Savior Barbie: Rethinking ethics of social transformation

I was recently taken by a recent social media phenomenon on Instagram and Twitter, Savior Barbie.  It was featured in a recent Huffington Post blog that resonated with me. Here are the links so you can see what this phenomenon is about for yourself.  It inspired me to write this blog.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-savior-barbie-hilariously-parodies-volunteer-selfies-in-africa_us_570fd4b5e4b03d8b7b9fc464

https://www.instagram.com/barbiesavior/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/search?q=savior%20barbie&src=typd

Savior Barbie, makes the point with humor, that most well meaning social justice tourists, more interested in easing their own social conscience rather than providing meaningful assistance,  often perpetuate rather than alleviate the exploitation of those who are already suffering.  As Savior Barbie humorously points out, it's mostly about me.

Before I elaborate further,  a disclaimer and a qualification.  I was one of those eager young people back in the day who traveled around the world for 14 months to over 20 countries and interviewed aid workers and missionaries from a range of backgrounds, white and nonwhite, indigenous as well as foreign, from a range of religious and nonreligious perspectives.  I even co-wrote and published a book about my adventures in 1992.  I sometimes cringe at what my younger self wrote, but as one of the main tenents of an ethics of flourishing  is that identity is fluid and ever changing, mine definitely has been and is.  So just as I allow others the grace to evolve and change, I hope you all as my readers will afford me the same grace.  :-)   So, while I identify with those savior barbies out there who have well meaning intentions, I also know that well meaning intentions aren't enough.  And they can often end up in doing more harm than good.  This what I want to unpack below.

My trip was life-changing for me and led to me being involved in international aid work and human rights advocacy and ethics which has been my focus, vocation and passion for the past 24+ years.  I, myself, have been on a journey.  I started out as a naive, ethnocentric, 27 year old white barbie.  I've been on a journey in which I'm now a feminist moral philosopher who is now attempting to develop a more helpful moral framework.  My journey has involved doing an MA and an MPhil in the political implications of a feminist moral framework that focuses on promoting human flourishing rather than on the salvation model which informs more humanitarianism, development and social care policies than not.l

Also, please let me state from the outset that I really think every American and British person (I was born in the States and became a naturalized British citizen and now have dual nationality so I am mainly referring to my two countries, although this would apply to citizens of the rest of Europe as well, not to mention Australians and New Zealanders), should travel to other countries and experience different cultures.  If one goes with an open mind, travel broadens one's perspective and shows that there are many different ways of looking at the word and ways in which to address social problems.  I have met people who have not gone with an open mind and they are often even more xenophobic and set in their cultural biases than when they left.  I think of the stereotypes of the ugly American and the ugly Brit.  I am not against young people, or people of any age for that matter,  going abroad to do short-term projects per se.  It's more about the attitudes and the kinds of projects that are the most helpful and most ethical that I'm concerned about and will address below.

In my research and writing on the importance of ethics in addressing social injustices whether at home or abroad, the savior/rescue approach is something about which I have extensively researched, and reflected.  I have written an MPhil thesis, countless blog post and articles on ethics.  A critique of the savior approach features heavily in a book I'm currently writing in which I address the hidden ethical assumptions to well-meaning approaches to social change like Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability, to international humanitarianism and economic development, to politics, and to business.  In the book I will be developing what kind of moral framework is needed for addressing today's intractable social issues here and abroad.  It's a cross-cultural, cross-religious, cross-sector approach to ethics.  It essentially involves an drawing up an ethic of flourishing which I've written a little about already on this site.

One aspect of an ethic of flourishing is that the 'great white savior' model of helping others is unethical and actually perpetuates injustice.  Below I will unpack some of the hidden assumptions behind the well meaning rescue/savior model of helping, explain some of the ways in which I think it is unethical and then sketch out a more helpful model for how well meaning people can better assist people who are suffering from different forms of injustice.

First of all a savior model assumes that people need to be rescued from the outside by experts who know better.  By virtue of being from the west and often white, these 'white saviors' swoop in and presume to know what is best.. This view objectifies the rescuees while at the same time reinforcing false notions of the cultural and ethnic superiority of the rescuers.  In this model the people to be rescued become objectified:  they are objects to be rescued and their sole identity becomes that of victim, rather than as a complex human being who is suffering in complex ways.   It ignores the fact that people are surprisingly resilient, have inner resources, and have some expertise already about what they're going through.

The individuals concerned in as the recipients of the munificence of Savior Barbie depicted in the Instagram pictures, are actually from many different African nations, each of which have their own unique cultural identities, religions, languages and social problems.  Not all of Africa is one homogeneous mass of suffering and poverty,  In fact many African nations have a growing and prosperous middle class that have more in common with middle class British or American citizens than they do with people from more impoverished socio-economic classes in their own country)   have ideas of what is needed to address these complex problems.  Nairobi, Kenya, is full of young people who have smart phones, are social media savvy and have access to satellite television and listen to the same kinds of music and watch some of the same American and British television programs that you and I do!  When I was in Bethlehem to do research in on peace building in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, I met middle class Palestinians who watched Oprah and Dr Phil on a regular basis.

People who are suffering from poverty and a range of social injustices are experts on what they need, but the savior model presumes that those 'white' (and they don't need to be white actually) saviors from the outside are the experts and have the monopoly on knowledge.  Nonwhite women who are in cultures where forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour based violence, experts about these issues and their culture are now speaking out about these issues.  See Karma Nirvana  https://www.karmanirvana.org.uk/ and the Sister Hood for examples of this https://www.facebook.com/sister.hood.magazine/?fref=nf

An example of well meaning intentions not addressing the issue is that of well meaning aid workers in the 1990 and early 2000's who wanted to the problem of the huge numers of  girl orphans in China due to China's one child policy.  Boys were preferable as they didn't leave home when they got married and due to the lack of a state pension system at the time, boys were the guarantee that parents would be provided for later in life.  This was one of the reasons that parents often put their girl babies up for adoption so they could try again and have boys.  Some international agencies' solution was to create and promote adoption agencies whereby these unwanted girls could be adopted into good homes. This was helpful in the short run as many unwanted girls were given good homes.  However, that solution doesn't address the real problem which is a cultural preference for boys. Rather, it perpetuated and actually facilitated a market for trafficking girl babies and perpetuated the root cause of the problem.  More preferable solutions would be ones that could address the cultural preferences for boys and poverty.  Rather than adopting girl babies, the question was more how can international agencies help China address rural poverty, its one child policy and gender inequality?

Rather than creating one group of people who are the experts, the helpers, the saviors, and another group that are the objects of help, the victims, or the rescuees, it is important to see everyone first and foremost as human beings.  As human beings we will all need help and assistance at some point in life and as human beings we will also be in the position to help our fellow human beings in a time of need.  As human beings we are inherently resilient and the idea is more about how to come alongside someone and help them address their own problems and enhance their resilience rather than create unhealthy dependency on you and your solutions as the rescuer.  We are all in this together and we are unable to solve the complex problems of modern society on our own.

We need the knowledge and expertise of everyone, from business, from charity, the public sector, from the grass roots, to work together.   People are not objects and should not be objectified or seen as commodities.  Too often health care systems and international  development become industries with human beings becoming resources and commodities; cogs in the system, rather than inherently and intrinsically valuable as natals (all natals means is focusing on the fact that we are all born into this world, naked and vulnerable into a web of human relationships), as human beings, not human doings. Humans, in their inherent creativity and resilience, from all ethnic backgrounds, races, genders, dis/abilities, countries, political parties, socio-economic systems, transcend the system with their inherent imagination, creativity and humanity.  We should never forget that!

One great example of helping in a way that promotes resiliency is the peer support model of mental health, where people meet together to discuss their common issues and problems and listen to one another with empathy and without judgement.  People help each other whilst feeling supported.  They're able to avail themselves of a social support network, something that the evidence shows is beneficial and crucial to boosting one's mental health.  The savior/rescuee model can be very judgmental as the outside experts are the ones who are deemed to be the ones who know what is right and what are the right answers.  It marginalizes the knowledge and expertise of those who are there on the ground experiencing the issues.   It ignores the unique history, culture, complex social mix, the different religious views and voices even within one religious tradition, as to what has created the problem and what possible resources exist within the culture to address it.

The focus in the peer group support model is built on this notion that all people are resilient and on the idea of reciprocity.  Similarly, the moral values we need to focus on rather than rescuing or even caring which perpetuate a hierarchy of value where the one helping is more human, more valuable and more of an expert than the one that is being helped, are also those of reciprocity and resilience.  Above I spoke a little  bit about resilience, but now I  will unpack reciprocity more below.  It is a value which recognizes first and foremost that human beings are resilient and are born with inner resources.

Reciprocity is recognizing first and foremost that we are all human and we all come into this world, naked and vulnerable.  It's a recognition when we see someone who is suffering such as the Syrian refugees, that there but for the grace of god, go I.  Reciprocity is about recognizing that at some point in our lives we will be vulnerable and in need of help.

Who among us has a perfect life?  We might be struck down by a terminal illness, we might lose our job, our partner might leave us, we might be in a car accident that leaves us with life-changing injuries. It's about humility and a recognition that we don't have all the answers to all the world's problems.  Reciprocity is about seeing people who come from different backgrounds as similar to us in their humanity.

Reciprocity is about empathy not sympathy.   Empathy is about imagining what its actually like to walk a mile in someone else's shoes rather than throwing someone a dollar or a pound in sympathy but quickly looking away and not letting yourself be emotionally effected by another's suffering.  Reciprocity is about listening and learning.  It's about genuinely listening to people who are suffering about their situation, the reasons for their suffering and what they think is most helpful to them to alleviate the situation, not presuming that you have all the answers.

Finally reciprocity is about allowing yourself to be challenged and transformed by the lives of others.  A close relative of mine recently went on a church trip to the Dominican Republic.  She came back transformed by the lives she encountered, by those who were so different from her in some ways, but at the end of the day, so human, just like she is. She clearly saw that they have the same dreams and hopes she does for a meaningful and significant life and that just like her, they all want a better life for their children.  Her world view was hugely expanded to encompass beyond her immediate church and her immediate community.  Her transformation reminded me of my early transformation and her transformation is ongoing.   It has been a catalyst for a lifelong journey.  She is currently thinking about what to do next and knows her responsibility didn't end with the trip.

My hope  is that if you do go on a gap  year to do a short term aid project or go on a short term mission project that you won't see it as a short-term fix to your own guilty conscience but that you'll go with the attitude that you'll listen, learn, be empathetic, and at the end of the day allow yourself to be transformed and allow yourself to go on a life long journey where you end up asking what next?    And I hope you'll only go with agencies that have this same approach, that don't set themselves up as the experts with all the answers, but that go to learn, facilitate, understand, listen, empathize and genuinely support the resilience and becoming of those whom they go to work along side.

If you have any questions about which is which, don't hesitate to respond to this blog.   I will work up a list of helpful links and publish them at a later date, so stay tuned.

(I have also published this blog at https://sophiacommunications.org/blog/savior-barbie/