Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day! 
 
This year’s theme is, "Inspiring Change."  I suspect many of you were not aware of this day designed to highlight the role of women on planet earth.  I find that amusing in that 50% of the humans on the planet are women.  (The International Men's Day was November 19^th and I flat missed it.  Still trying to figure out why we need one of those.  Isn’t every day men’s day?) 

A cursory review of today/s headlines is an indicator of the state of women today, at least from this granny’s point of view:

A Duke University female freshman student finds filming pornography to be “freeing” because women remain sexually repressed.  OK.  Is that the kind of freedom we want?  Do men in the porn business think the same way?  I do not know.  Would an interview with a male porn star result in such coverage?  Doubt it.  Do men feel sexually “freed” by starring in porn movies?  Doubt it.  Men are never the stars of porn movies, I hear.  Would the press be as enamored of a male college student starring in porn movies expressing the fact that he feels sexually freed for doing so?  I think not.  Male college students have always been one of the most sexually free beings on the planet.  Most cannot spell monogamy.  Though I am sure there are some who would stand in line to see naked males, the line to view naked females has always been longer and more lucrative.  Is this some kind of advantage women have over men?  I think so.  We are prettier and sexier.  We merit the longer lines.  We are the ones who say no, or at least, not yet.  So, to our Duke darling, enjoy the moment, but you are in fact not news.  Women have progressed little in light of your experience.  There remain more female prostitutes than male, more female bawdy burlesque shows than male, and women making more money in the porn industry than males.  None of these are facts indicating we have moved much beyond the notion of females as mere male sex objects.  In fact, as we continue to attempt to round the corner of sexual equality with males your so-called “freeing” may be more historic slavery than an emancipation proclamation.

A list of the world’s wealthiest women is released by Fortune Magazine.  I am so embarrassed.  Each of the billionaire broads amassed their billions via inheritance from a male.  No Bill’s or Mark’s or Warren’s or Sam’s in this list: just the women around such men who profit from their good fortune or demise.  There are very wealthy men who accumulated their wealth in the same way and make other lists.  But we take time out to celebrate the women who bask in some male’s productivity.  We need a list of self-made wealthy females as role models.  Oprah?

Massachusetts just passed a new law making it a misdemeanor to take pictures or videos up a skirt or down a blouse.  Really?  First, the mere fact that a predominantly male legislature in a liberal state considered such nonsense in the first place is depressing.  Secondly, I have never dressed in revealing clothes and expected men to come to my rescue should someone be interested in what I planned to reveal.  Nothing could be more sexist or chauvinistic.  If you do not want a man looking at your cleavage or down your blouse then dress accordingly.  Ditto with up skirt shots.  In fact, I am for abandoning skirts altogether as another vestige of sexism.  Until men wear skirts with the same frequency as women we should simply do away with this article of clothing.  If we did, we would no longer have to worry about hemlines going up and down with the fashion world dictates.  I am sure the intent of the Massachusetts Legislature felt noble.  However, the mere fact that they acted implies woman need protection from unsolicited and unapproved photos and videos.  If your skirt is too short, don’t sit.  If your blouse is too low, don’t bend over.  I would prefer that women either become more aware of the message we are sending and the flesh we are showing without protection from daddies and brothers.  How is it that men go through their entire lives with no women ever claiming successful shots of male flesh while they are clothed?  Wonder how many women are likely to be prosecuted under this new law?  Men still dictate what women wear.  Surely women did not invent the skirt.  We have got to get over that and move on.

I will always be befuddled by Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin, and others of their ilk.  Two women who clearly desire power, influence and prestige, yet base their arguments on a return to old fashioned family values.  Has anyone told these two ladies that old fashioned family values would prohibit them from speaking out in public, to seek power and prestige?  They reflect, for me, the greatest oxy-morons of our day.  I am so embarrassed they are female.  But my perspective is much more historical.  I remember corsets.  When in World War 1 women stopped wearing corsets to save materials for the war, adopting a bra was a truly liberal act on the part of women.  Imagine how confused I was in the 60’s when women felt liberated burning their bras.  A woman dressed without a bra is not now nor has it ever been a liberating example for me.  Rather it is an example of marketing based on male sexual proclivities.  Most men would prefer that women not wear bras, except for their wives, mothers and daughters.  Further I find it funny that neither Michelle nor Sarah ever dress in a way that might attract males.  I find that liberating!  Perhaps they are closet liberals after all.

And finally, Melinda Gates writes on ways to truly empower women.  Melinda.  Gates.  As the young’uns would say, I am LMAO!  If Melinda is empowered then she should not share in husband’s wealth and earn her own way.  She is clearly a conservative, but she is more than willing to bask in the wealth generated by others.  And her bottom line regarding how to empower women?  Get more data.  She actually says that she knows more about software sales in Kansas than she knows about the state of women in the world.  I almost blew a gasket.  Who in the world ever told Melinda and Bill that data gathering in areas that are qualitative not quantitative means anything?  I firmly believe that the things we care most about are not subject to objective data gathering.  My love of my children is not quantifiable, or my love for a spouse or my love for my fellow church members, or my passion for political and educational causes.  Those things which mean the most to me are not measurable.  You can gather my height and weight and health history all you want.  Those data mean little to me.  So, when Wealthy Melinda starts with her plan for improving the lot of women she wants more data?  And therein is the flaw with the Gates approach to improving schools:  standardized data gathering.  Works for Microsoft, should work for schools and women.  It does not.  I would recommend that Melinda abandon her castle and enter the workforce to seek employment.  Then in her guts she will detect the sexism that remains in America.

And the sexism in the rest of the world is horrible.  Men continue to prescribe what women can and cannot do.  If nothing else, reasonable men should recognize that we are wasting close to 50% of our intellectual, artistic and labor contributions via sexism.  What a waste. 

So here, in one of the most literate nations in the world, though not the most literate, and one of the nations in the world that supports female equality, though not the most supportive, we find that the state of women in the United States is still not equal with men.  The rest of the world tends to be worse. 

 

So, happy International Women’s Day!  Hope you enjoyed the celebration as much as I did.