Local interests
Oct. 29th, 2003 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowThe weather is getting cooler, and they have high hopes that this will dampen the fires. I hope they're right.
Went to the opening of a school based health clinic this morning, which was nice. 10, 000 students and their siblings will be served by this clinic, in an area that is criminally underserved. There are more underinsured children in the San Fernando Valley than anywhere else in the United States. Health Care should be available and accessible to everyone. I am a diehard Democrat, although I'm looking disgustedly at my party and at the part lines, and I want to know why its not a priority, why health care and education and social services are something that my party feels comfortable compromising on. I want to know why we didn't put up a fight over the passage of No Child Left Behind.
I also wanted to talk, briefly, about being a girl in this society, because my snippet yesterday touched a nerve in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kernezelda and it's not that I want to explain myself so much as talk about where that comes from.
I'm lucky. I'm an only child - never had to live with my stepsisters - from a liberal, progressive family. There was no one who ever told me I couldn't be, do or say anything I wanted to. Well, there was no one in my household who said that. My grandfather thought girls were secondary, had two of his own, and never thought they were as worthwhile as his son. He loved his kids, hell he even liked his kids, but there's the rub, there was first and there was second.
We have big family gatherings, lots of people, lots of food, lots of work and my uncle and my cousin sit in front of the T.V., bitch about dinner, don't clean up. And it's accepted, just accepted, and it infuriates me.
Women still make less money than men do, for the same jobs, still get relegated to making things pretty. One of my best friends is a landscape architect, has the same degree, better references, better professional standing than the men in her office, and she's asked to do the surface stuff, and her frustration is growing.
Yes, women are doctors and lawyers, politicians and rocket scientists and poets and teachers and mothers and all of those things, but we still struggle. We are still the caretakers, the peacemakers, all of those things. We still struggle between being liked and being respected, between the dichotomies of what we can and should say and do, and it just isn't fair.
And we raise our daughters with the same insecurities because how can we not. Even in fic, and this is going to sound absurb because I do it myself, we talk about how beautiful the women are as if that's the first thing that comes to mind. Because it is. And obviously, a huge part of that is the medium - television is visual, the actors are supposed to look their best, and we're drawn in by the pretty and the shiny, but we don't love the characters because of their beauty. We love them for their strength, and like their beauty. And its started to make me crazy to read fic where someone's loved because they're beautiful, like it's part of their personality. Why don't we expect more from our characters and ourselves in portraying them?
All right, so I didn't really raise any questions, and I didn't really answer any, and I really do know we've come a long way from where women where 50 years ago. I know it's a good sign that my 14 year old students can't wrap their minds around the idea of women being second class citizens, and believe me, telling 14 year olds that part of that could be the bias of the researcher who studied those early societies and interpreted women's status as lesser really doesn't go a long way towards alleviating their skepticism, but thank god they're in a position to find it absurd, to question it.
But I see girls dropping out at 14, becoming pregnant because that's what is expected, I see insurance companies declining to pay for birth control, but happy to pay for Viagra, I see a lot things that put women second. And I still see women making the sacrifices, financially, socially, emotionally, and while it's not true for all women, it's still true for so many.
I just, I guess I still want us equal. I want women to not be embarrassed or ashamed of feminism - although there are plenty of feminists out there than I'm ashamed of - but mostly I want us aware, in our thoughts and actions, of why we do things, how we react, to each other, to situations.
I watched the West Wing episode where Ainsley talks about not supporting the ERA. And I thought she was absurd, because the 14th amendment does not make us equal, make us citizens, and I don't believe that stating equivically that we are equal and should be paid in accordance is a lessening of freedom, but some of that I think is Sorkin trying to interpret a Republican point of view while keeping the character intelligent and sympathetic, so I should probably cut them some slack.
So maybe, today, say something outrageous, or act out, or demand to be listened to or looked at or talked to. Maybe push and pull, and be less nice, and laugh inapporpriately, or tell a dirty joke, or tell a 14 year old that she has a great future ahead of her, whether she wants to be a mom, or a teacher, or the president. That she has to go to class, and read all the pages in the book, and use birth control, because yes that boy is damn cute, but he'll be a hell of a lot less cute when he won't get out of bed to change the baby's diapers.
Went to the opening of a school based health clinic this morning, which was nice. 10, 000 students and their siblings will be served by this clinic, in an area that is criminally underserved. There are more underinsured children in the San Fernando Valley than anywhere else in the United States. Health Care should be available and accessible to everyone. I am a diehard Democrat, although I'm looking disgustedly at my party and at the part lines, and I want to know why its not a priority, why health care and education and social services are something that my party feels comfortable compromising on. I want to know why we didn't put up a fight over the passage of No Child Left Behind.
I also wanted to talk, briefly, about being a girl in this society, because my snippet yesterday touched a nerve in
kernezelda and it's not that I want to explain myself so much as talk about where that comes from.I'm lucky. I'm an only child - never had to live with my stepsisters - from a liberal, progressive family. There was no one who ever told me I couldn't be, do or say anything I wanted to. Well, there was no one in my household who said that. My grandfather thought girls were secondary, had two of his own, and never thought they were as worthwhile as his son. He loved his kids, hell he even liked his kids, but there's the rub, there was first and there was second.
We have big family gatherings, lots of people, lots of food, lots of work and my uncle and my cousin sit in front of the T.V., bitch about dinner, don't clean up. And it's accepted, just accepted, and it infuriates me.
Women still make less money than men do, for the same jobs, still get relegated to making things pretty. One of my best friends is a landscape architect, has the same degree, better references, better professional standing than the men in her office, and she's asked to do the surface stuff, and her frustration is growing.
Yes, women are doctors and lawyers, politicians and rocket scientists and poets and teachers and mothers and all of those things, but we still struggle. We are still the caretakers, the peacemakers, all of those things. We still struggle between being liked and being respected, between the dichotomies of what we can and should say and do, and it just isn't fair.
And we raise our daughters with the same insecurities because how can we not. Even in fic, and this is going to sound absurb because I do it myself, we talk about how beautiful the women are as if that's the first thing that comes to mind. Because it is. And obviously, a huge part of that is the medium - television is visual, the actors are supposed to look their best, and we're drawn in by the pretty and the shiny, but we don't love the characters because of their beauty. We love them for their strength, and like their beauty. And its started to make me crazy to read fic where someone's loved because they're beautiful, like it's part of their personality. Why don't we expect more from our characters and ourselves in portraying them?
All right, so I didn't really raise any questions, and I didn't really answer any, and I really do know we've come a long way from where women where 50 years ago. I know it's a good sign that my 14 year old students can't wrap their minds around the idea of women being second class citizens, and believe me, telling 14 year olds that part of that could be the bias of the researcher who studied those early societies and interpreted women's status as lesser really doesn't go a long way towards alleviating their skepticism, but thank god they're in a position to find it absurd, to question it.
But I see girls dropping out at 14, becoming pregnant because that's what is expected, I see insurance companies declining to pay for birth control, but happy to pay for Viagra, I see a lot things that put women second. And I still see women making the sacrifices, financially, socially, emotionally, and while it's not true for all women, it's still true for so many.
I just, I guess I still want us equal. I want women to not be embarrassed or ashamed of feminism - although there are plenty of feminists out there than I'm ashamed of - but mostly I want us aware, in our thoughts and actions, of why we do things, how we react, to each other, to situations.
I watched the West Wing episode where Ainsley talks about not supporting the ERA. And I thought she was absurd, because the 14th amendment does not make us equal, make us citizens, and I don't believe that stating equivically that we are equal and should be paid in accordance is a lessening of freedom, but some of that I think is Sorkin trying to interpret a Republican point of view while keeping the character intelligent and sympathetic, so I should probably cut them some slack.
So maybe, today, say something outrageous, or act out, or demand to be listened to or looked at or talked to. Maybe push and pull, and be less nice, and laugh inapporpriately, or tell a dirty joke, or tell a 14 year old that she has a great future ahead of her, whether she wants to be a mom, or a teacher, or the president. That she has to go to class, and read all the pages in the book, and use birth control, because yes that boy is damn cute, but he'll be a hell of a lot less cute when he won't get out of bed to change the baby's diapers.
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YES YES YES!!!
Date: 2003-10-29 01:57 pm (UTC)Re: YES YES YES!!!
Date: 2003-10-29 02:38 pm (UTC)