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Rebecca Solnit refuses to be silenced in 'Whose Story Is This?'

Rebecca Solnit refuses to be silenced in 'Whose Story Is This?'

In 2008, writer and activist Rebecca Solnit published her essay “Men Explain Things to Me.” Based on an anecdote of an encounter with a man so intellectually oblivious that he doesn’t realize he’s referencing Ms. Solnit’s own book to impress her, it formed the thematic backbone of her 2014 essay collection of the same name.


"WHOSE STORY IS THIS? OLD CONFLICTS, NEW CHAPTERS"
By Rebecca Solnit
Haymarket Books ($15.95).

It also inspired the term “mansplaining” — a term The New York Times defined as “a man compelled to explain or give an opinion about everything — especially to a woman” when it proclaimed mansplain one of its “Words of the Year” in 2010. Although the author has distanced herself from that term, the viral nature of that initial essay has both informed and influenced contemporary feminism.

Her newest book, “Whose Story Is This?,” is a sort of spiritual successor to “Men Explain Things to Me.” While men generally still dominate the stories we hear in the media (leading to the silencing of the stories of women and people of color), the surge of women’s voices heard via the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements has inspired Ms. Solnit to examine why, at this moment in history, victims of sexual harassment or assault are finally being believed.

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A thought-provoking and accessible exploration of the roles social and cultural narratives play in our thinking about gender, race, history and more, the 20 essays in “Whose Story Is This?” collectively make the case that #MeToo and other current forms of social activism are not isolated incidents, but rather the result of slowly shifting ideas of what is, and isn’t, acceptable behavior, and the increasing willingness to give voice to those who were previously voiceless.

“It’s easy now to assume that one’s perspectives on race, gender, orientation and the rest are signs of inherent virtue,” Ms. Solnit writes in the opening essay. She goes on to point out that increasingly progressive attitudes are the result of decades of activism by innumerable individuals; attitudes that were once acceptable grow less attractive as more voices speak up against them. Once-dominant narratives — that rape or sexual assault only happens to women who aren’t “careful,” that allowing same-sex marriage would destroy the idea of a nuclear family, that hard work is all anyone needs to be successful — have increasingly come under fire as the internet and media give exposure to dissenting voices and enable social activism.

Yet, as Ms. Solnit points out, just because some dominant narratives are losing their credibility doesn’t mean they’ve disappeared completely, and just because dissenting stories are given serious consideration today doesn’t mean they’ll still be given serious consideration tomorrow.

Indeed, the onslaught of harmful narratives Ms. Solnit identifies can certainly feel overwhelming; from the prioritization of the comfort of alleged sexual abusers over justice for their victims to the demonization of ambitious women whose behaviors would be congratulated if they were men, one can feel as if the work to be done is so vast and complicated that it may not even be possible to change those narratives.

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The author counteracts that pessimism by reminding readers that the big societal changes we’ve seen in the past decade have been the result of years and years of smaller moments that changed the way we look at the world. Anita Hill’s testimony regarding the sexual harassment she allegedly experienced at the hands of Justice Clarence Thomas at his confirmation hearing in 1991 didn’t stop him from joining the Supreme Court; it did, however, make those watching at home aware of the concept of sexual harassment and what it looks like, which then increased the number of employees willing to speak out about their own experiences with harassment, which led to workplaces explicitly forbidding that behavior.

In fact, it is this gradual social change that Ms. Solnit seeks to encourage, and it gives “Whose Story Is This?” a sense of unabashed optimism. “We need hope and purpose and membership in a community beyond the nuclear family,” she reminds us in the essay “A Hero Is a Disaster.” She continues: “This connection is both personally fulfilling and is also how we get stuff done that needs to be done.”

Writing with hope and purpose herself, Ms. Solnit reminds us that even when activism fails to achieve its immediate goal, it succeeds in giving inspiration to other people who want to change the world. In a social climate where anger and isolationism take precedent, it’s an incredibly necessary reminder that ultimately the story of the United States is the story of every single person in it.

Wendeline O. Wright is a member of the National Book Critics Circle (wendywright@gmail.com).

First Published: November 30, 2019, 3:00 p.m.

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Rebecca Solnit, author of "Whose Story is this?"
"Whose Story is This?" by Rebeca Solnit.
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