The flames of Women’s Rights

Eternal, or going down?

I went to the annual Planned Parenthood/ProChoiceOregon Roe v. Wade anniversary event on Tuesday. In previous years it’s been a fancy dinner with a high ticket price, for a fundraiser. This year, 35 years after the Supreme Court decision was announced, legalizing a woman’s right to make medical decisions with her health care providers, organizers chose a more casual approach and a $10 entrance “suggested donation”. The happy result was that many more young people participated. It was good to see information tables about worthy organizations, including Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls (and women), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, as well as the sponsoring groups. One young volunteer filled out her Voter Registration card while sitting behind the table. So encouraging to older women like me who have been working for equality for decades.

So why the photograph and title above? The right to choose when and if to become a parent in the United States is a flickering flame. Speakers in the program talked about the US Supreme Court, where women’s rights hang by a slender 5-4 majority. One of the five is Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 87 years old. Millions of women in the United States still lack access to health care and family planning services. And outside the courts and the issue of freedom of individuals to make health care choices with medical practitioners, women still face unequal challenges in our society. Many examples were given; the one that stuck in my mind is that only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies’ Chief Executive Officers are women. Twelve, in five hundred.

The program described how women’s hopes and even lives have been extinguished by Federal and local laws and practices… then called for us all to get fired up about the struggle for justice. Illustrating the point: a fire-spinning performance by a smiling young woman, twirling first balls of fire on chains, then a hula-hoop encircled with flaming pots. I’ve attended outdoor fire-spinning jams with Steve, my husband, here in Portland – even outside, it brings out the nurse and mother in me as I watch with fascination while pondering actions for an emergency. Indoors, I was even more anxious, and focused on the woman’s face instead of the flames – in part, thinking to myself, “I bet Steve has a photograph of this performer I can post on my blog. I’ll make sure I recognize her from the hundreds of fire-spinning photos in his archives.”

I left after her performance, unable to stay for the music because I’d promised my daughter I would return home before her bedtime to watch the tapes of the previous night’s A Daily Show and Colbert Report with her. And what was the very first picture I saw on the Digital Photograph frame by our kitchen. loaded with hundreds of images cycling through? This one.

It’s shireen, of FlameBuoyant Productions. Turns out she literally helped write the book on indoor fire-spinning safety, so I needn’t have worried.

“shireen has pursued her lifelong interest in movement arts through training in yoga, dance, circus arts and aerial dance. She has been dancing with fire since 1999, and is known for her fluid style, innovative movements and mesmerizing performances.

Vital to the development of the fire performance community in Portland, she instituted the Community Fire and Drum Jam in November 2000 and has led Oregon’s conclave to Burning Man since its inception in 2002. Because of her commitment to both safety and the community, the Portland Fire Department relied on shireen to assist them in updating and revising Portland’s fire performance art codes.

An accomplished teacher as well as performer, she has taught poi spinning, fire skills and safety to students of all ages from the Portland Saturday Market to the beaches of India to the National Circus School in Cambodia.”

The struggle for equality in the United States is far from over. Each of us can and must do more. Women like shireen make pushing the limits more fun.