by Marleen Troutt
marleen@columnist.com
Breasts. They're everywhere.
Women's body parts swarm my peripheral field in magazines, on billboards and in the flesh. But I rarely see their theories. Women are still the visual and the silent stimulus.
Traditionally we blame men for mentally probing our bodies while our beautiful minds sit dormant. We blame men for glorifying dirty sex and anemia. We blame men because we get paid less. But the truth is that we are the devisors of our own lingering oppression.
The oppressed always finds the oppressor in his or her opposite. Followers blame leaders while the boss blames the employee. The poor blame the rich while the elite blame those on welfare. The "us/them mentality" fuels every war, office conflict and race riot. We all seem to realize this is flawed, but we continue to think that way anyway.
Existentialists say we are islands in the universe, creating our own paths and defining the roles others play by our own behaviors and perceptions. Never is this clearer than in the case of the modern woman. Women still bare the scars, but the shackles have been lifted. We have crossed a threshold where we know we can do anything. However, we still choose to whore our bodies. We choose to starve ourselves in the nation of abundance. We choose to flash our panties instead of our intellect. We do not ask to be paid what we deserve. We sit outside the Oval Office instead of in it.
So why do women remain in degrading and subservient positions?
Because, ironically, this is where feminine power still resides. A more attractive female is likely to get the job and win the admiration of both male and female peers and thus succeed financially and emotionally. The western female still believes her supreme powers spring from being sexually arousing to the male. She bases almost all of her grooming habits around that - from applying lipstick to shaving off all of her body hair. If she achieves this accepted standard of beauty, she is guaranteed her slice of the "American Dream."
But women have greater tools than lipstick in their massive purses, and they may have been borne from that feminine history of subjugation. Our propensity for shopping is not some derogatory stereotype. Through centuries of markets we have found the cloth, negotiated the price and made the garment. This has made us explorers, merchants and designers.
We oversaw the household records as shrewdly as we managed laundry for our 10 children, still finding time to craft and maintain a social life. These tasks have bred us to be organizers, time managers and personnel experts. While men hunted, gathered and provided, we were the problem solvers of the most complex and important of human connections: the family. These skills blend into a guaranteed elixir for success.
Women must internalize, as men already have, that reaching the pinnacle of intellectual, political and/or social fulfillment has little to do with shaving armpits or baring skin. We affect positive change in our communities and our souls by sweating through the negative and not caring who sees it drip from our brow. We conquer injustice by going where we should go, whether or not we were invited. We capture the moment of power by forging our own destiny, not seducing the powerful to hand it over.
The Femme Factor appears every other Friday. Marleen is a senior in journalism. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Egyptian.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
