Women, Sex and Warzones | Day 1 in London
MOST WANTED – Gillian Anderson and Friends
“There are 3000 of you! Take out your phones. Turn on your flashlights. Hold them up.”
This is Gillian Anderson urging us, and reminding us about the number one reason for this revolutionary evening of MOST WANTED: it is a fundraiser for War Child UK for which Anderson is the ambassador.
And so we sit, with all these lights, still or swaying in a near dark Royal Albert Hall in the middle of London, in silence, in a moment of reflection of realities so different than this one, of children whose homes, families are destroyed by bombs, whose bodies and psyches are in immediate need of safety, of healing, if ever they might restore to human functioning, to basic functions, like… speaking, after having been bombed into walking bombshells, numb, wide eyed, unable to utter a word.
All this at the end of an unforgettable evening dedicated to (for me) another number one reason to hold such evening, another warzone (for many): women’s bodies and sexuality.
“You may wonder how this fits together, women’s sexual fantasies and children in warzones?
Whatever the fuck it takes!!!” Anderson explains short and clear.
So, it takes a host of outrageous, courageous, mostly British actress superstars – Olivia Coleman/Queen Elizabeth takes over the sexy, sultry baton from Anderson, Helen Mirren walks on stage under thunderous applause, Jody Comer and perhaps a dozen others – one after the other reads/performs a letter from Anderson’s book WANT, a compilation of women’s sexual fantasies,
taking the 3000 of us on an exhilarating ride
of fun, flush, heat and hope;
taking the 3000 of us into the deeply private worlds of
outrageous, courageous anonymous women from diverse places on the globe
of diverse backgrounds.
We are touched and taken,
we see, sense, feel those anonymous women
take off their clothes
being taken off their clothes
by their objects of desire –
one or two or who knows how many,
female, queer, male and magical,
able bodied and differently abled bodied,
near and far, acquainted and strangers
with vulvas and penises
or otherwise desire-fulfilling equipment.
Big laughs fill the Hall. Big sighs. Big smiles. Big holding breath at moments of pain.
Grand applauses.
Everything big when 3000 women and a handful of men gather.
What a fantastic evening it was!
Of celebration. Recognition.
Of promise. Of freedom.
Of times changing?
It gives me hope. It reminds me that the topic of sexuality is still allowed to be spoken of and has a chance to evolve. That women have carved rights and roles and positions we were denied in the past.
So much happening in this world, in dazzling speed!
The newest terrible war began only a week ago.
Yet, women, men, queers marched and spoke and renewed the spirit for change and justice in many cities last Sunday, International Women’s Day.
It Is Still Necessary! says the sign of a dear friend of mine in the march in Amsterdam.
Yet, MOST WANTED would not have been possible 10 or even 5 years ago.
The sound of solidarity lives.
And we need it badly.
No-one better in expressing this as Dame Tracey Emin in Tate Modern.
See Further Dive: Women, Sex and Warzones | Day 2 in London
