Women are the Celebrities of the World
Women have much to celebrate these days ... and
also much to lament.
Women are the Celebrities of the
World
By CJ Gronin
Women have much to celebrate these days
... and also much to lament.
We
have the first female Speaker of the House in Nancy Pelosi -
great.
We also have the first serious
female contender for President of the United States in Hillary Clinton ... who
is desperately trying to scratch out a victory with negative attacks, her
husband’s political clout (how feminist is that?), lies, stealing (words
and votes), and trying to put her foot on the throat of what is FINALLY an
actual MOVEMENT towards positive change in this country, just to
“win” - not so great.
I just
read an article about how a huge percentage of young girls have as their dream
job, “Celebrity Assistant.” Not President, not Teacher, not Doctor,
but someone who chases after the mental patient starlets of the moment.
I’m still nauseous.
Sure, for every
negative example you can hopefully find a positive ... but when you get Miss
Teen Whatevers getting up and showing the world just how very very stupid
American women can be ... and getting even MORE media attention to celebrate the
fact - I’m going to start looking for someone to
slap.
The Media? Parents? Society at
large? What I DO know is that if we can IGNORE Paris, and instead we
over-saturate the markets with women like Karenna Gore Schiff (yes, Al’s
daughter) who wrote a remarkable book called “Lighting The Way”
about the absolute BEACONS called: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mother Jones, Alice
Hamilton, Frances Perkins, Virginia Durr, Septima Clark, Dolores Huerta, Helen
Rodrigues -Trias and Gretchen Buchenholz. You might not recognize all of those
names ... but you should.
It’s
always interesting to be a woman ... torn between wanting to be special, and be
equal at the same time. We can’t HELP but be special! We can create new
life inside of us! We have marvelous mounds of flesh up front that can also
nurture life! We have empathy and love and brains and beauty ... with all of
that already going for us, frankly, I’ve never felt UN-equal to any man.
We ARE different, so let it be and rejoice in
it!
Just a couple weeks ago, I was in
Kaua’i and went on a zip-lining adventure. I have long blonde hair and a
decent cup size, and that was clear enough permission for one of the guides to
unleash a ceaseless string of “Blonde Jokes” and lewd-ish comments
the entire time. When he finally asked what I did, I replied, “I’m a
neurosurgeon.” (I’m not, but how would he know?) The look on his
face was classic, and the jokes stopped. I can’t even blame him,
really.
The “Girls Next
Door,” the old ladies walking around Beverly Hills looking like The Joker,
all going to the same plastic surgeon (Google Lois Aldrin - wife of Buzz - for
the best example), fooling no one but themselves ... all of it is just so sad
and surface, and only serves to perpetuate the empty headed Chick myth. And that
is what we have young girls aspiring
to!
We’ve got a lot of work
to do in this country, in a lot of areas. But maybe we can start locally ...
tell the ladies in your life how much you appreciate and respect them,
don’t buy the Celeb mags (read the above book instead), be a mentor to a
young girl that deep down might want to change the world instead of just her lip
gloss.
My feeling these days is not
Female, not Male, but People power! Let’s get things done TOGETHER! It
really is the only way.
Posted: Sat - March 1, 2008 at 04:18 PM
