeamish Kate link
27/11/2012 08:50:39 pm

That's really interesting - even more interesting to me because until I read your story now it has never occurred to me that the flashing should have been reported to the police. My school took it seriously and there was a notice put out but other than that there was nothing and I was allowed to feel a bit silly about the whole incident.

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Imo
27/11/2012 09:28:36 pm

I was wierded out by the fact it felt so serious, that within half an hour of telling a teacher the police were interviewing me with my mum! It really sent a strong message that what happened to you is not ok, do not think this is something to brush off and do not take it into your own hands, you are not alone...quite heavy going for anyone at 9 in the morning! On the other hand they never found him, no-one did any doorstep interviews to see they'd seen him afterwards. There were still things that could have been done like a local notice. Shame both our schools couldn't have shared their approaches, then surely one of them would have been more likely to have been caught!

In the research I've been doing for the PhD I've read of at least 2 incidents of flashing in local parks at the turn of the 20th C. What is striking is how serious it is taken that the children are believed that they either tell a teacher or a parent tells the school and then the police are called and eventually there was court action! No doubt many cases at other schools went unrecorded, but it was quite a surprise to be reading about child-victims being listened to and the perpetrator ending up in court.

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