The beginning was sparked by something someone thought a small thing, a forgotten thing, unimportant; memory's dirty little cigarette butt. Overlooked long ago. A highly sexual recorded commentary about women as articulated by a current American presidential contender. What he would do to them and what he thought of them, when he did at all. Rape culture writ large.
Comments flicked to the side of the road of a political campaign nearing climax. Suddenly fanned by a minority now major however, the small thing caught alight. It might have fallen into a wet puddle or a dewy lawn but instead it fell where the earth was raw, dry and ready. For too long strong winds had buffeted the landscape, and the undergrowth was tinder. Conditions were ripe.
A still from the now infamous Trump tape.Credit:Washington Post
In response to Donald Trump's comments about assaulting women, a Canadian writer by the name of Kelly Oxford (@kellyoxford) posted her experiences of sexual assault on Twitter and invited other women to share theirs.
By Sunday afternoon there were 9.7 million reply posts. There will be more now. The stories of rape, assault and unwelcome physical advances strung between the two are horrible to read; overwhelming. Personal stories from women living all over the planet, told in their own words, unedited, in 140 characters or fewer. Each woman shed her blood and opened a wound afresh. The spark had taken flight.
Fires burn all before them – weeds and trees alike become fuel. And flames run faster uphill. It's as if they like a challenge. Some say burning periodically is good for the land. Others mourn the loss of existing infrastructure and environment. None however can be untouched by the heat, the flames and the gritty air, the rank taste of ashes in the mouth.
At the Bendigo Writers Festival a month or so ago, Anne Summers motioned to a full house that she waited for the day when the next wave of feminism would arise.
Watching my Twitter feed over the weekend just gone, I thought of Summers and wondered what she was making of all this. I also thought of Clementine Ford, whose Facebook and commentary I follow and whose book Fight Like a Girl has just been released. It may well be the book Summers has been waiting for.
Something is changing. This week one male voice spurred millions of female voices to reply in a chorus. I've not seen that before. In sharing their memories, each woman responding to @kellyoxford's call to arms broke their silence and stood strong on the giant shoulders of those who went before her, a mere scroll down the same page. Many were speaking about their pain for the first time. It was as if each tweet added a layer to the weight of dry fuel on the ground. What is happening here?
Like a wildfire in an Australian summer, with its terrible thickening heat on a late February day, social, cultural and political change requires certain conditions to spread: the right temperature, fuel, a spark and the absence of rain; and most importantly, momentum. Perhaps change for women will be made possible through the capacity for collective action of social media. Perhaps something has begun. We can't see for the smear of smoke haze; this fire has only just sunk in its teeth.
Is it time to fan the flames?
Katherine Beard is a lawyer and writer.