Revised Draft Post

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

November 26, 2012

Jean Kilbourne

1234 Kilbourn Ln.

Jeantowne, MI 11111

Dear Ms. Kilbourne:

It’s true that all throughout human’s civilization, at least in the majority of western culture, females have been the underdog of society. This is a tragedy to say the least; the influence that women could’ve generated all throughout the progression of human civilization could have been not only a positive one, but it could have also prevented some of the great tragedies throughout our history or it could have caused some new eras of transgression or achievement that we haven’t already achieved as the human race. For women to have only just recently been bestowed with the power to influence society and to and make choices that are their own is indeed something that would make sense for every woman to feel unjustified and infuriated. Any person who had been put through so much injustice would not be wrong in feeling anger and frustration towards those who caused them said injustice. But at what point in time have arguments that were lead by anger and frustration been the correct and appropriate way of dealing with a heated issue or a problem, or, at least, when has been the best way in which neither parties were left disadvantaged or hurt.

            In the struggle regarding women’s rights, it’s important to realize that it’s not just women who have been disadvantaged by the struggle for power and equality between the sexes, and the disadvantage that has been endured by our male counterparts should not just conveniently be glazed over. It’s true that by stamping out a woman’s voice, any and all of her opinion goes left disregarded, unacknowledged, and void of having the ability to take control over her own life, but to counter that argument, what if your voice not only spoke for your own personal well being, but also spoke for the well being of those that you cared about and all of their futures and the future all those to follow you. Even more so, what if your significant other, the person that a one typically becomes closest to in their life, isn’t someone that can be depended upon to assist as an equal during hardships and failures or as someone who can support you when times are hard, but is instead a dependent of whom you are responsible for along with yourself and all others you might take care of. Any failure that you make is not just your own, but is also a failure for those around and those you care for, and to deprive one’s self of such a responsibility, would be to deprive one’s self of some of the most gratifying and happiest aspects of one’s life.

In Joan Morgan’s piece, From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos some of these points of the male gender struggle are more heavily touched upon. Although veered more towards the black community and the struggles encountered by black males specifically in the rap industry, Morgan argues that to counter the injustices and misogyny directed at women by the male gender, us females cannot simply point the finger and say “What you’re doing is bad! You can’t say those things or us women we’ll condemn you and hate you!” No, Morgan states that to deal with such misogyny the female community has to do what our opposition not; we have to learn to understand them. Females, feminists, have to learn to view our male counterparts as more than just the generalized other of a demon that suppresses and objectifies women, as feminism seems to often preach them to be. Woman must learn to view our fathers and brothers and friends, that the male race tends to be in our day to day life, as being equally as conditioned as us women have been to act and think a certain way in which society has taught them is an alright and acceptable way for them to act and think. Who’s to say that any of our male counterparts wanted to be thrust into a role of dominance and control, in which their duties are portrayed as being the tireless, unwavering being who is a failure if they do not succeed in gaining success and power and assuming total responsibility of taking care of those they care for and love? I don’t think it’s just by chance that the rate of male suicides in the US is a 1 to 4 ratio in which males take the lead. And yet we women preach that we’ve had a difficult time with our societal pressures, and that we’ve been the victimized gender by society.

By the statistics shown above I think it’s safe to assume that women are not the only ones who have potentially been cheated by our modern society. The fact that this argument has been going on for as long as it has is another clear indication also, which indicates that something within the struggle for male and female equality hasn’t been working out quite right. If females are still arguing for their equality and finding injustice within the media, news, and the regulations that are constricting them, and, on the other side of the argument, the male portion of our society is killing themselves at four times the rate of the females, then what about this argument isn’t working? The fact that this issue is even just that, an argument, is probably a good starting point in which a solution for that equality can be found. How can equality be found when each side of the issue is pointing fingers at the other side and making accusations against them and towards them? Morgan states that, “…rap music is essential to that struggle (the struggle of stopping sexism) because it takes us straight to the battlefield.” In Morgan’s metaphor she describes the struggle of finding feminist rights in modern culture a result another already existing struggle within the community of males themselves, and if the community of males that she’s speaking of exists just within the black community, then the issue that’s taking place within the entire male community must be on an even larger scale than I believe the feminist community has yet to acknowledge. A true measure of the progress females have made in modern society should not be measured an ability to fight and put down what used to an opposition, but should in fact be acknowledged by the ability of females to forgive and take unity and newly found strength in one another to, instead of fighting the opposition, fix it and heal it so that our efforts are put into something lasting and real and not the exact same as what women had been made to suffer when it was men that possessed the upper hand, because without the healing and restoration put in place, there will be no real equalization between the issue of gender, just a continuous shifting of the gender which possesses the upper hand.