gender equality

I have been staring at this page all day, writing and erasing, it seems that I just don't have many words today, so I will keep this short...

It is pretty sad when a (male) teacher stands in front of a class of 120 people and tells us that we women should feel so lucky that we are no longer second class citizens. We still are, and it’s still shitty. Oh shit, I actually vocalised that and now everyone is staring. Well fuck it, we are. Yeah I can get an education, but I have to make grades that are SO much better than the male students in my class so that when we both show up to a job interview they might even consider hiring me over him, but in this country, it’s unlikely. I might have a job, a job working behind a bar where I serve idiots who drive trucks that are too big for their families, don’t give a shit about the environment and think I should feel privileged that they even bother to pinch my ass every time I walk by. Sure I have the vote, but most of the time there are no women to vote for in the election now that we have lost (my dearly beloved!) Helen Clark. I can play sport but I can’t watch Women play it on television if there is men’s sport on which takes preference over it immediately. I don’t have to marry and have children but when I seek out healthcare such as asking for a hysterectomy due to chronic pain, I am denied because I am apparently giving up a womb that the world still might want to use.

So my Philosophy class is requiring me to read Plato’s Republic. I’m enthusiastic about the idea of a Utopian novel, and actually being able to say that I’ve read it, but otherwise it has been a bore. Rich, bearded Greek men, sitting on a porch, probably drinking lemonade, and chatting until the sun comes up, is not very climactic. As a preface, these are Socrates’ words, through Plato’s writing. Socrates is a wise elder that likes to ask questions about the world. Sounds a little boring, I know.

But I’m suddenly intrigued by it. About halfway through the book, the topic of gender comes up. I’m going to share with you a couple of lines of dialogue that really perked up my ears.

Since the activist community is full of people who care deeply about war and are generally more enlightened than the average slug with a gun, I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I can't find alot of support INSIDE the military, the mere thought of rallying could get me in alot of trouble. But when I turn to an activist community people are anti-war and don't really want to support my learning other ways of waging it. But I leave you with this thought, imagine an infantry of women. Generally more compassionate, less willing to destroy everything, and negotiate. Less ego, more things done.

I have been reluctant to talk about anything thus far having to do with my miltary career. I feel as though I will be judged among activists, personally. I will ask kindly before you read this please don't judge. I'm not a war monger, I don't want to kill anyone, and I certainly am not responsible for the suffering of any other human being. That being said. Here I go.

While in Baghdad, Iraq I served as a machine gunner.I've been on over 300 missions in a combat sector aka "front lines." I've been shot at, mortared and scared shitless for my life. I've endured the loss of friends, didn't see my family for most of two years, and it all happened because I am a soldier. And a damn good one at that.

I’ve been reading The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, and tonight I finished Chapter four. It’s only about a hundred pages into the book, and even though this was first published in 1963, it surprises me that it’s still so freaking relevant.

Friedan basically correlates the psychological, and physical ruts that women find themselves in with this mysterious, unspoken repression – the Feminine Mystique. She was also one of the first women to publicly note that women were (are?) commonly considered a means to reproduce, and nothing more – and that raising successful men to propogate the events of the world was (is?) considered the penultimate triumph of women. Now I know that You know that this is inherently flawed. Because if this is the ultimate triumph of women, then where is woman’s place in the real world? Is she simply a biological backdrop to the achievements of human beings? Well, duh…of course we’re not, for the ultimate reason that we have brains, dreams and profound ideas, too, that can’t and shouldn’t be stifled no matter what history has told us what role we are better fit for, and no matter what obstacles this same history has created for us.