The future of the #MeToo movement and the history of sexual agency were among the subjects of a deep-dive discussion led by speaker Ayesha K. Faines March 4 in the Farnsworth Pavilion. Hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Multicultural Center, the Dean of Undergraduates and the Office of Access, Equity and Equal Opportunity in honor of Women’s History Month, the hourlong talk was followed by a Q&A with the 50-plus students in attendance.
The topic of sexual misconduct was widely deliberated on campus last year. The Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality invited Anita Hill to speak at Rice as part of its yearlong “Understanding #MeToo” theme, which was integrated into much of its programming and curriculum.
Keeping those kinds of discussions going is important, said Ijeoma Nwaogu, associate director of Rice’s Multicultural Center.
“I invited Ayesha to really help us continue this conversation on this important topic,” Nwaogu said. “I believe she’s one of the most brilliant leaders in the world on these topics because of her deep understanding and her research on women and power.”
After graduating from Yale University, Faines worked as a television reporter and journalist for years before delving into poetry and writing. Along the way she created the digital community “Women Love Power” and became a sought-after speaker on feminism and intersectionality.
Her wide-ranging talk began with a deconstruction of Greek god Apollo as the archetype of masculinity — one that persists in many ways in modern society — and the story of Cassandra considered from a different perspective.
A princess of Troy greatly admired by Apollo for her beauty, Cassandra accepted Apollo’s gift of prophecy but ultimately rejected the god himself. Spurned, Apollo cursed Cassandra: She’d still be able to predict the future, but her truth would always be heard by others as lies or exaggerations.
“Does anybody recognize that storyline in Western civilization?" Faines asked. "You will speak the truth, but nobody will believe you. And the reason Cassandra is being punished is fundamentally because she decides what to do with her body — she says no.”
One can make the argument, Faines said, that this culture of silence — of not believing women — is woven into the fabric of Western society. And it’s worse, she said, for marginalized women.
“The moment a woman decides what she wants to do with her body or the moment that she speaks up — that’s Cassandra, also known as Anita Hill,” she said.
For those in the room too young to remember, Faines recapped Hill’s story, that of a talented young lawyer who accused then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment and testified against him during confirmation hearings in 1991. Hill’s critics noted that she had worked with Thomas for years and even followed him to a second job.
“So in exchange for career advancement, she agrees to continue working with him, which I think is really interesting because Apollo gives Cassandra this gift, which is a powerful gift; it's currency in the Greco-Roman world,” Faines said. “You see here again, women are often put in these awkward positions when they're merely again trying to advance themselves in a male world.”
Faines’ observations spanned history, showing advertisements from 1950s magazines that portrayed women as hopelessly stupid and posters from 1960s movies that portrayed them as grasping villains. In the 1970s, the women's liberation movement helped propel more women into the workplace; by the 1980s they were entrenched, and by the 1990s, power dynamics were once again in play as Western society sought to stem women’s increasing influence.
“You start to see, right around 1992, movies that come to vilify the working woman,” Faines said. “These are the kind of messages that we start to get, that we start to see surrounding powerful women.”
Today’s landscape, Faines said, is one where women have more control and independence than ever before, yet one that is still dominated by traditional narratives. Navigating a world full of questions about power, consent and complex interpersonal dynamics — all continuing to evolve at a rapid pace — can be intensely stressful for college students who are also dealing with all kinds of other demands.
“Anytime you are trying to relate and love in a culture that is very narrow — as we talked about, Greco-Roman mythology is premised on male domination — trying to love and be free and have egalitarian love where everybody feels wanted and seen and heard and like they are getting their needs met is incredibly, incredibly difficult,” Faines said.
This is where modern movements like #MeToo have been so successful in continuing to push the discussion further, she said. And although there will always be those who seek to disempower women, whether in the boardroom or the bedroom, as she put it, Faines said there is hope yet as we all make progress together.
“You can’t stop the rise of women at this point,” she said.