Sunday, March 25, 2007
Fundamnmentalism
Fundamentalisms will especially thrive wherever there is violent conflict, and wherever there is stark poverty, simply because these religiously absolute movements promise meaning where there is no meaning. For all these reasons, fundamentalisms are everywhere. See article here
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Assent to Dominance
I am struck this week by the volume of "news" crap this week. And a good deal of it centers around the age-old premise that women are weak, women are frightening and anything of woman is just oh so very wrong.
Case in point: Ann Coulter calls John Edwards a faggot. He is also referred to as the Breck Girl and Limbaugh asked who would design Edwards' inaugural gown. It is touted already, if elected, he will be the first woman president. The latter was seen as a good thing, based on his stance for women's issues. But doncha know that'll be spun to south in criticism of him?
Oh yeah and the other media message is Hillary is not woman enough. Oy!
The students in Cross River New York, (girl students) said the word "vagina" during a reading of Eve Ensler's "My Short Skirt" from Vagina Monologues." “My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women’s army. I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina’s country.”
Now the students were told or asked not to say the word vagina. But they did, and now they are in trouble. But here is my question: If anyone reads Eve Ensler's work, who the hell thinks the word "vagina" is not going to come up? I mean its like asking someone to read The Raven, but not utter "nevermore"!
Either the administration was stupid, and I mean dumb as a Sam's Warehouse size box of rocks, to think they could ask precocious teen-age girls to skip the one crucial word and basis of AN ENTIRE SHOW AND INDUSTRY, or the students were set up to be cogs in someone's agenda. Maybe it was their own agenda! If so, and by the report that it is right, then hail the young women for scissoring through the emperor's linguistic clothes to reveal this foolishness!
As to John Edwards, he has been called a faggot this week. Of course this is meant to cast him as a weak, passive, feminine, penis-less being. He has been called "too pretty". He was referred to as the "breck girl" by women journalists. Not a man but heaven forfend, a woman-like-man.
And all of this in light of it being Women's History Month.
I could go on about wage disparity, though California is seeing progress in a shrinking gap between wages of men and women. There are more women in leadership of countries, too. But rape is the highest conveyor of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. 3 out of 4 women in parts of Liberia have been raped. 75%, folks.
Equality is still a goal. Peace is but a dream.
But from where does perception this come? Where do men and women get that women are weaker: women are lessor?
You know, it doesn't really matter where it comes from. I could cite reams of data, historical evidence and theory to get to the origins of this nonsense, but it almost doesn't matter.
What does matter is that women have a responsibility for carrying it forward. For whatever religious, societal, or legal reasons this conditioning and consequence is perpetuated, without fullout resistance, we convey assent.
We get all happy and burn bras, stop shaving, bend genders and say we hold up half the sky. But we act as though we are not doing it together. Where is the consolidation among women to stop the violence and the disavowal that women are less than? We can say we are powerless, that society and religion has made us such, but if we do not resist enmasse we might as well give up.
But this goes beyond just women. When we talk of a dominant class or structure, all but the dominant are assenting. Case in point: When the construct deigned the african american community votes for an existing powerbase which does not speak to their concerns, but does so BECAUSE they have not assumed their own power and must hold the coattails of someone else's, this is what assent to dominance means. When women vote for men who do not speak to equality, they assent to dominance. When black students who make a 3.4 and above GPA are shunned and have on average only 2 friends, the community assents to dominance. When urban public school students do not assert their needs and insist on a good education, this is assent to dominance. When women do not even ask for fair wages, this is assent to dominance. When we say someone talks black or talks white, we assent to dominance.
We buy into the idea that we are powerless, therefore all that is left is assent. For if we have no power we can't even give consent.
Right now, the dominate structure has us so convinced of our lessthanness, our power isn't even in the same zip code!
We have bought into the idea that we are less than, we are weak, we are evil, we must not tempt, we must not resist. We are our own worst enemy.
Case in point: Ann Coulter calls John Edwards a faggot. He is also referred to as the Breck Girl and Limbaugh asked who would design Edwards' inaugural gown. It is touted already, if elected, he will be the first woman president. The latter was seen as a good thing, based on his stance for women's issues. But doncha know that'll be spun to south in criticism of him?
Oh yeah and the other media message is Hillary is not woman enough. Oy!
The students in Cross River New York, (girl students) said the word "vagina" during a reading of Eve Ensler's "My Short Skirt" from Vagina Monologues." “My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women’s army. I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina’s country.”
Now the students were told or asked not to say the word vagina. But they did, and now they are in trouble. But here is my question: If anyone reads Eve Ensler's work, who the hell thinks the word "vagina" is not going to come up? I mean its like asking someone to read The Raven, but not utter "nevermore"!
Either the administration was stupid, and I mean dumb as a Sam's Warehouse size box of rocks, to think they could ask precocious teen-age girls to skip the one crucial word and basis of AN ENTIRE SHOW AND INDUSTRY, or the students were set up to be cogs in someone's agenda. Maybe it was their own agenda! If so, and by the report that it is right, then hail the young women for scissoring through the emperor's linguistic clothes to reveal this foolishness!
As to John Edwards, he has been called a faggot this week. Of course this is meant to cast him as a weak, passive, feminine, penis-less being. He has been called "too pretty". He was referred to as the "breck girl" by women journalists. Not a man but heaven forfend, a woman-like-man.
And all of this in light of it being Women's History Month.
I could go on about wage disparity, though California is seeing progress in a shrinking gap between wages of men and women. There are more women in leadership of countries, too. But rape is the highest conveyor of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. 3 out of 4 women in parts of Liberia have been raped. 75%, folks.
Equality is still a goal. Peace is but a dream.
But from where does perception this come? Where do men and women get that women are weaker: women are lessor?
You know, it doesn't really matter where it comes from. I could cite reams of data, historical evidence and theory to get to the origins of this nonsense, but it almost doesn't matter.
What does matter is that women have a responsibility for carrying it forward. For whatever religious, societal, or legal reasons this conditioning and consequence is perpetuated, without fullout resistance, we convey assent.
We get all happy and burn bras, stop shaving, bend genders and say we hold up half the sky. But we act as though we are not doing it together. Where is the consolidation among women to stop the violence and the disavowal that women are less than? We can say we are powerless, that society and religion has made us such, but if we do not resist enmasse we might as well give up.
But this goes beyond just women. When we talk of a dominant class or structure, all but the dominant are assenting. Case in point: When the construct deigned the african american community votes for an existing powerbase which does not speak to their concerns, but does so BECAUSE they have not assumed their own power and must hold the coattails of someone else's, this is what assent to dominance means. When women vote for men who do not speak to equality, they assent to dominance. When black students who make a 3.4 and above GPA are shunned and have on average only 2 friends, the community assents to dominance. When urban public school students do not assert their needs and insist on a good education, this is assent to dominance. When women do not even ask for fair wages, this is assent to dominance. When we say someone talks black or talks white, we assent to dominance.
We buy into the idea that we are powerless, therefore all that is left is assent. For if we have no power we can't even give consent.
Right now, the dominate structure has us so convinced of our lessthanness, our power isn't even in the same zip code!
We have bought into the idea that we are less than, we are weak, we are evil, we must not tempt, we must not resist. We are our own worst enemy.
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