The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says:
“It’s a girl.” — Shirley Chisholm
When my art and quote series came to the end of Black History Month, I thought I had run the course, and then discovered that March dovetailed into Women’s History Month.
I posted an image and quote… one of my favorites, from Susan B. Anthony: “Men, their rights, and nothing more; Women, their rights, and nothing less.” I was going to post that and be done. I mentioned it on the Facebook post that I might post a few more but that would be about it. I then heard back from more than a few women who encouraged me to post every day. It got me thinking about how easy, as a male, it is to take women’s struggles for granted. How they’re slighted almost every day… and how that’s occurred throughout the history of the human race. It made me think of what kind of world I wanted for my wife and my 5-year old daughter. It wasn’t the first time I had thought about that, but for it did make me start digging into the women’s movement and reading up on some of the leaders of the Womens Rights Movement. The Civil Rights poster I did included a lot of women who really made an impact, and I noticed that most if not all of them worked a lot on women’s rights, as well. The two movements were parallel in so many ways.
I had posted quotes during Black History Month of women synonymous with the Civil Rights movement that were aimed squarely at the rights of women. Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Mary White Ovington and many more. I then thought about how so many men would engage for the rights of others while ignoring what happens within their own homes.
I read a speech by Abigail Kelly Foster delivered in 1851 at a Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, MA. It was powerful and moving and contained this:
“I put this before men. If we could look under and within the broadcloth and the velvet, we should find as many breaking hearts, and as many sighs and groans, and as much of mental anguish, as we find in the parlor, as we find in the nursery of any house in Worcester.” —Abigail Kelly Foster
This was not a speech that simply laid the blame on men, either. It was a sober analysis of where men and women each fell short in creating an equal and righteous society.
I started posting regularly on Facebook and Twitter. Helped by some retweets and shares (from Martina Navratilova, the great folks at Moonalice and others) it’s found a slightly wider audience. Feel free to follow along. I’m inspired by their words and hope you are, too… but, in any case: Get engaged in the political process in a way that gathers people to the cause instead of alienating them. We’re all going to need each other in November.
One doesn’t need to go any farther than Twitter to see the sexism and misogyny are still rampant in our society and around the world.
To quote Susan B. Anthony: “There is so much yet to be done.”