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When those words were spat at me recently, I could have replied, “Not often enough.” Instead I blurted,
“I act like one.”
Ever since, it has been resonating for me - as an actor turned director - because throughout my regular creative process, I continually ask, “what are you doing?” rather than “how are you feeling?” It digs deeper into the discovery of the truth in the story. It challenges the actor to bring about change within that story.
For me, being a feminist is the same as being an artist. It doesn’t feel like a choice I made so much as a calling I accepted and pursued.
It’s part of who I am and, likewise, I understand that each person’s feminism looks different to mine. So I realized that in my instinctive self-defense, I was describing what feminism means to me.
I work with words. I admire their potential for inspiration. But when it comes to revolution, the words must be backed up by repeated, sustained, and increasingly forward actions before they achieve any real power or result. Otherwise, the words remain as aspirations. Those words can be found almost anywhere. Those words don’t stand for much at all.
If feminism aims to achieve equity for all people, society still has a ways to go. Equity doesn’t exist in any environment I have worked, played, or rested in, not by a long shot. Some people have experienced their rights being rolled back, as easily as department store prices. Some haven’t yet achieved any equitable rights and freedoms. There’s an awful lot left to do.
I can’t help but wonder, “what if” we start applying the rehearsal room technique to feminism?
Whenever there is a conversation about inequity, simply ask, “what are you doing?” Then listen for the answers, investigate the subtext, and watch for the underlying action. Perhaps that approach will give us all a better understanding of what feminism means within our community.
Ruth Lawrence
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Ruth Lawrence is a director, writer and actor in film, theatre, and opera. She is Vice-Chair of the Women's Work Festival, a vital St. John's-based festival dedicated to the development and celebration of new works by women and marginalized genders. Learn more here.