There is something in the air.
A realisation.
Mowing the lawn the other day it came in a flash!
Women of my age and older mow lawns.
You don't see women of 38 minus mowing lawns.
This has something to do with 1975.
It has to do with the idea/ideal that in the days of popular consciousness raising we, the women of that generation believed we were equal.
We believed in it.
We still do.
Our baby sisters do not.
They are demanding all that was fought for and achieved by all suffragettes and women's movements (albeit taken for granted) and yet they will sell their bodies to MTV, to magazines, to television programmes, to men...to MEN for a pittance.
The bums shaking vibrantly on video clips, the beautiful black sisters bottoms, without faces, their breast heaving with pretend sexual excitement, barely clothed while the beefy black men are swathed in white silk shirts, baggy expensive trousers and gold dripping from their long tough fingers.
So my baby sisters are prepared to be taken 'seriously' in career, 'seriously' in political rounds, 'seriously' in medical demands, but are used and abused, ignored, brushed aside by the usual round of paternalistic bosses/friends/power brokers.
As I push the mower up the incline and along the borders of my life, I realise that it is those men who are the first to laugh, deride, scoff at the 'hairy-armpitted-so-last-century-liberationists' that slurped up the gains they themselves have won.
No more opening doors, marrying the pregnant girlfriend ( to give 'it' a name), no more having to show respect, mind your language, protect and 'husband' the woman in your life and no more mowing lawns.
There is not even a counter offer of more time in the kitchen, in the children's lives, in the toilet scrubbing the stains, in the laundry separating the coloured from the whites.
Just more sex, more frequent mate-time, more freedom to drink and 'do' sport, more of the same but more.
In China there will be an excess of 30 million men(in comparison to available women) within a decade. Men without a chance in hell of getting married, having babies, a family, or even a girlfriend.
As "he who must be obeyed" said...
"Social experiments ( in this case the Chinese 'one child policy'), throughout history never work. They always present with problems unimagined."
And as my neighbour fires up her mower this morning and pushes it around her manicured lawn ( she being 62) I realise that we have paid the price of 'freedom' for our young sisters, our daughters.
They saw what we did and said;
"No way?"
They think they are better.
Did we do that? Did we give that impression thinking we were actually saying, "We are as good as that"?
3 comments:
Great post.
Interestingly enough, back in the 70's, Maryann insisted on pushing the mower, an electric one. A neighbor passing by one day had the audacity to ask me how I got her to do that. I laughed. Hell, I couldn't keep her from doing it.
There is a name for folks, primarily women, who sell themselves to anyone - prostitute.
There is a name for folks, primarily men, who sell prostitutes - pimp.
There is a name for folks, and damned few of them, who try to make a change - human beings who are becoming enlightened.
Just thinking about the Chinese "experiment" in population control causes me to shake my head in sad disbelief. When female fetuses are aborted in favor of a male fetus, and men do outnumber women by such a large number, what will happen then?
My best to you and the man "who will be obeyed".
"You don't see women of 38 minus mowing lawns."
I used to at that age, but you're right, don't see many nowadays. Think a lot of them work and hire it out.
Hi Jack. Great comments.
Yes Karen I started at 8 years of age. I did it while my brother laid on his bed and red comic books.
My older sister too busy studying to mow.
So our sisters are 'too busy'. Like...what? We who stayed at home were never busy? No just no 'spare' money to 'hire' anyone.
We thought it better to save it for our children..we thought we should raise our own kids..we thought we were responsible..we thought, it was our choice...and so we had to do it..
Now?
Childcare, grandparent care, family day care, long day care....care care care...but...
I am usurped.
I am archaic.
I am done.
Thanks for your comment.
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