Feminist Fare Friday: The "Delayed because I was in the ER" Edition
I had BIG plans for Friday this week. I was going to get so much done.....
And then I ended up in the emergency room because I dislocated my hip - again. You can read my account of it here. (I was really high on quite the concoction of narcotics l when I wrote that, so I apologize for any typos and rambling.) My little friend and I are now hobbling around feeling super sore and still kinda groggy.
Here is the round-up for this week. A couple of days late, and short, but both of these are longer reads and important pieces I really wanted to share with you.
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1. Just so you know, if I find a dress or a great skirt and it has pockets, I WILL BUY IT! And this fascinating read from Chelsea G. Summers at Racked about the Politics of Pockets gives me even more reasons to DEMAND pockets in all my clothing. Clothing designers - listen up!!
“...a 1954 Christian Dior bon mot: “Men have pockets to keep things in, women for decoration.” Tease apart that quote and you get a fairly essentialist view of gender roles as they play out in clothing. Men’s dress is designed for utility; women’s dress is designed for beauty. It’s not a giant leap to see how pockets, or the lack thereof, reinforce sexist ideas of gender. Men are busy doing things; women are busy being looked at. Who needs pockets?”
2. Ok, as hard as this is, I have to admit something. When I first heard that the police officer charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Terence Crutcher was a woman, I was... I don't know... disappointed? Disheartened? I asked the question, Why a woman? And then I quickly gave my head a shake and let go of all my white privilege and my white lady tears falling once again on to the easy road of identifying more with the white female officer, than with the innocent black man who was gunned down for being "a big scary dude". Terence Crutcher should not be dead. Police officers should be there to HELP people with car trouble. Officer Betty Shelby should be charged. She killed a man. FOR NO REASON, OTHER THAN HER WHITE LADY FEAR OF THE BIG BLACK MAN.
I know a lot of you may have been feeling these same things. It's OK. You can feel these things, BUT.... NOW YOU HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHY YOU FEEL THIS WAY, CONFRONT YOUR OWN WHITE PRIVILEGE AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
My friend Syreeta Neal lays this all out for us in her piece at The Establishment this week. PLEASE READ THIS. IT IS SO VERY IMPORTANT.
“Yes, white women are oppressed by patriarchy and misogyny. Yes, they are oppressed by male-dominated power structures. But white women are also fully capable of oppressing Black Americans and have been doing so both consciously and unconsciously for centuries. In order to change that, one must first acknowledge it.”
Oh, and if you are worried about Officer Betty being in jail - DON'T, she was arrested, booked and out on bail all within 13 minutes and never saw the inside of a jail cell.
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Okay, that's enough for today. It's been a rough week folks. Let's do better going forward, okay?