History of Feminism

I don't say this because of my age and my life, but because I've seen it in too many other people. There is so much happening, and it is so overwhelming that we don't even know where to begin. Our generation is dealing with ceaseless war, a corrupt political machine, endless surveillance, a failing economy, skyrocketing housing prices, huge racial issues, impending disaster from climate change...I could go on. It is, to people who don't really understand what's going on in the world, very hard to get a grasp on. It's terrifying for those of who do have an idea. It appears unchangeable, this monolith of oppressive institutions and ideas. And it makes it very easy to avoid thinking about it altogether.

Part of this is our culture, our media. Online, TV, magazines, newspapers, video games, etc. They force shit like this ad on us 24/7. Everything is monetized, everything is made to sell. And that includes people; almost always women. For people who are scared to think about the world, they have to accept what is sold to them, fed to them, because the only way to avoid it is to think. They are taught that we are not people--everything in our culture, our society, says that we are labor and consumers. We are statistics. Our employment is unstable--we don't matter. We're not people. And so it makes it very easy to accept things like this ad. We are dehumanized at every part of our lives, so this ad is not abnormal to us, the ideas it says are not abnormal.

I can't imagine being a woman through all of this. To be told by everyone everywhere that your life has no value of its own, only when you are accepted by a man. To be told you're too fat, too skinny, not pretty enough, too pretty--you whore, that your skin is not light enough, hair not long enough, sexuality not constrained enough, that you can't speak or think because that's not what ladies do, to be exposed to and subjected to this shit constantly. And then to add on to that all of the other stuff of our generation? That's tough.

But that ad wasn't directed at women. It was directed at men, still by far the most powerful group in the world. And what scares me is that I see good men falling to this predatory culture all the time, because life is hard, and they're scared to think. Scared to be themselves, to be true to themselves and people around them. This weekend I realized I'm probably going to lose another friend or two because of exactly this. They were solid people last year, good men who, while not perfect, were aware of the world, aware of these ads. But they're falling into the world of obliviousness. They are party-ers, they are frat boys now. They've changed, and now they make comments, say things about women that they would not have used to. They are falling into their roles in this culture, accepting the entitlement, accepting the things they do not think about. And it's sad, and it's scary, because they are the type of men I would have hoped would be able to understand. But they do not, and they do not want to.

A world of hurt, yes. That's what we're headed for. Thankfully I have people in my life that are not like this culture, that resist it, that are themselves above all else and draw strength from that. I don't know where I'm headed with this post at this point--just some thoughts that have been bouncing around my head.