At the Root of My Longing, Social Justice, Feminism, and Spirituality by Ashly Judd

[ismnotwasm]

At the Root of My Longing, Social Justice, Feminism, and Spirituality

Good evening. I am so delighted to be here and would like immediately to thank the College of Arts and Sciences for asking me to present this year’s Blazer Lecture. I have enjoyed sharing with my friends and colleagues that this distinction is typically reserved for Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel Laureates and scholars with very deep benches (one of very few, I promise, references to basketball I will make tonight). It’s been a fun, if not slightly perverse, way to put an awful lot of pressure on myself.
The title of my talk is “At the Root of My Longing, Social Justice, Feminism, and Spirituality”. What I aim to do is express the lineage of my current activities as the Global Ambassador for YouthAids and board member of Population Services International, with my academic roots here at UK, to define a bit for you the terms I use, and to share with you, most importantly, the world wide human rights work in which I have been so extraordinarily blessed to take part. Through the often heart breaking stories of just a few of the many vulnerable people I have met, girls and women in particular, I will illustrate how gender inequality is the root of the HIV/AIDS emergency, the worst plague in human history, and how nothing short of a complete and total gender revolution will there ever be relief, lasting stability, and peace in our world. Through these individual stories and the nexus of their reproductive health, I will touch briefly on the lack of educational, economic, and legal empowerment of girls and women and its ongoing roll in the unspeakable suffering for billions of people with whom we share our planet.

http://ashleyjudd.com/writings/at-the-root-of-my-longing-social-justice-feminism-and-spirituality/

This a beautiful speech, and no she's not just another vapid, shallow pretty face.
(From 2006)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Ashley Judd is very well spoken. Any time I have ever seen her, I have been impressed

with her knowledge of the subject matter and her command of language. In my opinion, she is under utilized in the film industry although that may be by choice, I don't know.

[CrispyQ]

2. That was excellent!

I like her more & more! Well worth the time to read.

[seabeyond]

3. wow, what a speech. there is so much to be said in this.

as i was reading i pulled out two paragraphs i wish people would take to heart. but, thru out the rest of the story, it is almost insignificant compared to the rest she spoke about

I think patriarchy gives boys and men just as raw a deal as it does girls and women, even as it gives them power, legitimacy, entitlement, and authority. I deeply believe the exquisitely painful surgery required on the male psyche to assume and maintain the lie of male superiority and the objectification of women comes at very heavy spiritual toll. The definitions of manhood the patriarchal system provides, to quote Flinders again, “are unbelievably arid and limiting, and come at a terrible, terrible cost.” And for a bit of tokenism, Mike Messner and Don Sabo say, “There is something rotten in the ways that manhood has been defined and the ways men relate to one another, to women and to the planet.” Even if you object to every word out of my mouth the last 10 minutes, you surely admit boys and men are persuaded to de humanize, maim, and even lose their lives, all because they are men, and by golly, in a patriarchal world, that’s what boys and men do! Thank goodness, Messner and Sabo add, “Increasingly, men are beginning to reconsider the violence they have shown toward women and one another."

Now, onto feminism. Feminism is for me, very simply put, The Truth. It is Satya. Satya is a Sanskrit word that means, “that which is real,” and, “the highest truth”. The meaning as applied to spirituality is “all of life is one.’ Often my understanding of something is deepened by looking at its opposite. Feminism, therefore, is not the lie that one person can ever be justified in exploiting another. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “Any attempt by one individual or race or class or gender to oppress another is a violation of unity.” Feminism teaches me that all life unified, is equal and sacred, that no one person ever, ever, ever has more status, meaning, or worth, than another.

thank you

[ismnotwasm]

4. Yes

Those two paragraphs stood out to me as well. Beautifully phrased.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. That last sentence in the quote:

Feminism teaches me that all life unified, is equal and sacred, that no one person ever, ever, ever has more status, meaning, or worth, than another.

So Very Powerful