Tag Archives: politics

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Thanks to Feminist Men


Dalai Lama is a Feminist

One’s – Self I Sing

“One’s self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the
Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.

————–One’s-Self I Sing, Walt Whitman

While many of us women have been working to prevent the loss of rights, I believe it is important to thank all of the men, who over the last 40 years have believed in this cause and have become feminists. Men can pay a price for caring about the equality of the genders. A feminist man is a man who is very sure of his manhood and can rejoice in a strong assertive woman. He treats his female family members and friends as equals and partners.

The Feminist man is a man of quality in the eyes of Feminist women. They are still fairly rare in 2012, however they mean so much to women who have worked for decades to right injustices and speak out for the rights of women. 2013 brings us the next opportunity to win equal rights legally. Just as every woman needs to stand up and say she wants to be equal, we need our friends, the Feminist Men to stand by us in the coming fight.

I have had conversations with men who have actually laughed-deep belly laughs-when I mentioned legal equality for women.  Why would we want to be legally equal? The simplest answer is  because it would be much harder to take rights away from us and future generations of women.  If we would take away men’s legal equality, we would see how important it feels to them.

So, to every great man who believes in equality for all, including women, thanks for caring. Thanks for standing shoulder to shoulder with us, and thanks for having the courage to stand up and speak out despite how your male friends react. The bottom line to this entire question is that all human beings are equal. All humans should be treated with the same respect and justice. May we accomplish that ultimate goal.

Protest and March for Women’s Rights With Men of Equality

A proud man of Quality

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Ninety-two Years Women have had the Vote


Ninety-two years ago, the Suffragettes won the right to vote. It was a very difficult fight. Men didn’t think we could think logically and rationally. Many didn’t think we could think about anything but the price of chopped sirloin or which tablecloth to put on  the table for Sunday dinner. Women who were not married and had no children were pitied and thought of as very different even abnormal.  Women didn’t even wear pants back then. Think about trying to accomplish a day in your life with a corset, bloomers, long sleeves and a floor length skirt on. The Suffragettes also gave us the right to throw the corsets away and breath and wear pants. Tennessee was the state that gave us enough votes to win the right to vote.

Now, it is 2012 and we have the right to vote to protect our existing rights. We need to vote for the candidate who will uphold our rights that we have now and who will work to give us legal equality next year. Think about the fact that ninety-two years after we have the vote, we still are not equal.

When you gain a right such as voting, you have a responsibility to use it. Women have a responsibility to vote this year. Our votes can make a huge difference in this election and shape the future for our daughters and granddaughters. Set the example for them to become knowledgeable about all of the issues and vote according to truth. Look into the “War on Women” and find out what the predominately male white Congress is trying to take from us. Obama  supports programs that benefit women.

I urge you to use the right the Suffragettes fought and gained for us and vote in 2012. Women need to be as outspoken about what happens in this country as the men are. We can make a difference.

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We Are Not Equal


 

Next year, 2013, women have another chance to be legally equal.  The Equal Rights Amendment will be before Congress once again. Frankly, I realize that men and many women don’t understand why this is an important piece of legislation. Congress, a majority of rich, white males will decide whether women and girls will receive equal treatment under the US Constitution. They will also decide  whether to ban sexual discrimination.  Next year is huge for the female gender.

This is not a new proposal. We worked very hard to obtain ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, We lobbied, marched and picketed in state capitals and Washington DC. We talked and explained and worked and yet the predominately male white Congress would not ratify this amendment.  We are now 12 years into the twenty-first century and we, women and girls, are not legally equal in the United States of America. This is an outrage and can’t be justified although many have tried.

Fifteen states refused to ratify this amendment in 1972. They resist efforts to change this unfair discrimination. Most of the states that did not vote to ratify the ERA, equal rights amendment, are Southern states. The female gender makes up 51% of the population of America. We are the country which is at the forefront of human rights and the majority of our citizens are not legally equal.

Our media reports about how women and girls suffer in other countries and we tell countries that they must not discriminate due to gender. We send money and officials to educate other countries and to better the status and lives of the country’s women and girls. Yet, here at home in the United States of America, women and girls continue to be discriminated against due to their sex and they continue to be the only citizens of the USA that are not legally equal under the Constitution. We are coming up to another opportunity to rectify this for the women and girls in our own country. The twenty-first century, and specifically 2013 is the year to right this wrong. Get involved. Write or email your congress people and tell them this is important to you. Find out what is happening with the ERA movement in your state.

Give us equality for all people in this world. Give us equality for women and girls in America!

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A Garden of Her Own


Photography by Barbara Mattio

I confess the title is a twist on Virginia Woolf’s A Room of Her Own. However, times have changed a lot since the days when Woolf was writing. In Woolf’s time, there was still the concept of a woman having a room where she took care of no one else and could peruse the few things in life considered appropriate for young ladies and women.  It as also a world where we were wearing corsets and breathing was a skill and swooning was the inability of the lungs to acquire the proper amount of oxygen. This also made physical exercise beyond a sedate walk quite an impossibility. So times have changed and we have changed.

The media has, of course, changed much of what happened in the 1970’s. A time came when we, who were feminists were called FemiNazis because we were expected to line up and get in our places. Being a feminist became something that some no longer wanted to admit. We had made a difference, so it was no big deal. Many people spoke up that we can accomplish everything we needed as women.

It is now the twenty-first century.  With the signing of President Obama’s equal pay law, women now will make $0.77 for every dollar a man makes for equal work. In the 1970”’s, we made $0.67 for every dollar a man made.

We worked to give women choices in the 1970’s. Many women stayed home with the children then. Many thought they were slowly losing their minds. A book called The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan came out and changed the prospects of American women. It was, for me an” aha! ” moment. Women were capable and many wanted choices. To stay home with your children, to go into the workplace, or to do both. Over the years, big business has made it almost an impossibility not to have two family incomes. So we don’t really now have the choices we worked for.

The grassroots movement against Domestic Violence began in the 1970’s and many women were able to seek legal recourse, to receive counseling, have a support system that let her start again where she and her children would be safe. We used educational programs and training for educating local police departments on how to safely answer a Domestic Violence call. Historically, more officers are injured answering a Domestic call that any other type of call.
In the twenty-first century, Domestic Violence is on the rise. FBI stats document this fact. Young women don’t understand Domestic Violence and don’t realize that when they are pushed, shoved, kicked, slapped, humiliated or even called demeaning names they are victims of Domestic Violence.

We are once again fighting for the ability to control our own bodies. They are after all, ours. We and our bodies have become a pawn in national politics and this fact is so distressing. Congress wants to be able to tell us when we can go to a doctor and when we can have procedures. They even want to be able to tell us when to have procedures.

So, we all need a room or a garden of our own. I think of my daughters and I know that they are not wearing corsets but between the demands of running a home, having a career (for those who have chosen this path), and children and husbands, they need some space for themselves. I believe that we all need the room and a garden of one’s own can be a fragrant, colorful, non-political place to breathe, be true to yourself, make decisions, and give hurried, pressured lives a time of rest and relaxation. I encourage you to try it. It also is a soothing balm for the soul.

Photography by Barbara MattioPhotography by Barbara Mattio

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The Purpose of the Marginalized


Our society has two sections, the mainstream and the marginalized. What makes up the marginalized? Important components of our culture and country. Changes of thinking, prioritizing parts of American life, immigrants, artists, circus performers, writers, poets, photographers and anyone who pulls society screaming into new ways of thinking and living.

Initial reactions to accepting new ideas and priorities are often challenging to those who have walked solidly year after year, in the right way, the mainstream. In our age, we are still working on women’s rights, hunger issues, and the rights of people who disagree with the government. I am not speaking here of homegrown terrorists. just those who are willing to think outside of the box and disagree with the powers that be.

The edges of society call for justness and fairness. They won’t settle for less. History shows us the immense changes which have been instigated by the disenfranchised or marginalized. The edges of society eventually pull society forward into the place where they are more inclusive, more tolerant, and less willing to put up with dishonesty. The colonists who began the American Revolution were fringe, and yet they founded a new country based upon freedom and democracy.  In England, they were criminals. In America, they are heroes and heroines.

So as the fringe slowly becomes the mainstream, the artist becomes well-paid, the writer is finally published, the marginalized becomes the mainstream. New fringe elements appear to challenge the acceptable, the mainstream and so on and so on. A never ending cycle, in which the marginalized move us into our own future.  If we persecute the marginalized, then, we will cease to move forward.  This is why tolerance of ideas is so important.

” I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.  I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often painful process.”   –Diana Nyad