Here I go again...

So. It’s a family joke that I’m a feminist. I don’t consider myself a feminist, but I do think in general women are not viewed with as much respect as men are. Popular culture doesn’t help – songs, movies, TV shows, and video games depicting violence against women by men perpetuate the cycle. Even though it’s supposed to be “just a song/show/game and not real” we, as a society, do eventually become indifferent to it. How often do we see a strong, self assured woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to stand up for herself being called a bitch (or worse) - for "acting like a man".

Wait!!! Don't click away yet. That’s not where I was intending to go with this post. I started out with the intent of bringing this to your attention. The only thing she did was stand up for women’s rights – the right not to be beaten by your husband, the right not to be genitally mutilated, the right to be a person and not property. While the whole issue is political in nature, a free speech issue really - she spoke out openly against the Muslim religion - the underlying issuse is that she was speaking out against the oppressive treatment of women. She now has no chance of staying alive without protection - because she spoke out against the mistreatment of women.


As angry as it makes me, I do not know if I would have the courage to do what she did. Her life has been turned upside down and a very violent death is a daily concern/probability for her. What if this was your sister? or daughter?


I not sure how to express what I'm trying to say. Maybe if we didn't debase/disrespect/degrade women on a dialy basis more people would see this issue as something of importance. If more people spoke up for the rights of women in Muslim countries/communities, maybe their lives could be better. It has to start somewhere, anywhere. We read about women in this century who are condemned to death by stoning for sex outside of marriage, and are horrified. But look at our reactions to similar (I use that term very loosely) situations here in the USA. If a starlet has sex with more than one man she's a slut and you joke about the diseases living in her va-jay-jay, whereas if a male actor has sex with several females he's a stud and you wish you had his penis. Double standard much? It's all related, whether you see it or not.