I'm sitting here with my curling iron warming up and my dress aching for me to steam some wrinkles out of it before tonight's Party With a Purpose to raise money for the upcoming PWCL PSA, and I got to thinking. If you work in the anti-violence movement like we do, how do you explain to people what you do?
I got to thinking about this because I attended a party last weekend where I struggled to explain my job in a really simple and effective way, especially without sounding jaded or like I'm speaking jibberish. Tonight I plan to talk to others about the work that we do at PWCL, so I wanted to write a blog to get some feedback from others who do this work to see how you field these questions.
What do you do with blank stares, or even worse, when people apologize or tell you that they feel bad for you because of your job?
So I guess this is much like when we asked you months ago to put "rape culture" into laymen's terms. How do we put DV/SA work into laymen's terms without sounding self righteous, jaded, or just plain confusing?
P.S. If you haven't heard about Safety In Numbers 2008 or the upcoming PSA project, please check out the PWCL website for more information and info on how to buy tickets!
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i think saying something like "i work to end violence in our society by empowering and supporting women" is effective and simple, and sounds optimistic which would help with the blank stares. this also allows people to ask you to expound or not. i usually say something to that effect, but with "youth" instead of women.
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