11-29-2008, 06:27 AM
Hi Acer. Bill Clinton isn't the definition of what's relevant regarding a woman's reproductive rights.
You want rare? Then prepare to help girls and women to not be defined primarily by their reproductive capabilities and the perceived power derived from that. Help them to grasp ahold of their own fates and not be subservient to the male engineered concepts of girlhood and womanhood. They should never have to see a Verizon commercial where the mother is serving the husband and the kids while they lounge at the dinner table and we're to assume that she was at home all day long and he was out toiling, when in reality they both likely worked an entire day, yet it was her job to in addition prepare and serve the meal while he and the kids argued over cell phones.
Prepare to teach boys and men that girls and women don't exist solely to provide erotic services, a sparkling home, ensure that their lineage is extended, tend to them when sick, all with a smile and twitch of their tail-feathers.
We live in a culture where a man is supposed to "show" that he can sustain a family before he can become eligible for mate consideration, but a woman is eligible is she makes fries at McDonalds. It perpetuates the concept that men are in the power position and that women live to serve that power instead of their own.
Too many women have babies simply to "ensure" that their men stay around (which never works). Too many men perpetuate a woman's insecurity through manipulation and selfishness. Sometimes by cherry-picking scripture that favors subservience and obedience. I've seen it all.
You have to go into affected communities to help girls understand their power. That the good tidings of the world is there for them too, not just the people they see on Tv. Nearly every kid I deal with think that college is impossible to get into. Because every news story talks about how much it costs and how competitive it is. They think it's not for them. They'll go to some TV Commercial school and end up with a giant student loan bill and no job. One girl was telling me how much Stanford costs and how only a few people can get into there. When I told her that Cal State East Bay doesn't have enough students and that it only costs a couple of thousand a year (if she lives at home) she didn't believe me. I took her there and introduced her to an admissions person.
These girls sometimes get pregnant and think that the boy is going to be there all the way. Oftentimes, it's the last time they see him. Then they look at their lives. Teens these days actually have fewer abortions than the previous generation did per capita (I've been told). They're getting it. Now only if men would.
You want rare? Then prepare to help girls and women to not be defined primarily by their reproductive capabilities and the perceived power derived from that. Help them to grasp ahold of their own fates and not be subservient to the male engineered concepts of girlhood and womanhood. They should never have to see a Verizon commercial where the mother is serving the husband and the kids while they lounge at the dinner table and we're to assume that she was at home all day long and he was out toiling, when in reality they both likely worked an entire day, yet it was her job to in addition prepare and serve the meal while he and the kids argued over cell phones.
Prepare to teach boys and men that girls and women don't exist solely to provide erotic services, a sparkling home, ensure that their lineage is extended, tend to them when sick, all with a smile and twitch of their tail-feathers.
We live in a culture where a man is supposed to "show" that he can sustain a family before he can become eligible for mate consideration, but a woman is eligible is she makes fries at McDonalds. It perpetuates the concept that men are in the power position and that women live to serve that power instead of their own.
Too many women have babies simply to "ensure" that their men stay around (which never works). Too many men perpetuate a woman's insecurity through manipulation and selfishness. Sometimes by cherry-picking scripture that favors subservience and obedience. I've seen it all.
You have to go into affected communities to help girls understand their power. That the good tidings of the world is there for them too, not just the people they see on Tv. Nearly every kid I deal with think that college is impossible to get into. Because every news story talks about how much it costs and how competitive it is. They think it's not for them. They'll go to some TV Commercial school and end up with a giant student loan bill and no job. One girl was telling me how much Stanford costs and how only a few people can get into there. When I told her that Cal State East Bay doesn't have enough students and that it only costs a couple of thousand a year (if she lives at home) she didn't believe me. I took her there and introduced her to an admissions person.
These girls sometimes get pregnant and think that the boy is going to be there all the way. Oftentimes, it's the last time they see him. Then they look at their lives. Teens these days actually have fewer abortions than the previous generation did per capita (I've been told). They're getting it. Now only if men would.