The Orb Web 2.0: A Platform to Promote Dignity for All

I find the oppression of women unbearable. I live in a free society and see the perpetuation of women’s oppression in all facets of life – with the misuse of tradition, culture, religion and the media as tools of justification and acceleration.
I use the freedom I enjoy as a western woman to speak out about what cannot be tolerated against any human being. I honor the courage that women in other societies demonstrate each day to protect their families and respect the risk they take to speak their truth. I humbly amplify the experiences and stories of women in a free world to illustrate the challenges, paradoxes, corruption and possibilities of an affluent, privileged society.

Women live in a web that is the natural pattern of life. We share stories, joys, heartbreaks, challenges and breakthroughs. We seek each other out. It is our way. Storytelling is how we survive. We offer our news, our dreams and our worries. We weave together our families and communities as well. The web is strong – as in a spider’s web which is durable, resilient and flexible. Among the most amazing of spider webs – is the orb web – which is concentric and spiraling. And the largest of all the orb webs are the ones spun by communal spiders. We have much to learn from nature and we have this opportunity to spin ourselves together as a large web so that we can hold much more than we now think is possible.

I am an older woman who uses my voice to share and think together with other women and especially younger women who in their bodies carry to seeds of the next generation. I listen and learn from younger women and stand at their backs. I will be certain that the reason there are only 16% of global news stories that focus on women or that almost half (48%) of all news stories reinforce gender stereotypes – is not because I remained silent and invisible when I have the ability to speak out without fear of harm.

Web 2.0 makes it possible for women to share even more, to strengthen and amplify our voices and through it we can rise up and claim our dignity. Web 2.0 creates a place to deposit ideas and points of view and mix them together to accelerate our hopes. It is a place to share stories that break our hearts open to each other to accelerate intolerance for what should not have ever been allowed to happen to any of us. And to amplify the fact that what happens to one of us – happens to all of us.