By Christine Boswell
I tried to pick a topic to discuss going into this week. The headlines about (against) women these days range from the expected, such as state representative Rick Brattin, R-Missouri, who wants a law in his state to be created which only grants women abortion after asking permission from the father to the absurd (yet unsurprising) machinations of Ann Coulter’s comments about women and rape, to an actual grotesque result of a rape where a woman named Jessica Chambers was burned alive. There are plenty of other headlines I could discuss in great detail. What about the Black woman on the subway who was verbally assaulted by a White man because he felt she was taking up “too much space” on the subway and demanded she “listen” to him by invoking his white, male, privilege voice, yelling, “Listen when I talk to you!!!”? The list goes on and on and on. Through all this, however, one thought kept reverberating through my brain: women are treated this way because they either invisible to society or pushed back to be as “small” as possible by a community dominated by the idea that if a woman is visible, her presence should be equal to that of a ghost.
First, this idea of “being small” is not a new thought. Abra Fortune Chernik discussed this idea of women taking up as little space as possible in her provocative essay, “The Body Politic.” In it, she relates this to how she became anorexic. Thin was how society, a place mainly dominated by men, defined beauty:
“Don’t eat too much, don’t talk too loudly, don’t take up too much space, don’t take from the world…So we keep shrinking, starving away our wildness, our power, our truth.” (pg 109-110)
She goes on to relate how the tinier we are, the less threatening we are to men. Why? I mean why do we care how “threatening” we are to them, especially since the only threat is equality and therefore visibility? Is this even our issue? Oh, I forgot, yes, on some level it is because somehow we get ‘shut down’ either by verbal threats, such as the example of the man in the subway (who felt invisible by the woman and wanted to be visible to her, and in the process shut her up and make her invisible), to outright murder, such as in the case of
Jessica Chambers who was burned to death.
Why, was Jessica murdered? Yes, these are sick people who committed this horrible act on her, but, moreso, my question is what would make them think this was even a possibility? How could a human being do this to another human being? And in the question, lies the answer. Because she, as a woman, was not acknowledged as a human being, but as someone who was “small” and invisible to society which made her rights as a person (according to her perpetrators) smaller than a man’s or invalid. Why was she invalid? Ann Coulter, alone is a prime example of how society has brainwashed even a seemingly intelligent woman, into believing women are not entitled to be nothing more that echoes of a man’s sexist side.
Ann Coulter’s comments, not just about rape, but her verbiage in general are the opposite side of bravado and wanting to be visible. This women fears being seen (as ironic as that sounds). She fears the societal repercussions of having to fight for her sex to be represented as equals. Instead, she plays to a man’s ego and strokes their prejudices about women because it is her way of protecting herself against the fight…against the danger. Her sexism towards her own gender is the inoculation she gives herself order to detract the disease of male domination away from her, to keep her invisible, and in the process, she invalidates herself (and the rest of us). That is why she is the first to speak out against any woman standing up for themselves because it draws attention to her sex and therefore, brings on a battle she is too weak to fight. She is a ghost which cannot be brought back to life.
Finally, what about the Rick Brattin who wishes for women to ask the father’s (of their pregnancies) permission to seek an abortion? In my opinion, to him, abortion “rights” are just that, “rights” which equal “power” and he is afraid of this “power” because in his mind, it takes his away. He then becomes less visible. Hence the law, which is an effort to push women back into darkness, away from “visibility.” This person is seeking to quiet women’s voices because he is threatened by the strength of women’s voices. He wishes for them to be ghosts, a mere “presence” but nothing more.
I am on a quest to find out the exact moment in history it happened. I want to catch the shift in thought where women became invisible ("useless" ) in society (according to our male counterparts). I wonder when it was decided for us (women) that our only purpose was to remain quiet, pious, small and at men’s will, only to be of service to them and not to ourselves. I am not a ghost but a living, thinking person which refuses to succumb to or be ignored by the opposite sex, or by anyone who perpetuates this ignorance. I will not be beholden to rules which make me invisible, and I was not born “owing” anyone anything that would make me unseen by society.
In other news....President Obama only picks female reporters during his press conference to ask him questions! Happy Holidays! ¡Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo!