It's Saturday night, and I've had a few glasses of wine. I've been listening to some of my favorite music and reading the headlines. It's amazing how one can be so antithetical to the other.
My playlist includes greatness of the 80s and early 90s, including The Cure, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Berlin, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pebbles (yes, I really am that eclectic). I am a child of the 80s and a young woman of the 90s. I grew up in an age where I was told that the world was my oyster. The many, many women who trailblazed the path before me left me with the indelible belief that I could be anyone, any thing I wanted to be. I was to be as assertive/aggressive as I wanted to be. Fuck convention. The doors were open, and I was going through it with shit-kicker heels.
Yes, the 80s and 90s were my decades. And the men I encountered during that time were amazing. They loved strong women; they loved our assertiveness. It was almost as if it were a "thank you" to the passivity of women of days past, where there was a dependency upon men to be the sole bread winner, the sole supporter of family, there was almost a sense of relief, and a feeling of equality.
I share my experiences as a woman of the mid-adlantic, Philadelphia to be more exact. I found the men I encountered were secure enough in their masculinity to go toe-to-toe with a woman of intelligence and strength, women who embraced their sexuality and didn't shy away from it. It really was an amazing, liberating time.
Now, I see many men - simple, insecure, petty men - who hate women for their strength, their independence, their AUTONOMY. Their only thought is to PUNISH them. And sadly, it is women - simple, insecure, petty women - who are aiding and abetting them in this witch hunt. Look at Texas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, to name a few. Do you really think that any self-respecting woman in those states would have allowed such draconian legislation that has passed to have passed? Hell to the NO!
A REAL MAN, YES I SAID IT, A REAL MAN, does not feel threatened by equal protection under the law for women. A REAL MAN will hold women to the same standards and rights to which he is entitled to under the law. A REAL MAN does not hold himself sovereign over a women; he welcomes her as his partner and equal. A REAL MAN does not dominate, but looks to his partner for guidance. A REAL MAN does not feel threatened when challenged intellectually. Take a look at our current Congress. How many fail the aforementioned criteria laid forth?
Bring it. All comments welcome.
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