Women Are the Lesser Gender

Or some such bullshittery.

Women posting signs to promote women's suffrage, 1910. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections, CUR10

Being a woman in America means I’m shit as far as half the population is concerned. If I’d been paying attention and just accepted that status I might have gotten used to being the lesser. Instead, I’m still fighting against it.

Emphasis on ‘still’.

But I’m only one woman. How am I going to fight this idea that my body, my brain, my entire reason for being on this earth, is dictated by an unfortunate luck of the draw, chromosome-wise?

When it gets right down to it, what could I say or do that I haven’t said or done before?

I started this piece thinking I’d logically explain why my gender isn’t the lesser of the only two genders that seem to matter. I’d go into our history and our successes and patiently explain how ridiculous it is to fall back on that biblical nonsense about the subjugation of women when this is the 21st Century and none of what we’ve been told is even remotely true.

I thought I’d talk about women’s rights and our need to protect our own bodies as well as our sanity and how any invasion, physical or otherwise, is unacceptable and intolerable and we’re not going to take it anymore.

I’d talk about Roe v Wade being struck down and the wave of dangerous new state laws forbidding abortion, making every aspect of it illegal and subject to jail time.

I’d talk about the importance of educating women, about being role models for everyone’s daughters and granddaughters, about absolute clarity of vision and the need for self-esteem and, yes, how beautiful we all are.

But you’ve heard all that. I’m not the only one who’s thought it or said it. Women have been fighting off the ravages of gender inequality for centuries.

Yes, centuries.

So what could I say that would finally, finally, FINALLY change everything? Not a damn thing. There is no combination of words that will change the way half the world sees women. We’ve tried them all. None of them have worked.

So what’s next? Oh, it’s action, you say? Not words, action. We need to get out there and…

And what?

Tell me. Get me energized. Explain our strategy. Show me our battle plan.

In words.

Every protest march requires signs. Signs with words. Every call to action uses words to convince us. We speak to each other in words. We put words on paper and on the internet. Every subversive thought in our heads formulates in words.

There is no action without words. Our words are what we have to work with. Every time we use them, we’re sending out signals that we’re awake and aware and we’re not backing down. We’re speaking to each other and we’re listening.

So please stop telling me what I’m doing here has no value unless I’m willing to get out there and do something.

This is what I do.

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*Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v Wade. You have to watch this! Chelsea has words: