Silence is not golden

I have just finished listening to Christina Dalcher's book Vox on audible, and when I say just finished I mean I sat in my car on the drive for 25 minutes so that I could listen to the last chapters uninterrupted. My neighbours might think I'm a weirdo but I have no regrets!

The dystopian novel, set in an America that is an exaggerated and heightened version to the one we know now, tells the story of how 50% of the population have ended up silenced. Every woman in this America, wears a counter; a little "bracelet" that keeps a tally of all the words spoken each day, and when a woman goes over 100 (her limit until midnight of that day) bad things happen.

Dr Jean McClellan tells us the story from her perspective, how she went from celebrated academic and scientist to a silenced housewife who is no longer allowed to read or write, never mind collect her own post or have her own mobile phone. She gives insight into how this happened, the warning signs she missed, the ways she - and others - could have done more to potentially stop the crazed misogynists who have decided that the world would be a better place if women "knew their place" and were seen and not heard.

What I loved - and hated in equal measures - is the realistic nature of this book; the reality is that there are many men who would be very happy if women were incapable of speaking freely.

We know that there are men who want women silenced; when Elizabeth Warren objected to Jeff Sessions becoming Attorney General, Mitch McConnell spoke the sentence that I am sure he did not realise would become a rally cry, "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."

Warren was expected to shut up, sit down, and know her place.

Dr Christine Blasey Ford was criticised for speaking out long after the assault on her by Brett Kavanaugh; she spoke too late, she spoke lies, she spoke when it was at the detriment of Kavanaugh and her words were considered not a harrowing account of an assault that had to be spoken in front of the world, but a calculated plan to remove a blameless man from a position that he deserved. Again, they underestimated the power of a woman's voice. Instead of listening to the bile spewed about Dr Blasey Ford, women (and men) everywhere stood up and joined their voices with hers. They shared their own stories of assault, they defended her, they hashtagged 'I believe Dr Ford' and 'Why I didn't report'.

It would seem that now, when we hear stories of the attempted silence of women, the result is outcry, anger, and louder female voices filling the air, the news, the media, and the internet. We are fed up of wincing silently as we hear stories of women publicly shamed for daring to speak out, we are done with listening to men tell our stories with their own versions and biases, we have been quiet for long enough.

And so, is Vox really that unbelievable? Is it really such a stretch to think that powerful men could band together and change things step by step, sneaking laws through supported by other powerful men, ignoring marches and protests, silencing women every step of the way? After all, isn't that what is already happening?

There have been some incredibly negative views about the book from Christians - particularly American Christians - who are angry at Dalcher for blaming the "Christian movement" for the silencing of women. Dalcher does do this, she tells of Christian men (supported in part by Christian women) who run a "pure movement" which aims to return things to the status quo; before feminism, before women wanted to work for a living, before women had any rights.

I am a Christian (since I'm training to be a Priest this is quite handy) but I'm not necessarily angry about this depiction of Christianity. For a start Dalcher explains it is extremist Christians that have started the pure movement, something which I could well believe; the people in her novel are not your normal every day Christians, but brainwashed extremists who use the Gospel for ill. The other night I ended up in the twitter world of angry extreme Christianity, a world of #feminazi and angry young men who sleep around but expect women to remain pure until - on their wedding night - they finally give themselves over to the very men who have been putting it about for years. A world of incels, rape threats, and homophobia.

The people on this side of the internet - men and women - are angry. They're angry that women are no longer content to be subservient, no longer happy to keep their mouths shut when their husbands are heavy handed, or when their pastor tells them to keep quiet about the man who abused them because he is important.

I am making this very clear right now, this is not all Christians, nor is it all Churches; but I question the low level stuff that happens inside and outside Churches on a regular basis. I have been told - when I have been justifiably angry and vocal about it - that I must be on my period, I have been told that I should "go to coffee" with a man who sexually assaulted me to try and "sort it out", and I have been told to wait my turn to lead services because the man I am working with is going to do it first (despite him having less experience).

So no... I do not think it is such a reach to imagine a world where extreme Christian values are the catalyst for a dystopian nightmare in which women are only allowed to speak 100 words when in a mostly "non-dystopian" world I too have been told when, how, and when not to use my voice. When the President of the United States is a misogynist who "grabs women by the pussy" whilst gaining the support of the Bible Belt by firming up laws on abortion it isn't surprising that Dalcher has turned to this "type of Christian" for inspiration.

You may well ask why in God's name (literally) I am part of the Church? And more so, why do I want to represent it as an Ordained minister? Well... I am heartened by wonderful empowering Christians (of all genders) and Churches who allow women the space to lead and speak, who listen to women who are hurt and damaged, who encourage women to speak out and stand to fight with them in the face of injustice. I know that Christ's message to love one another is something that we are all striving for. I know that the brokenness and sinfulness of humanity is not the end, and that God holds for us something more incredible than we can possibly imagine.

I have hope, for the Church, for the future, for the world; I train with incredible men and women who are going to improve the parts of the Church that are still damaging to women, and who are going to continue to share the Gospel with everyone!

I have hope because despite being warned, amazing women like Dr Blasey Ford and Elizabeth Warren are brave enough to speak out, because the incredible women who post their #metoo moments have had enough of this "keep quiet" nonsense, because we are strong together and more and more people are realising that misogyny helps no one!

I have hope because so far women don't have word counters, we are not yet forced to limit the words we speak, and let me tell you... we're getting louder!