Baby's stirring...must go...

I'm in Supermom mode again.  But in arms napping is the only guarantee of time to type - albeit in slow motion!  I have noticed/remembered that Supermom functions efficiently, but without much thought.  Maybe it's really Automom.

The current national discussion about rape may be ridiculous, but it is also terrifying.  The underlying belief, which we inherently agree with if we participate in the discussion, is that rape is unavoidable and we must accept it as part of our reality.  It's the "boys will be boys" mentality and as long as the boys are in charge, they will blame women for being raped and getting pregnant.  Too bad we don't have any men in positions of power - or too bad the few men in power have no voice.  Maybe if the media was not owned by the corporations...

I have read that in the indigenous cultures here, rape was unheard of.  The Europeans shocked the natives with their barbaric violence.  It is so strange that we identify this as civilized.  But in the native societies women were valued equally with the men.  Women had positions of power and their insight and direction was valued.  There is an example of the respect you value and seek.

Somehow we have to start a debate by making people consider - why is rape so acceptable.  I have lots of theories, but it's hard to share with one hand...

You mentioned respect.  I think a large part of the damage done is the intentional killing of self-respect at an early age.  As women, as children, as people of color, we learn at an early age we are less than rich white guys and worth-less.  We believe it and spend our lives begging for crumbs from their table.  If we don't know how to respect ourselves, we don't know how to get it from others.  I think part of Dad's problems come from lack of self-respect because his family didn't have a lot and he wasn't a scholar.  Add child abuse and his psyche had to have been destroyed.  I see it in me, too.

I have been reading the story of the sealskin in Women Who Run With Wolves.  In the story a man steals a woman's sealskin, because he is lonely.  This forces her to remain in her human form, trapping her, preventing her from returning to her wild self.  There was one line that struck me.  We, as adult women, are but anemic versions of our younger, wilder selves.  Culture steals our skin, forcing us to conform.  I was wondering if I had a younger, wilder self.  It seems I have been stripped, contained, controlled all of my life.  Maybe that is why I have had such a hard time defining and identifying wildness in women, and moreso, in myself.

Baby's stirring...must go...