Monday, January 7, 2002

The African-American Analogy to Female "Choice"

All the other reasoning; logic arguments; critical analyses, and definitions do not seem to be working.  Perhaps the "slavery" one will.

I have heard a few hushed, whispered snippets that this is demeaning to blacks.
for the analogy of blacks acting low-class, ___what was the other word not ghetto??]]]]] hood????

Like when these silly little females say that women are "mean" or judgmental when they deem these... activities to be disgusting, vile.  That we are somehow wrong for judging them when all it is, is a matter of "choice."  And that somehow, we are denying them their "choice."  Something about, how dare you denigrate women for their "choices."  Er, actually, I doubt any of them used the vocabulary term "denigrate" to describe our reactions.

I think this warrants whole new separate essay.

Ohhhhhh, so you say that you are capable of making your own choices.  Ohhhh, okay.  Guess what, I've got news for you.  A three-year-old can make its "own" choices.  Ask a three-year-old what it wants for dinner, it will say "ice cream!"

That's the truth, folks.  Anyone can make their <own> choices.  What is important is not simply making one's "own" choices.  What is important is the ability to make the right choices.  One must be able to weight their options, consider the possible outcomes of each choice, and then choose the smartest, healthiest path.  About the whole, "we are wimmin making this decision, therefore simply on principle this must be a good decision."

I like using this analogy because it tends to cut through the bullshyte.  it gets right to people's noggins.

An alarmingly large number of black Americans seem to think that the gangsta rap culture is something to which to aspire.  They idolize gangs, they flash gang symbols, they wear and brandish gang paraphernalia.

In their minds there is no doubt that this is "true" black identity.  They eschew any and all forms of self-improvement.  They think that attending college and pursuing higher education is “putting on airs” and “getting too big for their britches.”  (I am not sure if that is the exact terminology they use for those concepts-- probably not.)
They would rather be "keeping it real."
crime.
dealing drugs.

So why should women refrain from dressing and acting like cheap tramps out in public?  Because if you do choose to partake in that, you are embarrassing yourself.  And you are an embarrassment to all self-respecting women.  You are turning yourself into a sex object.  You are cheapening and degrading yourself but you don't even care.

If you try to tell me it's none of my business how you dress or that it's not affecting/harming anyone else, I'm going to go ahead and call BS on you.  It is my business, because we are all in this together.  All human beings.  Not just feminists for women, but all human beings for all human beings.  We should all try to better ourselves and improve the human condition.  All members of the human race have a duty to uplift each other.  This is in terms of how we regard each other, how we respect each other, how we treat each other.

None of that can happen, however, if we do not simultaneously respect ourselves.  As a human being, you have a duty to yourself to conduct yourself with dignity and grace at all times.  You need to learn how to act civilized in public, just like all humans should act civilized in public.  You need to be polite and courteous, and not assault people.  That includes how you dress.

Dressing suggestively out in public is, frankly, rude.  It is undignified, it is disrespectful to yourself and to others, and it shows little regard for rules of polite society.  Just as it is rude to shove people out of the way on the sidewalk, it is rude and disrespectful to dress like a skank out in public.

Feminists have been working their butts off garnering equal opportunities for women in education, career, the work force, holding public office.  Women having the rights and privileges of being able to live a full life are due to feminism, which is a subset of all human rights.

This includes civil rights for racial minorities as well.  Because of human and civil rights, women and men both have respect and acknowledgement of women as human beings worthy of being on equal status as men.  Because of human and civil rights, members of racial minorities can be regarded as fully evolved, flesh-and-blood human beings who are worthy of being treated with respect equal to that of whites.

What you are doing, screwing around in public, dressing like a floozy, and acting like a dumbass floozy, is like a slap in the face.  You are being ungrateful and ignorant of our foremothers.  It's as though you saw all the sacrifices and hard work that feminists have done in the past, considered all the gains women have made -- and then threw it in the trash.  You are being careless and inconsiderate.

This reflects badly on women collectively.  Educated, hardworking women want to be taken seriously in professional fields.  We want to be seen as worthy candidates for gradating college with useful degrees, and after that we want to be seen as realistic, reliable candidates for employment.

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