When Women Speak
When Women Speak
When women speak do you hear the echo of our ancestors reverberating in our words, or is it the rhetoric of our forefathers overshadowing our existence?
Do you hear the oppression of the suffragette, or the chants of the men ridiculing a picket line? Are the sounds of the feminists marching and drumming equality ringing loudly, or are you falling behind the male dominated government ignoring our plight?
From Hillary Clinton’s pant suits to Maxine Water’s reclaiming her time, the commentators and government officials pounce like lions at the gates of hell. The speed of light can’t match that of the internet and viral allegations get spun into false facts with merely the stroke of a key. Maxine Waters refusal to be taken seriously was soon accused of being absent for 90% of congressional meetings in a false 35 year span. Waters has a voting record of 92% in her actual 26 years in congress[1].
When women speak are you truly listening? Are you taking in our words or simply preparing your next rebuttal of empty promises? Are you opening your mind or covering your ears to the sound of female discourse? Are you taking us seriously or judging our wardrobe? Are you standing beside us or claiming to rescue us?
The very bloggers and pundits crying for representation by real hard working Americans over career politicians wasted no time digging in and slinging mud when former bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won New York’s 14th Congressional District, taking out a ten term incumbent and becoming the youngest woman in history voted to congress. Focusing on her blue collar job as though she were somehow uneducated, unprepared and unable to represent the very people that voted for her. No one bothered to mention that she graduated from Boston University with a double major degree in International Relations and Economics[2]. Although it should be noted that 18 members of the House have only a high school diploma[3].
Are you awake when we come calling or are you building ladders to places, we cannot reach? Are you seeing us clearly or losing sight in the dust of the fight?
When women speak are you whom you claim to be? Do you see us as meek and helpless, or as your equal and deserving of your respect?
The tearing down of women and their accomplishments isn’t reserved for those purported to be in charge, a quick scroll through the Twitter feeds of actress/activists Alyssa Milano and Patricia Arquette will give you a front row view that sexism is alive and well in all facets and corners of the world. A glance at singer/songwriter Pink or model/author Chrissy Teigen’s Instagram accounts will leave you shaking your head at the massive mommy-shaming and body bashing flung their way on the daily. The endless social media attacks on women are fast and furious, just ask comedian Kathy Griffin and writer/editor Roxanne Gay. No matter your talent being a woman will always overshadow your abilities in a world propagated by men.
Step off the celebrity train a moment and you will still find everyday women subjected to ridicule and blamed for the undoing of everything. Tarana Burke innocently created a hashtag with the intent that ordinary women would find solidarity and know they were not alone, and they could find healing bringing their darkest of secrets into the light. The #MeToo movement took off and she became a quick target for those seeking to deflect from their own bad behavior and the very real issue of sexual assault.
Women taking back their lives and releasing their demons at the feet of those responsible left a massacre in its wake as a string of courageous women were carved up and thrown to the wolves for speaking their truth. Ashley Judd, Roseanne Arquette and Rose McGowan are names you probably haven’t seen scrolling the credits at the box office for quite some time and for no other reason than mass fear of the male patriarchy falling.
While their male counterparts have their share of trolls and accusation throwers, you won’t find anyone commenting on what Bono, Mark Ruffalo, John Legend or even John Stewart wore to a news conference, whether their children were being properly looked after, the size of their waist or how many people they have had sex with.
Sexism isn’t new nor is it caused by the internet or Fox News, a quick search of Angela Davis, Kate Millet and Betty Friedan will take you back 50 years easily. The first woman ever elected and sworn into congress was Jeannette Rankin and the year was 1916, while historical her time in congress would become tainted when she adamantly voted against going to War after the attack on Pearl Harbor, causing her to sit out re-election in 1942. Not one to slip away quietly and go into hiding, she led a group of 5000 people right into the House chamber in protest of the Vietnam War in 1968[4].
Women have been making and writing history since the beginning of time and today is not an exception. Whether they had been listening before or plugging their ears on the sidelines, the world sat in awe as the documentary RBG made history in more ways than one. A runaway hit pulling in $4 million less than a month from its limited release date[5], rounding out with a sweet $14 million+ worldwide in box office sales and left the world wanting more and filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen on a whirlwind journey through the award season thrills[6].
Documentaries aren’t the only platform to satisfy our female driven appetites recently as the undeniable hit Oceans 8, written by Gary Ross and Olivia Milch raked in over $297 million at the box office worldwide reminding us all that movies about women, starring women and written by women can and will be successful[7], yet society continues to voice their surprise and pick apart the integrity, wardrobe and perceived beauty of any woman succeeding in more than motherhood and baking pies.
This double standard isn’t new nor has it been run out of town. Monica Lewinsky had a consensual relationship with a married man and she was promptly thrown under the bus along with her future ambitions while his career continued to flourish. History tends to be endless circles of similarities taunting us in real time. It was certainly fine with Henry VIII to have an extramarital affair with Anne Boleyn, whom he later had executed on charges of adultery while married to him[8].
President Trumps paying off of porn stars and proclaiming to grab women by their genitals isn’t the beginning of predators in elected office. Victims of sexual assault aren’t spared the defamation and ridicule men tend to be exempt from; Anita Hill and Dr. Blasey-Ford were raked over the coals by our judiciary committee while Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh received the honor of sitting on our nations highest court despite their treatment of women.
The oppression and dismissing of women can easily be tracked all the way to our countries beginning. Women are mentioned nowhere in the founding documents, and other than our right to vote, we have zero protections under the very Constitution that governs this country.
Men have ran this country since its inception and voters have listened and trusted them blindly for centuries. We are now faced with 6 women running for President and the race is barely begun. After the first Democratic Debates the satellites and fiber optics ran in overload as people rushed to judgement over every word Elizabeth Warren spoke and whether or not she talked too much, and quickly took to debating whether or not Kamala Harris was too aggressive when speaking to Biden’s voting record. Regardless of what the women actually said, the newscaster rhetoric coated the truth enough to leave you in the dust trying to decipher what is actual fact and what isn’t, bringing our country full circle once again as women are dissected and disparaged for the greater good of men.
Perhaps the 116th Congress swearing in 102 women to the House and 25 to the Senate in 2019 is a sign of things to come. Perhaps it’s time we all listen when women speak.
Regardless of what side of the aisle or issue you find yourself on may we all still find freedom outside our front doors and equally honor the women that protect it.
[1] https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/false-maxine-waters-meetings-statistic/
[2] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ocasio-cortez-resume/
[3] https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44762.pdf
[4] https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/RANKIN,-Jeannette-(R000055)/
[5] https://forward.com/schmooze/401990/rbg-documentary-is-a-surprise-box-office-hit/
[6] https://forward.com/schmooze/401990/rbg-documentary-is-a-surprise-box-office-hit/
[7] https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Oceans-8-(2018)#tab=cast-and-crew
[8] https://www.ozy.com/flashback/5-scandalous-affairs-that-changed-history/60923
