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Frailty, Thy Name Is Woman

Mar 29, 2018
by Caroline Miller
Drew Gilpin Faust, Saudi Arabian women drivers, Sheikh Saleh bin Saari al-Lohidan, Terry O'Neil, women breaking male taboos
2 Comments

Tomorrow, October 26, women of Saudi Arabia will take to the streets in their cars in a mass protest against the taboo that forbids them from driving. The current prohibition isn’t a matter of Islamic law. What women are facing is a long held prejudice that presumes driving is a privilege reserved for males. http://news.yahoo.com/top-saudi-cleric-says-women-drive-risk-damaging-092329183.html To defend that prejudice, some men have no qualms about ignoring science. Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohidan, a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologist, insists a woman shouldn’t drive because to do so endangers her reproductive organs. (Ibid)

 That the Sheikh fails to be humiliated by his breathtaking ignorance is overshadowed only by his assumption that women know less about their ovaries than he does. Still some men will go to any lengths to maintain their dominance. In the United States there are those who oppose the Affordable Care Act primarily because it gives women access to birth control – not abortions but access to preventative measures that allow them to chose when and if they have children. (NOW President Terry O’Neill in her 9/30/13 statement to members.)

 Even the hallowed halls of one of our most prestigious universities are not exempt from prejudice. Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s first female president, attempted to stem the decline of women enrollment in the MBA program by instituting changes to attract more of them. Her reforms were successful and the grade disparity between male and female students evaporated. Unfortunately, some male students were unhappy with the changes, describing them as tantamount to attending grammar school. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/education/harvard-case-study-gender-equity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 One even complained that assertive women were unattractive. (Ibid)

 As for the Sheikh and men like him who pretend that females are frail and need protection, I remind them that women are tough enough to have given birth and raised every person on this planet. What’s more, the human race is thriving and in no danger of extinction. Please, gentlemen, don’t attempt to use our biology against us. As to the man who finds a woman with brains intimidating, he should worry about his own. Lighten up guys. If you’d stop trying to remake women according to your image, you might find you like us exactly as we are.

(Originally published, Octo. 25, 2013)

man carving female image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.brianmoneypenny.com)

 

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2 Comments
  1. tuna cole October 25, 2013 at 1:50 pm Reply
    Count me in when it comes to women's empowerment. We men have mucked up the "works" for too many millennia... Perhaps because of that very phenomenon, a phrase you used is worthy of further consideration: "...the human race is thriving and in no danger of extinction." I'd argue that precisely because we humans are "thriving" (successful in the way cancer "succeeds"), we are hurtling toward extinction--as you may have noticed in my speculative fiction, "Ragnarok."
    • Caroline Miller October 25, 2013 at 3:11 pm Reply
      Well, you'd be right to argue our population growth hasn't helped the planet. In the in end, the insects will probably rule.Almost finished with your novel by the way and see the parralel theme. Keep sounding the alarm.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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