Don’t You Dare!
Women need to use what we already know to deal with sexism and racism
Another woman, another target
Almost immediately after I felt a flood of joy at the potential that Kamala Harris had a huge shot at the presidency, I became uneasy. The very attributes that energized me — gender and race — began to scare me.
They hit me in the place I’ve lived for 71 years. That place has been divided for so long into male and female, and black and white, that I can become numb to it.
That we as women are so underrepresented in the leadership of governments, businesses, professionals and clergy, seems on the face of it to be just cause to throw heavy furniture. It is only when I started crying at her speech, that I registered the fact that something is so very wrong and has been since the beginning of time. Why? Why?
The powerful weapon
Shame. As much as we don’t want to admit that we are victims of it, most of us are. We are socialized to be well behaved, to be pretty, to be deferential. We don’t make scenes. We are smart, but not threatening. We don’t stand up for ourselves. We take it. We are helpful.
We are praised for being cute, pretty, adorable, but as we get older those comments bite us in the ass. We get just enough of the…
