Two Things You Need To Read Now
August 31st 2008 11:21
Those of us in the West often forget that we're living a life of privilege. We have food, clothing, shelter. WalMarts, internet cafes, bottled water, the things that so many don't have and may never see. So I think it's extremely important that we stop and look at the conditions women in other parts of the world have to face. Not just look at it, think about it, let it soak in, get angry, shake your fist, use your voice to let others know.
Twisty has one post up that you should read. Imagine that you are taken, shot, and buried alive for wanting to marry someone of your choosing. It sounds outrageous here, but in some parts of the world it still happens. The deed was written off as a "tribal custom", a custom instead of a brutal murder of three teenage girls and two adult women for daring to speak their minds about who they want to marry.
Once you've wrapped your head around this barbaric act, turn your attention to Womanist Musings. We often talk about poverty here in the Western world, but can you imagine being so poor, so desperate that you would sell your own child into sexual slavery just to be able to feed the rest of your family? Think for a moment about how desperate you have to be, what conditions you must be living in, how the culture around you conditions you to think and feel about your own daughters. Of course, as it's pointed out, we play a part in the poverty that drags families into this kind of desperation.
Go, read both of these posts. Then think about what you can do, what you can say, what small part you can play in not just these instances but the millions of other cases all around the world.
Twisty has one post up that you should read. Imagine that you are taken, shot, and buried alive for wanting to marry someone of your choosing. It sounds outrageous here, but in some parts of the world it still happens. The deed was written off as a "tribal custom", a custom instead of a brutal murder of three teenage girls and two adult women for daring to speak their minds about who they want to marry.
The idea that cultural tradition might even fleetingly be construed by supposedly civilized beings as an excuse for ritual murder is the direct result of the same global misogynist paradigm that brings us “harmless” Western-style femininity, Jesus, the nuclear family, street harrassment, pornography, and rape culture. I am not moron enough to suggest that Western Internet-feminists can prevent barbarism through blogging, but we can damn well get the word out.
As western citizens daily we participate in trade that has a negative impact on the rest of the globe. When we grocery shop, or make debt laden trips to Walmart, what we are doing is supporting a global economy that exists through the exploitation of cheap labour in third world countries. When we purchase a bunch of bananas for thirty-nine cents a pound what this means is that the worker that grew and picked those bananas did not get paid. We exist with a sense of entitlement. Through an accident of birth westerners have come to see consuming as an inalienable right despite the fact that our over consumption of the worlds goods relegates the majority of humanity to poverty and suffering.
Go, read both of these posts. Then think about what you can do, what you can say, what small part you can play in not just these instances but the millions of other cases all around the world.
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