Chains
A few months ago I had the pleasure of experiencing the culmination of my degree in the form of a written thesis which pulled together my work in literature, some linguistics, cultural studies, women’s studies, creative writing, some degree of technology from years past, a seasoning of my own life’s work being pulled together into the pages, and of course a great deal of reflection. I cried. A lot. It was one of the most intense works I’ve written, at this point you are free to wonder if it was still an academic piece… yes, yes it was.
I would like to start with, this is not a political piece!! and continue with this is an emotional post for me to write and I do hope that if there is anything that you take away from it, it is not a line draw in the sand but a sympathy and a place in society that needs love and nurturing, a sensual look if you will.
To continue with where I was going, my thesis was a reflection on a gender writing that helped America to see some of the frustration women and men both felt in gender rolls that were culturally acceptable at the time. Both genders suffered, women especially were made to live within a role that prevented freedoms to pursue simple passions. Fictional pieces were written to help society to see issues that were not openly discussed, they were taboo, but these writings helped to spur change.
America would like to think that they are socially progressive and able to move forward through these road blocks. Some in the education field find literature an old fashioned educational field with little to offer society. Yet some of these lessons seem to reoccur in society. Our recent election offers one such example to teach.
Within minutes of President elect Trump closing in on election victory statistics started to barrage American voters. Sad for one I can remember a time in our beloved country when we taught our children that our votes were a private, and somewhat sacred matter of pride for the individual. Instead now we use our votes to shame our women votes for their level of education, where the gap of a few percentages of the statistic is enough to find and guilt women for not supporting a fellow women, are we back in the 1800’s?
Statistics do not account for the type of education these women have, the passions they follow, the reason they felt that particular day in the voting booth that America needed whomever it was that they voted for. Frankly we should be ashamed that we would state that the uneducated women are those voting for a candidate… shame on us America for creating the very demographic barriers in society that we’ve been fighting to stop. Why fight for pay raises if we are going to cut women down for their choices in freedom at the voting booth?
Stop turning people into statistics, categories, and numbers to move around your board like chess pieces and perhaps society will come together on its own a bit easier.