Free use image copyright Javier Rodriguez on Pixabay
Translation: we always have to recreate a tongue that shows respect for the woman if we walked for a moment in her shoes we would feel indignant
the magic has gone
from the soulless holy days
nothing is special
remember childhood
when holidays were magic
the veil was thinner
at midnight we heard
the spirit of the season
singing lullaby
now what goes between
disdain in each eye contact
when strangers first meet
no magic words now
can't compensate for the hate
fear of the unknown
like our ancestors
demand self-deprecation
from every woman
measuring her worth
based on the size of her hips
is misogyny
aura of the past
surrounding the present time
fertile ground for hate
new wokeness seems
it's the same misogyny
with a fresh accent
will we ever wake
will truth see the light of day
blowing in the wind
~cie~
noted
Hate has many faces, all of them ugly. This poem addresses the ways in which the misogyny that distressed me as a young girl, inspiring me to secretly declare myself a feminist when I was eight years old, is alive and well today with a new coat of paint.
Women are no longer expected by society as a whole to live on an allowance doled out by their patronizing husbands while they keep a spotless house, cook a perfect dinner, and populate the world. We are, however, still expected to be helpmeets to men, to not have too many aspirations of our own, to keep our discomfort to ourselves, to capitulate to the demands of others, and to look like a Stepford wife with sex-hungry eyes and the body of a teenage girl who happens to have perfect double d-cup breasts while doing so.
Women who speak up for the needs and rights of women are still threatened with corrective rape and called all manner of humiliating names. These days, these threats are made in the name of "wokeness" and a perverse brand of "inclusivity" that excludes women while calling itself "feminism" and in which women are shouted down for using words to describe our own anatomy and health issues or for using words such as "mother" or "breastfeeding." Meanwhile, nobody seems to have a problem with the word "father," or with anyone saying that men get prostate cancer, and men are not expected to share their changing rooms with those with female anatomy for the sake of "inclusivity."
It's a step well backward in the name of progress. I really should not be surprised that women are the ones to suffer under the new woke boss, who just happens to be the same as the old, unwoke boss but is wearing a hip new suit and drinking a fair-trade latte while he tweets out profanity-laced pejoratives to the "transphobic" cunts who dare to question why we can't say the word "woman" when talking about women's health and who take issue with the idea of sharing our changing rooms with a bearded man with meat and veg fully intact. Women who wish to have a female caregiver or health care provider for intimate care or invasive examinations are labeled hateful and told that we are "weaponizing our trauma."
Those who have been smart enough to avoid Twitter (I was for a long time, but, unfortunately, the book reviews and promotions necessitated me taking it up again) may not be aware of these peculiar developments and think that I am being overly dramatic. Sadly, I am not.
I have become more aware than ever in the past five years that both the right and the left hate women. The right clothes their hate in "family values" and religious doctrine while the left demands that women be "inclusive" and "flexible", by which they mean framing women's issues to include men, all while looking and acting like porn stars 24-7.
And that is the delightful place from which today's happy little verse springs.
the prompts
Word List
Magic
Holidays/Holy Days
Ancestors
childhood
special
veil
between
Midnight
Aura
Hips
Strangers
Self-Deprecation
Words
Disdain
Find
Woman
Lullaby
Compensate
Accent
Eye Contact
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