Shemekia Copeland’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo: Rising up against violence to women

Shemekia Copeland’s 7th album, 33 1/3, released last year, features that fantastically powerful voice, but now well under control and nuanced for the variety of songs on the album. Devon “Doc” Wendell in The International Review of Music, said that it was …”one of the most powerful and poignant blues albums I’ve ever heard.”One of the songs on the album entitled Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo and featuring Buddy Guy on lead guitar, courageously highlights the subject of domestic violence. The woman in the song is determined not to be a victim of her abusive man any longer – she is going to stand up for herself and not let herself. “The bruise on my face was as blue as my dress” she sings, but – no more:

“Ain’t gonna be your tattoo
End up faded and blue
Ain’t gonna be your tattoo”

Domestic violence is something suffered by women all over the planet. In the United States, the US Bureau of Justice found that family violence accounted for up to 33% of all violent crime; 2 out of every 5 incidents go unreported. According to Amnesty International, domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. And in Russia in 1999 and again in 2002, authorities estimate more than 14,000 women were murdered at the hands of a spouse or family member. A survey by the General Union of Women and UNIFEM found that one in four married women in Syria are abused, in 70% of the cases by her husband or father. The story is the same, from all parts of the world – a shockingly high number of women are the victims of the domestic violence that Shemekia has highlighted.

But consider this for a moment: one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten during her lifetime. All over our world, women are suffering rape, violence, trafficking, slavery, exploitation, genital mutilation. The statistics are shocking.

We have all watched with horror the news of the gang-rape in Delhi recently and seen how one society is beginning to face up to the deeply embedded cultural and physical abuse of girls and women. And at the case of Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head for insisting that girls have the right to be educated. Here in the UK, we’ve been learning how broadcaster Jimmy Saville was able to abuse hundreds of girls over six decades, while the the BBC turned a blind eye.  And in the US the trial will soon begin of two high school star football players for the alleged gang rape of a 16 year old girl, while there is another investigation going on into charges of sexual assault against Notre Dame football players – perhaps unsurprising when we note that in the United States, there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes. From South Africa to Korea to Colorado, we seem to be witnessing a tsunami of violence against women.

Eve Ensler,  American playwright and feminist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues recently said,

“There is a rape culture – a mindset that seems to have infected every aspect of our lives: the raping of the Earth through ecological destruction by the corporate powerful, pillaging resources for their own coffers with no concern for the Earth, or the indigenous peoples, or the notion of reciprocity; the rape of the poor through exploitation, land grabs, neglect; the rape of women’s bodies through physical violence and commodification, where a girl can be purchased for less than the cost of a mobile phone. The modelling and licensing of this rape culture is done by those protected by power and privilege – presidents, celebrities, sports stars, police officers, television executives, priests – with impunity”.

To highlight what is going on in our world, women and men all over the world will be participating in the largest ever day of action on this issues – it’s called ONE BILLION RISING and is aimed at ending violence against women and girls. (So called because with the world population at 7 billion, the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS). So on February 14, 2013, activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and women and men across the world will express their outrage, demand change, strike, dance in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.  There are over 80 events taking place in the UK and hundreds across the US, as well as in 182 countries in every continent on the planet.

Check out this terrific video promoting the day of action:

Blues music doesn’t have a glowing record in terms of the ways in which women have often been portrayed and the violence against women that has been celebrated. But there have always been strong women in the blues, right from the early days. These days we have a strong, stellar cast of women, including Bonnie Raitt, Samantha Fish, Ana Popovic, Carolyn Wonderland, Grace Potter, Beth Hart, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Rory Block, Sandi Thom, Dani Wilde, Susan Tedeschi, Debbie Davies…the list goes on (apologies if I’ve left out your favourite!). If you don’t know these artists – check them out.

The violence perpetrated against women, across the globe is appalling and unacceptable. Until women are equal, safe and free, no society can prosper and life is diminished. Ending violence against women and girls is one of the central concern of our times.

Let’s leave the final word with Shemekia:

“Slipped out of the room trying not to be seen
I was feeling so scared, no where to go
How did my life end up so low
Said I looked to pretty on his arm
Same one he used to do me harm”

BUT,

“Ain’t gonna be your tattoo
End up faded and blue
Ain’t gonna be your tattoo”

First posted at http://downatthecrossroads.wordpress.com