*sounds of intense frustration fill the air around my mouth*
*fingers pound keys as if the letters are to blame*
*glares are sent in the general direction of American Republican senators*
Yeah, that's right, I'm looking at you guys. (not you guys, Vita and Rena, those guys. Just clarifying.)
I had something else planned for today's blog. I'm not sure what it was but if it was organized and formulated, it's gone now. It has been replaced and drowned out by the news my mother told me over breakfast that yesterday there were a whole bunch of idiots sitting in their fancy suits and voting, under the guise of representing what the American people want, about whether or not women should be paid fairly. And they ended up saying, "You know what guys? Let's not pay women the same amount of money that we pay men for doing THE SAME JOB. Let's put our foot down on equality and revert to the same unjust principles we had before. Let's put women back in the kitchen, where they belong, and pretend none of this 'fairness' ever happened. Sound cool?"
I'm not American. But I am mad. And not only at those Republicans who will vote how they're told and try to eliminate the equality that the rest of us are fighting for. I'm past being mad at them. No, I'm angry because when I checked my email this morning, I was not bombarded with news stories about this horrible event. I'm disappointed that there's no Twitter trends to reflect how plain wrong this is. I'm aghast that I'm not hearing about women rioting in the street all over America right now. Why aren't there more hits when I Google this incident?
Does no one care? Are we that ready to hand over those 23 cents for every dollar* we make? Are we that prepared to go back to ironing and keeping quiet and letting men speak for us?
Next thing you know, they're going to be telling women we can't vote anymore. Will we all raise our fists then?
I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about 58 people who have mothers and sisters and wives and daughters and who could actually vote against what is fair. I can't stop imagining how anyone could justify taking that fairness away. To prove they could? This is appalling.
And so I write out this blog, screaming these frustrated words into the internet because this can't be real. Do I really live in a world where a government actively takes rights away from women? Can this actually be happening? The scary truth is that it is real and it is happening.
On one hand, I'm in despair, hopeless for this failed attempt at human consciousness. What is one thing we humans have got right? Maybe we should be dissolving, making way for a worthwhile species to inhabit this planet.
On the other hand, I'm wondering what we're going to do about it. Maybe this will be the moment when we get to define ourselves. Something that pulls us together and snaps us out of our apathy. This could be our time.
As I said, I'm not an American. I am a woman, though, and I am affected by this. I'm also enraged and this blog is only a tiny step but it's the first of many. I'm urging every one of you who is reading this to get furious. Speak up, talk to your friends, family and acquaintances, call your politicians. We are allowed to be ANGRY.
This isn't fair and I decided a long time ago that I was going to stop taking it. We, and not just women but everyone, need to put our foot (feet?) down. And this is the sound of my own sock foot hitting the floor of my dining room. Metaphorically.
What does your foot sound like?
p.s. It's funny this happened the day before the midnight release of Harry Potter. I find it fitting, really. Honestly, if there's one theme (other than love) that rings through in the Harry Potter series, isn't it about equality? Isn't it that we're all worthy of rights, whether we're Muggles, Muggleborns, or the spawn of known Muggle/Muggleborn haters? Hasn't Jo said a thousand times that we need to promote, protect and fight for our fairness? There's something in that.
*That's an average of $10,000 dollars a year that each woman makes less than a man of the same profession.
1 comment:
PREACH IT.
I didn't even know about this. What a failure of a citizen I am. SLASH nobody loves women enough to make this big news (kidding) :(
In all seriousness, though, this is bullshit and makes me want to punch somebody. LOOK. I acknowledge that there are biological differences between men and women. I acknowledge that men and women are naturally better equipped to do certain things. I also acknowledge that a large minority of men and women break these loosely drawn gender lines all the time, and why the heck would you oppose that? EQUALITY LAWS DO NOT MAKE AMERICA A COMMUNIST COUNTRY. We're not saying that men and women are the same: only that they have the right to start off from the same level ground as each other, and from then on, it's up to them/nature/whatever to decide how successful they become at it. WHICH MEANS, we NEED equal wages for men and women doing the same job -- from then on, it's up to the individual to become successful at their job!
DEAR SENATORS, WHY ARE YOU SUCH ASSHOLES? SINCERELY, VITA
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