Today I watched the video “Girls (Who Rule the World)” performed by Beyonce, a woman who clearly thinks that she does in fact have the capacity to rule the world. Listening to the song while I was 3 miles into my morning run was empowering. I felt like even a middle aged housewife could be a world ruling female. But only briefly.
Then I started thinking about whether or not girls really do rule the world.
I can see where we would like to think so, living in the year 2011. We’ve overcome so much as a gender here in the US. We enjoy the same legal freedoms as our male counterparts. We vote, drink, hold paying jobs in Fortune 500 companies, make sex tapes that lead to reality star infamy… We hold seats in congress and came really close to ruling the nation in 2008. We are the women who can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. But do WE, as in ALL WOMEN, rule the world?
As lovely as that sentiment is as a woman living in this day in age, I have to regretfully disagree with Ms Knowles. I think there are women out there who can and do rule their own world, but “women at large,” as a rule, do not. I don’t think we are even close.
I wish we did rule the world. In some ways, women do. We bear the children and raise the families. We help support those families by working outside and inside the home. The world as we know it would cease to exist without women. The theme of Beyonce’s song is sexual in nature, claiming that we women control the men by giving or withholding sex, which in many cases is true. Ten minutes with a group of women at Mom’s Night Out will confirm that claim.
But what about the world outside the bubble of Beyonce’s sheltered life (or the lives of most of the girls listening to her songs?) Sure, I can feel like a powerful woman running on my treadmill in my suburban American neighborhood, but what about the millions and millions of women in this world who have never felt anything but subservient and helpless?
Women who are not allowed to leave the house without permission. Women whose religion forbids them basic human freedoms. Women who are castrated. Women who are sold into slavery to be bought and sold by men as sexual fodder. Women who are beaten and abused and are too scared for their lives or the lives of their children to find help. Women who have no one to help them even if they could get out. What about THESE women? Are THEY ruling the world?
Of course the short answer is no. Men are still very much in control of this world in which we live. For the most part they are larger and stronger physically and sometimes that is all that it takes to have the power. Genetically, we women are at a disadvantage physically. We always have been and we always will be. So what does it mean then for those women who aren’t lucky enough to be born into my suburban utopia?
Maybe it’s time for the women who are in a position to rule the world to start actually doing it. And I don’t mean some government official. Or Oprah. Or Beyonce. I mean me. And you. And you too.
There’s this world out there that is very easy to forget exists. The world where things aren’t okay. The world where a woman would never in a million years dream of ruling her own existence, much less the world. The world where there is no Pottery Barn. It’s time that we learned more about the world that our sisters are living in. They are out there and they need us to stand up for them because they cannot stand up for themselves.
It’s time to read. And learn. And make sure the big guys know that we know. Start something at church. Get involved at the local government level. Read some more. Tell your friends. Tell your daughters. Write a letter. Or two. Or ten. Take a trip. Send some cash. Pray. We can’t all do everything, but each of us can do something. And maybe it’s a start.
So what am I doing? I’m sending this blog to Beyonce. Maybe it’s not on her radar that we women aren’t all ruling the world. Maybe she doesn’t know. Maybe I’ll be the one to tell her. And maybe she’ll tell someone else. Or maybe she’ll take a trip. Or maybe she’ll pray. But at least it will be a start.
Do you want to start?
Read this http://www.dreamcenter.org/new/images/outreach/RescueProject/stats.pdf and this http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/ and this http://www.polarisproject.org/take-action
1 comment:
AWESOME post and I agree. Women are part of a subordinated group worldwide for sure. What occurs around the world to our sisters is horrific and even domestically with domestic abuse! I look forward to reading the links in your post too. There are a few books out that detail what is occurring in many countries. I have been putting off reading them because it is hard for me to read. Your post took a lot of courage and reminds me I need to educate myself alot more!
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