Near the Old Man of Storr, Scotland I took this in 2004

Sunday, June 13, 2010

An ode to Talib's lyrics' and Rising up Against Oppression

Most people, especially groups that seem to need to cling to their religion in order to maintain their sense of victim-hood, always feel justified in clinging so hardcore to 'being a minority' or slave and victim of "the system".

Which translates into , "Boo-hoo, the government isn't helping me , or giving to me, or acknowledging me as a victim."
But in the meantime,what are you doing to help you? Certainly there is corruption on many levels in corporate, government bodies; one such form is worldwide, systemic misogyny.

Women still earn less than men, regardless of education or position. Naturally, governments, made up primarily of white males, or even just males, period, don't want the boat to be rocked, and order or patriarchy to turn into anarchy or ( gasp!) matriarchy? So, they do nothing . They, the good, white men in power don't want to legislate to make equal pay a law. Or for that matter, they don't want to make gender pricing, illegal, either. Why would they want want to do such a radical thing and actually say " Hey the king is very naked, and therefore, paid nothing compared to his wife who had to pay ...a king's ransom for her clothes!"

Even though gender pricing is complete and total sexist shit, governments pretend it's all about market economics and supply and demand.
Yes, that's why 3 pairs of men's wool dress socks cost me $15, versus the women's cotton socks, which were being sold for $25. A woman watched me pick the men's socks up and wondered why I was going to buy them. I explained to her that a) I'm saving $10 and b) if they happened to be too large, I could always shrink them. She was shocked!
Most people don't have the courage to challenge the ingrained sexism we are supposed to assume is all part of the "mystique" of being female.

Women will foolishly, and seemingly, gladly, pay more for things like razors, face cream, haircuts, and some clothes because, first of all, don't all women love shopping? And secondly, why wouldn't we want to look our best, darn it!

Part of our mystique, which is just another way to say that women really are 'rare and delicate flowers who are mysterious and emotional creatures' lies in the fact that we "need to" maintain ourselves in a certain way and only those (more expensive ) items will help us maintain our "feminine mystique", this also includes not questioning why your haircut is $20-$25 more than a man's.
How could this mystique be maintained if we totally equalized ourselves and all started demanding the end to gender pricing and then
en- masse, started buying from the men's sections? I can say from my personal experience, there is really nothing delicate nor mysterious about being a hardcore feminist!

So, while men are earning more, and saving shit loads, women, who earn less, pay
way more for the same or very similar items.

Fair?!

Though because we, as women have been oppressed for so fucking long, (see above as good on-going examples of our continued oppression) we have learned how to raise our voices and scream about the injustices that happen everyday, or second, because we live in a patriarchy!

The waves of the women's movement have helped to empower us to not have to be or feel like we are victims. Instead, it has allowed me, for example, to boldly use the men's bathroom when there is a huge line for the women's. Sure I may get funny stares, but my bladder feels much better. I have also learned how to tell- off lecherous men on public transportation, in my loudest voice:) The ogler sometimes tries yelling back, to which I respond by cussing him audibly. Or, more often he looks ashamed and the other women sitting around me smile a victory smile, as if to say, "Finally, someone put that shit in his place."


There is a clear distinction between being or having been victimized and
always feeling like a victim. As we see in the 2 lines below by Talib Kweli which are all about the continued culture of victim-hood that many black people dwell in. Most people want to play the victim, and stay victims.


I love these two lines! They are so true. They are from two separate songs, but both are from the album
Reflection Eternal).

"These cats drink champagne to toast death and pain, like slaves on a ship, talkin' 'bout, who got the fliest chain." song: Africa Dream

" I looked in your eyes and I saw the shame, y'all don't know that our greatness came before the chain" song: Eternalist