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Whoo Hoo....Hello My Lovely Goddesses & Goddess Worshipers,
Yay- Springtime....
Here are the facts, just the facts. A simple list. Draw your own you-a-licious conclusion!
10. Death Match: Rabid Feminist vs Saccharine Pageant Princess. The other day I was minding my business, loafing off from my 15 jobs and I decided to do a little media research. You may call this channel surfing. Anyway, I happened upon the TV show Wife Swap. The premise of the show is for two families on the opposite ends of any spectrum to swap moms for a week. It’s like Freaky Friday on crack. Hilarity Ensues. I wondered why people would sign up for such an invasive social experiment until I learned that they make around twenty thousand bucks for their week of troubles. Understood. Catch me on the right week and for 20K I might trade spaces with the old lady next door married to the guy I secretly suspect may be a war criminal.
Anyway, the episode headline was PAGEANT QUEEN SWAPS WITH FEMINIST. Being a feminist who has been a pageant queen, I was amused. It was all so cookie cutter and stereotypical. The pageant queen mom was probably the one mother in America who only wanted her daughter to only look good and frowned upon studying. The feminist mother was against any attempts at beautification, which they called glitter, at first. The whole thing played into the aren’t we done with that yet myth that feminists all are butchy Birkenstock wearers. Not that anything is wrong with butchy Birkenstock wearers, but the whole thing was just more than ridiculous. Where did they find these people?
9. Ninety nine problems. The New York Post reported that presidential candidate Barack Obama entered a rally to Jay Z’s hit song 99 Problems, which touts the lyrics “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one.” I don’t know Barack Obama, but from what I do know of him, I doubt that he would personally choose to play a song like this as a put down to Hilary Clinton. However, it made me sad when I looked up the video on youtube and one of the comments on the song was from a guy saying, “Yeah, Hilary is a bitch.” This is problematic on so many levels.
8. The Hillary – Obama "Question." Feminism still matters because in this post millennial universe where so many nations, Western, developing and otherwise have been led by women, it is still a question in America. “Are we ready for a female president?” “Is America ready,” everyone seems to be asking. “Are we ready for a black president?” It is extremely unfortunate for us that we would still feel the need to even ponder this.
7. Afrodite Superstar. I direct feminist art films. My themes and topics have included spousal abuse, mental illness, interracial love and erotica. That’s right, erotica. What the heck does this have to do with feminism? In some countries in Africa and the middle east, female genital circumcision is practiced as a way of controlling girls and women. For example, it is preached that women who have a clitoris are dangerous as a clitoris only exists for purposes of pleasure. So they excise the clitoris. Barbaric, right? Much like the fact that vaginal tightening and rejuvenation as a gift for one’s spouse is on the rise.
At any rate, in America, women’s pleasure is seen as dangerous too. We are only to be bodies, passively seen and not heard. Our voices must be represented on all fronts. There is a place for pleasure in communities that have been traditionally victimized. We can’t be politically empowered if we don’t first own our bodies and feel emotionally empowered as well.
6. V is for Victory. I have worked with Eve Ensler’s V-Day on the mission of stopping violence against women and girls. You know Eve, right? She’s the goddess who wrote the revolutionary Vagina Monologues and made us all feel comfortable saying the V word. Eve Ensler is an activist, playwright and tireless advocate for the safety and health of women worldwide. When I created the Vagina Warriors Film Festival as a part of her initiative, an associate asked me: “If you are not getting paid for this, why are you doing it? Aren’t women’s rights solved?” I broke it all down for her and explained that women still make cents on the dollar as compared to men for equal work. Furthermore, the New York City Museum who was hosting the festival asked me to change the name to the Until the Violence Stops Film Festival because they didn’t think that their conservative patrons would feel comfortable attending an event call Vagina Warriors. Yeesh! What was that part about us all becoming comfortable again?
5. Street Harassment. Yes, I have a big butt. Butts like mine unfortunately pepper music videos and illicit magazine covers. This does not give you the right, cat callers and wolf whistlers, to abuse me with your words on the street. How dare you? Does this work for you as a way to “pick up” women? Being a man does not give you dominion over women you don’t know on the street, no matter how complimentary you think that you are being. Holla back, y’all.
4. Robin Givens, Mike Tyson and The Beauty Queen. I think that we have come to agree after boxer Mike Tyson bit off opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear that Tyson is a deeply troubled man to say the least, right? Last year, his ex, actress Robin Givens wrote an autobiography detailing their violent relationship. I was with friends and someone mentioned the book. Several people in the room started carrying on about how Givens was a gold digging bitch who had set Tyson up to look bad, in addition to further arguing that the beauty queen that he was convicted of raping was also a lying bitch. Both of these women it was concluded were trying to milk Tyson out of his money. How ridiculous that a man who has a recorded history of drug and bipolar issues, violence and anger problems, would be given the benefit of the doubt over women claiming to be his victims. Wow.
3. MY Favorite Magazines. A beau of mine came a’calling the other afternoon. He was surprised to find a pile of periodical research in the corner of the living room. You may call them fashion magazines. As he held up the copies in amusement and as if he had caught me with Penthouse, I explained for him that these magazines, surprisingly, had really meaningful articles. And I’m not just talking the best ways to freshen your eyeliner. Yeah, I buy them for the articles, that’s the ticket. I dared him to pick any two mags from the stack. I opened and spun through his first random choice—BAM—an article on women in Afghanistan. He handed me the other—BAM--- an article on female genital circumcision. Yup. They hide the vitamins in candy. These are not articles that they would list on their front covers though. They are always well researched, personal, well written, and in every magazine, but hidden. Why?
2. My Rap Chicas, Where u At? For most female rappers, their posters sell better than their music. So you wanna look at us but not hear what we have to say, is that it?! Ai Dios Mio. The whole thing is so distressing that I tabled my own personal coming of age tale and centered my whole hip hop feminist debut novel Dare around it. Dare is about a sociologist who goes undercover as an emcee and discovers that she likes her new life better than her old one. Women in hip hop, stand up.
1. The F Word. On my BET J TV show, someone asked me once whether I am more black or more a woman, as if I could split myself in two. My allegiance is to overall well being and wholeness. For me, feminism means the equality of all people. Gender-wise, I only focus on women because this is where the inequity lies. The very fact is that feminism is the real f-word that no one wants to be identified with is reason number one of why feminism still matters. Hey-- call it womanism if that soothes your soul. Call it whatever. Just call on yourself to stand up and be counted, my male and female feminists. Rock on!
