Women

J.K.Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series

How can anyone act against, have a demeaning thought about or insult women, as a group, in 2012? It boggles my mind beyond belief.

The only reason I can think of, for doing something so irrational and illogical, is terrifying fear. Anyone who attacks women must be so scared of them that they resort to the only defense of the weak man, violence. Be it violent behavior or violent speech.

(Making jokes about why men are scared of women would be so easy I’m just not going to do it. It’d feel like “an eye for an eye”, a philosophy that, as everyone knows, accomplishes only the result of getting everyone blind.)

‘Male chauvinism’… Just writing these words feels to me like using long disappeared characters, from a dead alphabet, of a civilization that got swallowed by the eruption of a volcano and burned up in smoke in its crater.

Male chauvinism is so the past, it’s not even funny, literally. It’s not funny. It’s not even last millennium, it’s two millenniums ago. And it wasn’t funny then, either.

I had a hard time watching the first two seasons of Mad Men because of how we disrespected women in those days, imagine what happens to me when I read of the unbelievably sad behavior of men like (just to pick on the obvious) Chevy ChaseMel Gibson and super sad Adam Carolla (I mean, how can anyone say women aren’t funny, unless they don’t live on earth? Here, I’ll just name the first few that come to mind in the next 5 seconds: Lucille Ball, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Marta Kauffman, Nora Ephron, Ellen DeGeneres, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Annie Wood and the list goes on for hours – here’s a Vanity Fair’s Article on the subject).

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Discrimination (against anything or anyone, really, be it sex, color, race, weight, height, religion or anything) is one of the most insidious diseases of human kind. It atrophies our brain and shrinks our minds. It’s what wars are based on. It’s what misery is founded on. It’s the antithesis of compassion. It’s the sign of a very fearful and fogged mind and, most of all, it doesn’t make anyone happy.

So, why?

And in particular, why have it against women?
Really?

First of all, we all come from women. So if you’re angry at women, you must be pissed off about being alive. That can’t be good. But the funny thing is, it’s not women’s fault. A woman can’t make you by herself. So, by the same logic, you must be angry at men, too, which makes you a sad person, angry at everyone, unhappy about being alive and fearful of everyone. And that can’t be good, either.

That’s a whole lot of sad, trust me.

Or maybe, those who belittle women are stuck in the dark ages? Well, let me assure you that, if you let go of your judgment anchor and come sail with us into the new millennium, it’ll be good and you’ll have a blast.

One of the things I can’t stand about religions (Catholicism, Judaism or any similar one) is that they depict and refer to God as a man. How short-sighted is that? I can’t stand it because it lessens my mind.

Whenever I hear a “spiritual master” (never mind a priest or a rabbi) talk about God and say, “Because he… Ask him… He is… His will…” I immediately want to walk away and say, “Are you for real? HE? He, who, Bob? Jimmy? God’s a man? In 2012?” (It’d be enough to say God, instead of he or him, and God’s instead of his, every time we refer to God, and that’s that. Simple. At least my mind wouldn’t convulse when I listen.)

Why do we have to give God a sex? (I podcast about this) Because we’re not ready to comprehend that God’s everything? But isn’t that the very definition of God?

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa

God is everything, right? So why choose to physicalize God as a man? Doesn’t it limit the totality of God? Doesn’t it confuse the heck out of everyone? Yes, it does. In fact, people are so confused that they hate and kill one another, they discriminate, insult and denigrate others, they live in fear and anger.

So why do it?

Please, don’t get me wrong, anything that opens our mind, betters our behavior, puts a smile on our face and a loving thought in our heart, is great. If religion does this for you, fantastic. I’d just like to point out a little detail. I was born and raised Catholic, in Italy (the Pope’s home), and I also found myself in the midst of the Jewish culture from an early age. I had a very direct exposure to and experience of the Bible, until I discovered something that made me take a closer look at things. What we read and believe in, now, what we base “our” judgement on, one of the kernels in the collective consciousness that still makes a lot of us say nasty (and untrue) things against women,
is a book
which is a translation
of a translation
of a translation
of a translation
of bits and pieces of written material
written by men (not women)
collected by men (not women),
and heavily edited by men (not women)
most of which happened in a glorious period of human history called
The DARK Ages.

Lucille Ball

I just wanted to point this out in case it sparks a glimmer of new awareness for you, like it did for me.

And if we can’t abstain from giving God a sex, I say, let’s make God a woman and hope that we’ll fix at least some of the chaos we’ve created in the last 2000 years.

Anyway, I digress.

But, I mean, seriously.

Imagine life without women… there would be none. Let alone the magnificent beauty of mind, body and spirit women have and bring to everything.

Tina Fey

Tina Fey

And women are brilliant and hysterically funny!

Peter Arpesella

Actor, writer, sailor. Always loves a good laugh.

6 Comments:

  1. Brilliant. I lost my youthful religion and your example is one of the reasons. And I, too, was put off by the misogynistic example of Mad Men. It was too hard for me to watch.

  2. Thank you for writing this piece, Peter. The irony of your name does not escape me. This week has been one of those weeks when I was tempted but managed not to answer my phone with, “Hello. This is three holes and two nipples, how may I help you?” You, my husband, several other men and my 14 year old son help keep me from going mad. You guys keep me reminded that males can be beautiful creatures that use their glorious masculinity to uplift, honor, protect, and enjoy females. Women represent 53% of voters in this country, but I’m afraid. There is no more imagining that hatred for women has decreased just because laws were passed that gave us rights…the rights that men have always known. I’m afraid because the opinions expressed by what seem to be primarily white, male politicians indicate that 53% isn’t a majority if it represents women. They seem to believe that 53% isn’t more than 47%. And I’m really afraid because I’m beginning to believe that they’re correct. There are women in this country as oppressed as can be found all over the globe. They are laden by eons of teachings and fear of emotional, psychological, and physical pain if they don’t toe the line their men have drawn. Someone asked me the other day, “How could a woman plan to vote Republican in November?” I just looked down, shook my head and replied, “How could a man who has ever claimed to have loved a woman vote Republican in November?” God is a Democrat that I like to call—Pat.

    • Good thoughts, DeLane. It is for those women and for those reasons that you speak of that we shall continue to believe in and act for a positive change. Instead of being afraid, I suggest being passionately inspired. Thank you for reading.

      • For me—being merely “afraid” is a positive step in the great direction. 🙂

  3. JIM DILKS

    SAME HIGH SCHOOL TINA, UPPER DARBY HIGH “THE ROYAL” YOU WERE CLASS OF 88, I WAS CLASS OF UMMMMMMMM 63 OUCH

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