Let me acknowledge this darkness, its pain and its fears.
Let me report what I have seen in this world I have chosen to love.
Let me say this:
no to the woman with the bandaged gash on her forehead serving her husband at the dinner table
no to the woman kneeling in her pew in her best Sunday hat in preparation for being insulted from the pulpit
no to the woman with daintily crossed ankles waiting for someone, anyone, to ask her to dance
no to the woman doctor refusing to prescribe birth control unless the girl’s pious parents sign for it
no to male egos that love to be coddled by women’s love and then despise the lovers for loving
no to greedy women who make it even more difficult for the rest of us
no to genital mutilations, physical and emotional
no to the stranglehold on all of our desires
no to prurient Lolita worship
no to good-natured Molly Bloom contempt
no to everything that forces us to choose between prudery and promiscuity
no to women who refuse to be feminists, even though that includes beauties like Doris Lessing and Mary Oliver, whom I love
no to the concept of post-feminism—it isn’t over until beauty sings
no to a mother being expected to suffer and then smile anyway
no to people who want us to smile and get over it rather than reporting our pain
no to the teenage brother whose ears turn pink at his sister’s first period
no to embarrassment
no to an orthodox Jewish men’s prayer that thanks god for not having created them women
no to the newly married woman who gives up teaching because her husband’s religion forbids that any woman should teach any male, even a little boy in pre-school ballet
no to the anger that half of the human race is so accepting of the status quo that would make me and mine be his servants in hell rather than having an equal in heaven
no to women dwindling upon marriage out of kindness
no to women earning jewels and mansions and political office by cajoling the status quo
no to giving less importance to preparing a woman for childbirth than to preparing men for killing other mother’s children
no to the discomfort of having to say no
no to the religions of nothingness, nirvana, the next life, this life nailed to the cross or being dismissed as illusion
I am not an illusion and my day is dawning. I will praise it and the beauty I will find.
Photo Credit: DeeAshley Flickr via Compfight cc
Wow Beate! You said it all! What a powerful piece of writing. I’m with you 100%. Great to see you too on FC! I love this publication and Julie, darling Julie the editor! Thank you for your thoughtfulness and depth.
Fondly,
Susan xo
-_Dear, Beate,
So happy to see your beautiful, powerful words on Feminine Collective.
Luv U. x