I havent written in a while. Letting some of this just sink in. Trying not to "fly off the handle" at every little thing that concerns me. Doing my best to "give it a chance". And I guess that's going ok. maybe. probably. most days. but i decided that today, on international women's day, it was time to break the radio silence. because what is happening IS important. and not just today. EVERY day.
"Feminism isn't about making women strong. Women are already strong. It's about changing the way the world perceives that strength." —G.D. Anderson
the thing that personally i find super crazy right now is all of the division seems to be getting WORSE. i dont know if the "us vs them" mentality was always a part of the everyday vernacular, but if it was, i missed it. and as it pertains to my narrow little scope today, women are caught in the middle. here is what i mean. i never considered myself radical in my beliefs. im pretty moderate actually. for the most part. but now, it would seem, i am one of "them" - the radical feminists. the ones who put "these" into "these women". these women who dont know their place. these women who should just shut up. these women who are making too much of this whole thing. these women who should just go back to doing what their men want. keep quiet. look pretty. take care of your house and your kids. leave the important stuff to the people who know better. inferring, of course, that I dont know better.
Don't shut yourself up in a bandbox because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take your part in the world's work, for it all affects you and yours. ~Louisa May Alcott, Little Women,
and it pisses me off that everytime i see or hear something about "these" women - its from ANOTHER WOMAN. it makes me crazy. when are we going to stop? we are ALL "these" women. we dont have to agree to what constitutes femininity. we dont have to agree on every single issue - or any of them really. it is our right to fundamentally disagree with each other on just about anything. but we must do so with RESPECT. using the term "THESE" implies the negative. and a general disrespect for whatever follows next - racists, assholes, degenerates....women. why do this to ourselves? women - ALL WOMEN - deserve respect. PERIOD.
we are more than half of the population. we nurture the future - literally. how is it that the most important job on the planet - raising children - is "best left" to women? yet "these" same women are not competent enough to think for themselves? or make decisions for their own bodies? or run the government? they are not deserving of equal pay? or your respect for making choices different from your own? why must we constantly put down and deride those who differ from us?
"For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious - or whatever we please. We are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution." -Naomi Wolf
i have an idea. how about only the women who actually stand up - "these" women - get the benefits of what we are standing up for. how about "WE" get equal pay. we get freedom of choice. all the rest of "you" women can just stay quiet. keep your 70 cents on the dollar. let your men make choices about your body for you. i mean, you wouldnt want to be associated with "these" women now, would you?
i would much rather my 3 boys look at their mother and say, she STOOD up for herself. and even better, she STOOD up for what was right. i am not saying you have to want the same things that i want. I am saying you deserve the right to make those choices for yourself. that your decisions should be yours. and that by standing with and supporting the women who are fighting for ALL of us, you embrace "these" women.
"I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own." - Audre Lorde
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