Monday, April 23, 2012

Taking action

The author of the latest MissRepresentation newsletter reminds us:
"We all have a responsibility to help one another overcome limiting labels and transform our culture at large. Together, through MissRepresentation.org, we are doing the daily work to build a more inclusive and supportive community for the next generation. And we can't stop now!  Let's use the energy and attention around women's value in America to grow and propel the campaign forward. Invite everyone you know to take the pledge at missrepresentation.org, and keep us updated on how you are making things better in your local community!"
My own tiny voice may be limited to this blog, but I feel like it's a small way to reach out to other people.  Our united voices may have the volume needed, and the MissRepresentation project and its activities are a great vehicle to make that happen.  
While I may not have a voice that reaches the masses, I can seek to encourage every young woman I know to look at MissRep or whoneedsfeminism.tumblr.com.  There are so many females who are feminists and don't realize it.  It is not a negative sense of being, and it is not shameful or "butch" to call yourself a feminist.  We don't all have gravel voices and a lust for spilling men's blood.
An old favorite quote is:
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."  Rebecca West
Wikipedia authors say Ms. West is an "English author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer" and say she was "committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the 20th century."  To me, that praise means she cared for people and knew of what she spoke.  


I hope other women with conviction continue to speak up about how society and religion continues to thrive in patriarchy.  Let's cross our fingers people keep speaking against unfair treatment and conditions that bother them.  


Only individuals who show disdain for the horrors inflicted on other people are the ones whom I believe and trust.  It's so disturbing to read daily headlines about women being judged based only on their looks, male politicians making decisions for women about their own bodies, a vast number of men who think women's sole purpose is their sexual dominance and pleasure, and where so many men are arrested for forcing themselves on naive young women or coercing them into pornography or prostitution.  


The first step necessary to stop these atrocities is to declare them WRONG.  We must speak up for the women and children.  We have to join other women and men who also find these things to be WRONG.  Each small voice, wherever it is in this world, adds up to a louder demand for the rights of women and girls in our society.    

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