The Raging Grannies of Boston

The grannies came, sang and won my heart.

I am glad I did not miss this class. Because, this is one of the most touching class experience I had at Wellesley. We were joined by Boston raging grannies- a group of older women who have defied stereotypes and became active peace activists. This morning, as I hurriedly went to get breakfast, I met Carter and she told me that the grannies were visiting. I thought that is a rather bizarre event so I decided to check my readings. I was almost late for the class so I quickly skim through the raging grannies article. I came excited because part of me was still unsure of what to expect.

Our class discussion was on war and women. We briefly watched the trailer of Lioness; American women combatants in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was surprised to learn that in the US, women are legally not permitted to join the combat. Like many other class mates, I assumed that when women join the war, like the Tamil tigers, they are also sent to fight. It made sense to me; somehow that this will hurt men's ego or at least the men who are in the army. As Catia said, many wars are fought with justification to protect women; the idea that feminine women who are supposed to be protected are fighting the war is unsettling to many people. It does not fit into the image of a warrior- strong built and masculine. But we also discussed that war can be good for women. When the WW2 occurred and men left to fight, it was the women of all these countries who ran the workforce. Wars, strangely enough, can be empowering to women. 

Still, I asked myself: Why does women need to acquire masculine qualities to be respected in the society? Why can we not empower the very idea of feminine qualities? These qualities; though not overt has strength in it. Why is elegance only a quality of beauty, why not of strength and respect? 

Anyways, so with topics of war and masculinity versus peace and passivity, we focused on the dilemma that Goldstein articulated, "Activism that brings power in peace versus the concept that peace are for women while war is for men". Interesting, no? With this question, we were joined by the most unexpected group of older women. Actually, I dont want to call them old because I do not like the social connotation that it is associated with aging. The first thing I noticed about them was the way they dressed up. It was almost hippy with all the colorful hats, badges, colorful skits- it was a metaphor of what they stand for. A starking juxtaposition. I also liked the fact that when they talk, they were normal.

I like seeing normal people -people I can relate to- do something special. Often Leaders are put on such high pedastals that they seems too good to be true. But when you see people like yourself achieving great feats, the confidence builds in. Well, well, so the grannies sang us some beautiful songs- songs that have deep political reasonance. Indeed, as we continue our discussion, I realized that many of the grannies possess political maturity- one granny talked about the use of war as a job program-they understand how the laws are passed, how protest are strategically planned- and they talked about facebook and youtube-And the best part, some of then have been to jail and when Catia asked about the experience-she said it was fabulous- all I could do there was sit and smile- it was an inspiring site.

As a closing line, the raging grannies left us with a question to ponder on. Let me widen the circle of ponderers. During the grannies youth, protest movements are mobilised through people and it was the activism that was solid. However, our generation might be activists online but it is hard to point where our efforts go. A letter confirming signature of 5000 people is more effective or say 500 people going to a particular place and protesting? Hm...Good question, no?