A Message for All Women Out There

“Depictions of subordination tend to perpetuate subordination. The subordinate status of women in turn leads to affront and lower pay at work, insult and injury at home, battery and rape in the streets.” -Zelezny

John Zelezny summaries a Court of Appeals decision from a 1985 case that challenged the porn industry and their discrimination against women for depicting women in degrading roles. Unfortunately, women around the world did not win the case.

Day in and day out, you find images of women in nothing but subordinate, degrading roles. In porn, rap videos, and even the Howard Stern show, all you see are women serving the needs of chauvinistic pigs. They are asked to participate in demeaning activities, showing more skin than necessary, and getting their asses slapped while being called “honey” for doing a good job.

Although I am infuriated and disgusted with these pigs that promote and generate these degrading images of us, I am more angered that my own kind (women) would allow themselves to be viewed in that way. Is it the money? Is it the less than 15 minutes of fame? What is the appeal to partake in such degrading roles? Why would a self-respecting woman volunteer to shake every body part in front of hooting and hollering men that see them as just a piece of meat?

Wake up!!! If you need the attention, go to your family and friends. If you need the money, get a REAL job. Be smart and go to school. Show the world what we are really capable of. Don't send us centuries back when we've made such great progress.

Only until we, women, stand up for ourselves by not participating in such degrading roles will we be seen as MORE. The quote above speaks truth. If women are constantly seen as things to conquer and control, we will experience just that. If by 10 years from now, I am still making 75 cents to a man’s dollar, I am going to raise HELL for those women who help promote the idea that we are subordinate to men. Women have come a long way to get to where we are now. The thought of other women sending us backward, or keeping us stagnant makes me livid.