Who We Are:
Stories spark change. Taken individually, a story can create a tiny opening in a once-closed space. It is a glimmer. It can shine as something that is true and raw and beautiful. But one story - a single voice telling a single story - is often all too easy to ignore, to shout over or drown out. A single voice can be targeted or silenced.
Pantsuit Nation exists to harness the power of collective storytelling. Millions of voices telling millions of stories. We amplify the voices of those who have historically been underrepresented or excluded. We listen. We empower our members to speak with honesty and without fear of attack. We are strong in our diversity. We invite conversation - true conversation - about the issues that are most fundamental to us and our identities.
We believe that feminism is intersectional. We believe that “women’s rights are human rights.” We believe that progress around racial justice, LGBTQ* rights, rights for people with disabilities, religious freedom, and the fight to combat hatred and bigotry in all forms is most effective when emboldened and humanized through first-person narrative. We believe that politics is personal, and that progressive movement occurs when the empathetic potential of a story is unleashed. Collective storytelling amplifies the voices of those who have been marginalized. We empower our members to speak with honesty and without fear of attack. Stories give meaning to action and meaningful action leads to long-term, sustainable change.
What We Do:
Pantsuit Nation is a lens through which we learn about the lives of others, often in a deeply personal way. Our members actively create and promote a culture of interest, respect, and empathy that directly translates into a better understanding of how policy impacts marginalized people in our country. If we can be driven to care about the stories of others, we can be driven to care about the policies that affect them. Take action. Pantsuit Nation members are committed to carrying out thoughtful, forward-thinking actions, whether it’s confronting a bully, volunteering at a local nonprofit, donating money to an important cause, or extending a simple kindness to another person. Through partnerships with national and local organizations, the collective impact of our stories and the actions they inspire has the potential to change the world.
What’s Next:
Pantsuit Nation, after one month, has expanded from a small group of friends to include over 3.7 million individuals all around the world. To say that this movement has potential is, we think, an understatement. We have so many ideas, and we’ll be sharing some of our next steps with you in another blog post later this week. In the meantime, share a story, listen to a story, and join us in being thankful for all that Pantsuit Nation has represented and offered to us over the past several weeks. There’s so much more to come! Source: http//:pantsuitnation.org
A Relative Story:
The following story is from the FaceBook Page of my wife's closed relative. You probably know the identity of the Mom described in this story. I did have permission from the author to re post the following story.
I just discovered "Pantsuit Nation", a FB group with millions of members functioning as sort-of online-therapy through personal stories in the aftermath of the election. I encourage you all to join, but for those of you not on it, they just approved my post. I thought I'd share:
I’m a Filipino-American guy who was raised as a kid single-mother/single-child. My mom is a nurse who worked night-shifts in San Francisco and I often slept in an empty hospital room to save on babysitters. She later remarried but for my entire lifetime, she was always the bread-winner of the family. She and I are largely the same in nature: she’s a tough woman and I became the “tough-guy”.
It’s not common in our family to say “I love you” the way it might be in a more nuclear family and both she and I rarely cry. I guess I’m posting here because I was devastated by this election and I’ve spent hours reading all your stories and it makes me feel better. My mom worked as a nurse in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Later she took a particularly active political stand in the takedown of the terrible dictator Ferdinand Marcos during the “People’s Power” revolution in the Philippines back in the early 80s. So with all due respect to everyone in Pantsuit Nation, to me Hillary is only the second most powerful woman in the world, after my mother.
So here I am, a tough guy raised by his tough mother, crying with you all in Pantsuit Nation in the fight against hate. Thank you for all your stories.
Note: The author of the above story told me his mother called him after Trump was announced the PEOTUS and cried. His mother rarely cry but the defeat of Hillary was such a devastation and disappointment it made her cry.
Hillary's defeat made me sad and disappointed but I did not cry. How about you? If you are a Hillary Fan, I like to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment