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NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME
Can a women be elected to the presidency or vice presidency, to kick off the next century?
Certainly the Repugnants are thinking hard about it as a way to capture women's votes.
They
believe that we all will vote Repugnant if a woman is on the ticket.
They're nuts! Women are not that simple minded. Well, certainly not all of us. We've grown up enough not to be lured into the molester's car by a promise of candy. Besides, before women get on the ticket for president or vice president, we have got to make damn sure that the language is with us. Right now, it's a disaster.
Until recently, our culture has mostly considered females as incomplete adjuncts suitable only to serve and service the male.
OUR LANGUAGE (and fashion) STILL ENFORCES THIS CONCEPT, even though women have made great strides toward parity with men in this century.
Mr., Mrs., Miss (theirs) and finally (ours) -- Ms. But this attempt to have a designation that does not identify a woman's marital status is often used against us in a pejorative and scornful manner.
Or, ignored, most of the time. "Mr." Secretary of State -- sure. "Ms." Secretary of State and other cabinet officers? No!
There's more. A male president is addressed as "Mr." President, but following the precedent established in movies and T.V., we may be sure that a female president would be called "Madame" President, not Ms. President.
Madame? A French word that, in our country, means a woman who runs a brothel (whorehouse, house of ill-repute etc.)
So the husband of a woman president would logically be called the "First Pimp!" Never happen. He would be the "First Gentleman."
Well then, how about the title given to the wife of a male president? First Lady. "Lady" comes from the Brits, as in "Lords and Ladies." "Lady" denotes class, defines activity and demeanor. But WE speak of "gentlemen and ladies," NOT "lords and ladies."
If gentleman is OK, why was not (is not) gentlewoman? Congress uses this designation.
We like the words WOMAN / WOMEN, as in WOMEN'S MOVEMENT TO EQUALITY.
As in, "I am woman, hear me roar..."
"Lady" limits and defines a woman, stuffing her into a rigid corset of tradition. It is similar to the way the Women's Movement is unauthenticated by using variations of the word feminine. [See GenderGappers 1997-011 THE *F* WORD.]
Furthermore, it's not just that language is inflicted on us. Many of us insultingly refer to adult women as girls!
We call for liberation, yet accept the bondage of custom: girl talk, cover girl. Ever hear of boy talk or cover boy?
We demand equality but limit it to certain areas in our lives. For example, and currently in the news: consensual SEX!
Some women actually join the Religious Rychus ones in condemning President Clinton in the Lewinski affair. Worse still, they lament that leaders of women's groups will not denounce him. Whoa!
Of course he should have kicked Monica's ass out of the Oval Office when she bent over and twitched it at him.
But consider this. We humans are given a brain and genitals, but only enough blood to run one of these organs at a time.
Hundreds of women have gone into the Oval Office choosing to engage the President's brain while using their own. There was no "foolin' around."
By her own words, Monica Lewinski chose to arouse the other organ. "Foolin' around" did occur.
Monica testified that she was the instigator; she was not coerced or harassed; her job was not on the line; she was an adult, experienced in sex and she chose to engage in it.
If we women are to claim equality with men, then we must take *responsibility* for our own actions and stop making excuses when it comes to sex.
Monica chose NOT to pass the blame or plead her youth as an excuse for her actions. Once the jig was up, she took her share openly before a Grand Jury.
The President's critics insist that, historically and hysterically, she must blame the man, like innocent girls (!) always have done.
So why have some, supposedly intelligent women in our movement become so exercised over this? Neither infidelity nor adultery has ever been targeted by the Women's Movement.
The answer is buried in custom and tradition that has so long held women to be victims of men (especially the rich and/or powerful) because for so many centuries, WE WERE.
We hear words like, "...must be held to a higher standard..." and "...what can I tell my children?"
Oh, please. Have we not grown up enough to realize that giants are myths? That perfection, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder? That people are people no matter what their station in life is?
A scandal in the White House, you say? The scandal is our rape of Planet Earth; starving children; hopeless women and men because payments to the U.N. by our country have been held up by irreligious fundamentalists.
Let's rethink our priorities.
Perhaps if we do this we will be ready for prime time but right now, this week, the abilities and intelligence of our gender are represented all over the world by the sad and sick "girl talk" of two adult FEMALES on tape.
Compared, in the same week, to the polished, urbane, MALE, professionalism of a world class bastard -- Kenny Starr.
1998-048
Copyright 1998 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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