This will be one of those blog posts that will be all over the place.No specific topic, just me going on a rant. No use of "fancy" or "big words". I'm going to let my thoughts flow.
Troy Davis' execution really evoked something in me that words can't suffice. What really irked me the most was the bashing and demonization I received on facebook right after I updated my status. Instead of leaving these vile comments on my status update, these people spread themselves in my inbox.
First of all, you may have seen me on twitter and facebook but believe me when I say you really don't know me as you think you do. Unless you know me personally, Outside of the social networking setting, then you really have no business drawing conclusions about me.
Here is the irony of this situation: These people had no clue about who Troy Davis was. They saw my status updates and asked who he was. I informed them, then they turned around and bashed me saying where was I 20 years ago when he first got convicted. What type of batshit is that? It is really idiotic to ASSume that I just talk and I'm not actually involved in my community, or just because I'm now spreading awareness about an issue, I'm a bandwagoner. Miss me with that.
Listen, in society, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. What is your purpose in life? Are you living or existing? Are you part of the status quo or are you anti-status quo? What causes do you fight for? what are you passionate about? I've noticed that the people who like maintaining status quo, love barking and biting at those who are seeking to create new realities and a better world for all. They critique the most, yet do the least. People have refused to turn off BET, and try to educate themselves on issues that matter. How long, will we continue to bask in mediocrity? What has corroded your thinking? How many of you are willing to sacrifice your comfort for freedom? Are you going to join the movement or are you just going to sit, calling people "crazy" yet waiting for them to pave the way for you? The sad part is many people don't even know we are living in a repressive society and we are broken, wounded beings. So how can they even seek to change things when they don't even know change is needed?
I could Talk till the cows come home but I'll redirect my energy into something else . This is all I have to say: We are born in a world of sink or swim and some people decided to surf. Do not demonize the surfers. You can either join them or continue to sink or swim. You can either conform or transform. The choice is yours. But just remember, If you can't take a stance on anything, you are part of the problem.
Sep 23, 2011
Sep 9, 2011
My Feminist Rant
Patriarchy, I believe, is one of the biggest systems of opression to ever exist. It has a death hold on society, especially Women. Patriarchy is defined as “the organization of society on the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of the wives and children and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line.” In patriarchy the legal principles just mentioned spill over into the general society beyond the family by both law and custom and the supremacy of the father in the family is extended to the belief that the male is superior to the female. The result is the oppression of women and the over masculinization of society.
The psychological power of patriarchy is not to be taken lightly. To this day, a majority of the world still believes Women are inferior to men. This system has made women make very few advances in society & explains why the progress of Women's movements has been ridiculously slow and asperous. The frustration of women in such a system has led them to turn against each other. Women competing with each other and putting others down in an effort to gain male approval and survive in a man's world. Why? because from childhood, young girls are taught that they don't deserve love, they have to earn it from men. It's always.."don't do this or that because men don't like women who are this or that". That right there sets the tone that no man will want you for being yourself. You have to subscribe to a certain set of preset standards of "what a woman should be". A Women's worth therefore is based on male approval. Men on the other hand, can practically do whatever they want. After all, they are the "go getters". They don't have to be "found" like women. I'm pretty sure the genesis of many soceital problems is the fact that there is an unfair assignment of gender roles to both sexes. Men are allowed to be socially irresponsible, and "explore" their manhood while at the same time dominating over women, Whereas women are expected to be subservient.
This is where feminism kicks in. As most of you know, I am a feminist. Feminists in general get castigated from both men and women because of this stupid notion that we are hairy legged women who are bitter, don't want to cook or clean and hate men.That, my friends, is batshit.
What is feminism? Webster defines feminism as: “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.” Since men wrote the dictionary it should not be surprising that the definition is lacking an essential element and must be corrected. Feminism is also the theory of the psychological equality of the sexes. True feminism insists on the psychological and social equality of the sexes.
The true feminist view is that human characteristics are not sex oriented or stereotyped by sex. Rather, any human being can develop the qualities that we call human. The development is intrinsic and wholeness is a healthy balance of the various human characteristics. Of course there are differences between human persons. These are individual differences. These individual differences can be similar between men and women. They are not based on gender. They can be learned or innate.
There's a current notion that Men are only masculine and females are only feminine. As a result, human wholeness is divided which yields to the whole rubbish "complimentary theory" that states in order for one to be "complete" they have to seek wholeness from members of the opposite sex. This is not true. Masculinity & femininity are not exclusive to just either one of the sexes. We ALL have both feminine and masculine characteristics. The patriarchal society,however, promotes and extols these so called masculine attributes. Qualities considered masculine are valued and assigned to males. Qualities considered feminine are devalued or even held in contempt and assigned to females.
In the patriarchal society masculinity becomes the norm. Even when a woman wants to succeed, she must first be masculinized and made guilty of seeking success outside her domestic role of being a wife and mother.
One cannot critique patriarchy without considering patriarchal religion and the effect such religion has on the oppression of women. Religion cannot be ignored. It seems to be very deep in the human psyche and its effect is widespread in both the individual and in society. Ancient religious men and so called authors of religious books such as the Bible, Quran and Torah created an “omnipotent patriarch” by making God into the male image and by divinizing maleness. Men have also put words into the mouth of God about the supposed inferiority of women. Women have been blamed for causing sin & as a result what did we get? PUNISHMENT!! Our child bearing pain was increased tremendously and we were to be ruled over by men because we ate the forbidden fruit.But what punishment did men get? They were told they would have to toil in order for us to eat.
Supposedly, Eve made Adam eat the fruit. Adam had no will at all to eat the fruit. Absurdity if you ask me. People tend to forget that when "God" told Adam not to eat from the forbidden tree, Eve wasn't even created yet. This whole crazy fruit story carries on today in the form of "women seduce and tempt men into having sexual relations". Women are evil creatures, according to the world. My question is: Why create a tree of "good and evil" in the first place? And if This "tree" bore fruits that were both good & evil, is it safe to conclude God created evil? I'll stop. I'm by no means trying to downplay "God". I just think some of these biblical stories have man made fantasies in them. Humans have created God in their own image and try to make up all sorts of stories about "God's character". Some of which are nonsensical. The authors were something else. When you read the the early chapters of Genesis do you feel like that was fair? you honestly think "an all loving God" would punish Its' creation unfairly? I'll let you battle with that. But there are very many accounts in the Bible, where the male figure was regarded highly yet women, well, they are just women. Being oppressed as usual.
Side note : By the way, Original Hebrew scriptures are quite different from the scriptures we read today. The Bible was edited, revised, some books were omitted, e.t.c. Religious scholars say there were several books in the Bible that were written by women BUT were intentionally left out when the "final Bible draft" was being put together. I strongly believe a lot of religious teachings are very anti-woman. Look at the New Testament, Women weren't even allowed to speak in church or attend church while on their period. The entire Bible is authored by men. Again, I ask, If the authors of the bible were inspired by God, You mean God never spoke to women? That's a whole different discussion for a different day. My point? Seek your own truth and get to know who "God" really is and what that means to you.
To sum up my rant, Feminism is not anti-male. please steer away from that perception. Feminism seeks to bring balance in the community.It can correct the over masculinization of society and end the oppression of women. But it will not do this by making women into men, or for that matter, by making men into women. The male of patriarchy is defective, not the model. We seek to liberate Women and men as well. Men have been crippled by patriarchy but some won't admit it because to them dominating over women is better than seeking equality and balance. I'm not just pro-woman, I'm pro-humans. I want us all to live the best lives we can so we can all edify each other. We need to humanize society & save ourselves from this self-destruction and it's our collective effort and consciousness that will make this possible.
The psychological power of patriarchy is not to be taken lightly. To this day, a majority of the world still believes Women are inferior to men. This system has made women make very few advances in society & explains why the progress of Women's movements has been ridiculously slow and asperous. The frustration of women in such a system has led them to turn against each other. Women competing with each other and putting others down in an effort to gain male approval and survive in a man's world. Why? because from childhood, young girls are taught that they don't deserve love, they have to earn it from men. It's always.."don't do this or that because men don't like women who are this or that". That right there sets the tone that no man will want you for being yourself. You have to subscribe to a certain set of preset standards of "what a woman should be". A Women's worth therefore is based on male approval. Men on the other hand, can practically do whatever they want. After all, they are the "go getters". They don't have to be "found" like women. I'm pretty sure the genesis of many soceital problems is the fact that there is an unfair assignment of gender roles to both sexes. Men are allowed to be socially irresponsible, and "explore" their manhood while at the same time dominating over women, Whereas women are expected to be subservient.
This is where feminism kicks in. As most of you know, I am a feminist. Feminists in general get castigated from both men and women because of this stupid notion that we are hairy legged women who are bitter, don't want to cook or clean and hate men.That, my friends, is batshit.
What is feminism? Webster defines feminism as: “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.” Since men wrote the dictionary it should not be surprising that the definition is lacking an essential element and must be corrected. Feminism is also the theory of the psychological equality of the sexes. True feminism insists on the psychological and social equality of the sexes.
The true feminist view is that human characteristics are not sex oriented or stereotyped by sex. Rather, any human being can develop the qualities that we call human. The development is intrinsic and wholeness is a healthy balance of the various human characteristics. Of course there are differences between human persons. These are individual differences. These individual differences can be similar between men and women. They are not based on gender. They can be learned or innate.
There's a current notion that Men are only masculine and females are only feminine. As a result, human wholeness is divided which yields to the whole rubbish "complimentary theory" that states in order for one to be "complete" they have to seek wholeness from members of the opposite sex. This is not true. Masculinity & femininity are not exclusive to just either one of the sexes. We ALL have both feminine and masculine characteristics. The patriarchal society,however, promotes and extols these so called masculine attributes. Qualities considered masculine are valued and assigned to males. Qualities considered feminine are devalued or even held in contempt and assigned to females.
In the patriarchal society masculinity becomes the norm. Even when a woman wants to succeed, she must first be masculinized and made guilty of seeking success outside her domestic role of being a wife and mother.
One cannot critique patriarchy without considering patriarchal religion and the effect such religion has on the oppression of women. Religion cannot be ignored. It seems to be very deep in the human psyche and its effect is widespread in both the individual and in society. Ancient religious men and so called authors of religious books such as the Bible, Quran and Torah created an “omnipotent patriarch” by making God into the male image and by divinizing maleness. Men have also put words into the mouth of God about the supposed inferiority of women. Women have been blamed for causing sin & as a result what did we get? PUNISHMENT!! Our child bearing pain was increased tremendously and we were to be ruled over by men because we ate the forbidden fruit.But what punishment did men get? They were told they would have to toil in order for us to eat.
Supposedly, Eve made Adam eat the fruit. Adam had no will at all to eat the fruit. Absurdity if you ask me. People tend to forget that when "God" told Adam not to eat from the forbidden tree, Eve wasn't even created yet. This whole crazy fruit story carries on today in the form of "women seduce and tempt men into having sexual relations". Women are evil creatures, according to the world. My question is: Why create a tree of "good and evil" in the first place? And if This "tree" bore fruits that were both good & evil, is it safe to conclude God created evil? I'll stop. I'm by no means trying to downplay "God". I just think some of these biblical stories have man made fantasies in them. Humans have created God in their own image and try to make up all sorts of stories about "God's character". Some of which are nonsensical. The authors were something else. When you read the the early chapters of Genesis do you feel like that was fair? you honestly think "an all loving God" would punish Its' creation unfairly? I'll let you battle with that. But there are very many accounts in the Bible, where the male figure was regarded highly yet women, well, they are just women. Being oppressed as usual.
Side note : By the way, Original Hebrew scriptures are quite different from the scriptures we read today. The Bible was edited, revised, some books were omitted, e.t.c. Religious scholars say there were several books in the Bible that were written by women BUT were intentionally left out when the "final Bible draft" was being put together. I strongly believe a lot of religious teachings are very anti-woman. Look at the New Testament, Women weren't even allowed to speak in church or attend church while on their period. The entire Bible is authored by men. Again, I ask, If the authors of the bible were inspired by God, You mean God never spoke to women? That's a whole different discussion for a different day. My point? Seek your own truth and get to know who "God" really is and what that means to you.
To sum up my rant, Feminism is not anti-male. please steer away from that perception. Feminism seeks to bring balance in the community.It can correct the over masculinization of society and end the oppression of women. But it will not do this by making women into men, or for that matter, by making men into women. The male of patriarchy is defective, not the model. We seek to liberate Women and men as well. Men have been crippled by patriarchy but some won't admit it because to them dominating over women is better than seeking equality and balance. I'm not just pro-woman, I'm pro-humans. I want us all to live the best lives we can so we can all edify each other. We need to humanize society & save ourselves from this self-destruction and it's our collective effort and consciousness that will make this possible.
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