Our Shared Shelf discussion

Hello everyone!

In her interview of Rebecca Solnit, Emma Watson shows a map of New York with underground stations named after women. This map made by Rebecca Solnit reveals a clear point: many places are name after men, and mostly white men.
Rebecca told Emma one day she asked her students what it would do if streets were named after women, people of colour and so on.
The two young women's answer are impactful as well as full of hope.
One says she would walk straight in a city, meaning she would feel included, while the other wonders if a man would sexually harass her in a street named after a woman. (those answers made me speechless, I was just nodding at those words while thinking this truth would be such a good punchline to show a better way for the future).

This is quite revealing and it shows that even the streets we walk in every day are tagged with white men males names.

So, I suppose it's fair to ask the community the question Rebecca asked her students:

What would you feel if the streets name were more inclusive, if the places of your cities were equally named after women, transgender women, transgender men, lesbians, gays, queers, intersex, with a colorful landscape of culture?

We had a very similar "movement" last year, I think, in Zagreb, Croatia. The group who established it fought for the inclusion of important women into the system of street names. Also, they figured out that there are only max. 5 statues of women in the city.

I must admit, that I never really stopped to consider this question (going automatically through the streets of our cities as most of us do), but it's definitely a worthy one. On the other hand, when I working (I'm a tour guide in my city), I try to accentuate the stories of important women ( the story of the first Croatian professional female journalist, Zagorka) or women in general (e.g. the story of the prosecution of witches).

I enjoyed looking at the maps in the book "Whose story is this" for that very purpose.

Keith wrote: ""One says she would walk straight in a city, meaning she would feel included, while the other wonders if a man would sexually harass her in a street named after a woman."

I think this is a very small point. What Rebecca is asking is for her audience to extrapolate life for decades with the impression that women hold value; beyond unamed muses, nurturers, and caretakers.

It's not just a name of a street. It's the long-term eulogy and memorialization of someone's acts. With the idea being that if we were to see more women as historically important then it wouldn't be odd to see women as people today.

To break it down a little bit more, sexual harassment xcetera is not about sexual interest so much as it's about power. The idea that you can get away with this while the other person has to just deal with it.

Solnit proposes that if a couple generations grew up with the idea that women were important enough to be memorialized as street names or Parks or States then would we still have this imbalance? Where most sexual harassment abuse and rape is caused by a person in power over someone they deem powerless; where statistically speaking it's men harming women.

Would sexual harassment still be around if generations grew up thinking that women were powerful and worth remembering. Would would there still be a societally reinforced notion of weaker sexes?

Yeah. I hear that. Solnit gets points for at least mentioning POC or some of the heinous crimes of yore unlike some of of our other white female feminist writers (Moran, Penny)

She does mention "who is meant by "we" is crucial to any place in the monument. Colonizers often begin by renaming the places they arrived in and decolonization always involves undoing this." At least here in the States, that's pretty helpful as we honor the native names of places or we remove the ones named after people considered bad news today like good old Chris Columbus.

I am eagerly looking forward to non westerns to jump in. I know Mulan has a statue in China. But I'm not familiar with street names or monuments for famous women elsewhere.

So what's out there OSS?

Keith wrote: "Lets take the premis of powerful women. One would have to assume they need to be the 'right kind of women?'

For example, I very much doubt there would be much cheering for a 'Sarah Palin Avenue' in feminist ranks, despite the fact it can't be denied she had power (and may still have) and that she will be remembered. Conservatives could beg to differ and therefore it comes down to who makes the decision."

Palin probably won't be given a statue or have a road named after her; maybe for her role as Governor of Alaska. But she failed in securing the VP position and then she left her post as Governor for a book deal. I think the public prefers nostalgia of old over something still fresh in our collective consciousness.

Nancy Astor, for example, she was the first at something and won, and recently honored. And I'm not sure if it was Astor's statue or a different one, but I thought I recall reading that there was a vote of who the town wished to memorialize. So it's up to the people somewhat.

I know here in my big city the council renames a few streets after local heroes. The metrics to be memorialized include:

Among the new requirements:

- Individuals must be deceased for at least two years or be retired at least 10 years from a distinguished career or have made an accomplishment or contribution to the city or region.
- Organizations should be in operation for at least 25 years and should be of major importance to the city.
- A street receiving an honorary designation must be in the sponsoring council member’s ward and the honorary street cannot exceed one block.
- The designation will expire in 10 years.
- Council members will be limited to two honorary street names during a four-year term.
- If the designation involves a residential street, the request must be accompanied by signatures from 70 percent of the property owners.
- Made significant contributions in arts, science, religion, entertainment philanthropic, or business.
- Generously volunteered time and effort for the betterment of the city, state or nation.
- Served with distinction in the United States armed forces or community safety forces.

We have a few Congresswomen named, a nun, and a banker. A start, bit still too few for parity

Astor: Yikes. That is pretty heinous.

Blind Veterans: a beauty tribute. Also I love the dry sense of humor from the one vet "as you can imagine, it ruined my Wednesday morning"

I think that goes to show WHY monuments tend to be about ideas or historical moments more than real people. Ideas can't let you down nor have hideous goals.

I very much agree with some points you brought. However, as a white male I prefer to read and wait for people who would bring more relevant input than me.
I sparked the discussion, I'm not quite sure I could do something more "useful" since I clearly have not enough knowledge or experience due to my sex and my origin.

I'm eager to read more comments in that thread from many different background. To be honest, that's why I create threads here. To learn from you all and sometimes to bring questions or piece of information 😉

Hi, I live in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium) and apparently 85 percent of the streets named after people is named after men and only 15 percent after women.

On 26 february 2019, Sofie Lemaire launched the call #meervrouwopstraat (morewomenonthestreet). She spent a year looking for women from recent and less recent history. Women who deserve a place in our collective memory. And even better: a place in the street.

Between the entries there appeared to be a lot of names of women who never made it to the history books, often incorrectly. They are all women with a unique life story, an unmistakable achievement or an oeuvre that should not be forgotten.
Some examples are:
Willy De Bruyn: a transgender athlete; Suzan Daniel: an icon for the LGBTQ + community; Isala Van Diest: the first female doctor in Belgium (she was refused access to the university in Leuven at the time, so she obtained her diploma at a Swiss university); Yvonne Nevejean: she saved 4000 children during the Second World War; Mala Zimetbaum: during her imprisonment in Auschwitz-Birkenau, she saved countless others from the gas chambers; Jeanne De Beir: a spy during the First World War ... and so many more talented, heroic women who deserve a tribute.

I don't know why, but it makes me proud to be surrounded by the names of these women. It gives me the feeling that I can achieve anything I want to achieve, they seem to encourage me - I don't know if I'm making any sense haha.