Glenda Simms
IT IS very obvious that all women and girls in Jamaica must start on a new journey of restructuring their realities in order to stand up and wrestle to the ground the demonic forces that have resulted in the mayhem that exists.
In order to do this, we have to look at trends in different parts of the globe and quickly identify elements of actions that can be incorporated in deconstructing the blueprints that are features of our current understanding of who we are as females.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes argued in the introduction to her million copy bestseller Women Who Run With The Wolves, that "over time we have seen the feminine instinctive nature looted, driven back, overbuilt ... and mismanaged like the wildlife and the wildlands."
WELL-OILED
In essence, Estes' thesis is based on the idea that there has been a well-oiled and finely tuned system designed to alienate woman from her essential being and from the presence that the Great Spirit designed her to bring to human society.
This well-oiled machinery, foisted on the entire human race, is the institution of patriarchy, which succeeded in creating both men and women, not as the essential human beings that they should have been, but as caricatures defined by roles, images, shade of skin, length of legs, girth of hips, size of penises, depth of pockets, false fingernails, other people's hair, silicone breasts and air heads.
Within this syndrome men found their definition and ensured that they set the framework in which women have come to experience the horrors of life murders, rapes, carnal abuse and other female-defined forces of the universal gender war.
It is against this background that cartoonist Las May shared his understanding of the present state of affairs of the war zone that Jamaica has become.
In the October 24 edition of The Gleaner, Las May portrayed women and children as endangered species on their way to becoming extinct and remembered through their skeletons in high heel shoes, displayed on metal stands in museums.
This ominous cartoon was designed not only to shock the women of Jamaica, but to wake us up and force us to look beyond the statistics of rapes, carnal abuse, beatings and the persistent generalised belittled status of women locally and globally and devise ways of protecting our species and ensuring that we survive and take our rightful place in every space that we occupy.
'MISSING GIRLS'
In China there was a well orchestrated and executed plan which resulted in thousands of 'missing girls' especially in rural communities where boy preference ensured the abortion of the female foetus in order to maintain the state sanctioned one-child policy.
This grand design has backfired and according to writer Jim Yardley's report in the January 31 edition of The New York Times China has started to give girls their due and the authorities are now trying to persuade their citizens to recognise that the female of the specie is vital to the stability and viability of all human societies.
Of course, Chinese women, especially those in the large metropolitan areas had come to recognise the threat to their existence and they clearly developed a game plan to defeat the grand design.
In the May 2004 edition of the magazine CHINA TODAY it was reported that in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, large numbers of well-educated and well-paid white-collar female workers are making a conscious decision to remain single.
It is interesting to note that in a country which now has a over supply of men, 60 per cent of all singles are women. Furthermore 89.94% of well educated females prefer the single life.
It would appear that in China ,a society distinguished by centuries of civilisation and deep rooted traditions, women have come to value education and use this tool as the path to economic independence and self determination.
While it is true that that poor rural women in China have no choice but to hold on to"tradition"as the most vital aspect of their identity, they can be comforted by the knowledge that education has the potential of removing their daughters from the predictable and the mundane.
Perhaps Confucius, the ancient Chinese seer who is reputed to have said "ignorance is a woman's virtue is "turning in his grave"
And so he should!
In societies, less deep rooted in ancient traditions, women are excelling in the education system but they continue to be disempowered through the persistent gender-based violence which keeps them imprisoned in their corners.
It is in these societies that women need to find revolutionary and effective ways of stopping the carnage by tackling the outposts in their heads .
These are the psychic structures learnt in the gendered arena of male dominance. These are the other side of the slave mentality that so many people internalised in the racist arena of plantation society.
Indeed sexism and racism are the flip sides of the same coin!
While Jamaican women seek to ensure that they do not become extinct as predicted by Las May they might look to some of the innovations in a society that has more in common with our historical past.
In the September 1,2005 edition of the Gleaner a Reuters article out of South Africa reported that a South African inventor has developed a new anti-rape female condom called the rapex. This magical and unique gadget is designed to be worn like a tampon. In the event that a rapex-wearing woman is being raped the condom will hook on to the rapist's penis and cause him much grief.
Drastic solutions to deal with rape is necessary in both South Africa where more than 50,000 rapes are reported yearly and in Jamaica where rape has become the weapon of choice used by men to keep women and girls cowering on the edge of fear, pain and untimely death.
According to the Reuters report the rapex is made from" latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs which can only be removed from the man through surgery"
Both Sub- Saharan Africa and the Caribbean region are seeking desperately for that magic multi-purpose gadget that could assist in this age of the feminisation of the HIV\\AIDS pandemic, high incidences of teenage pregnancies, and the inability of the security forces to catch the rapists ,child abusers and murderers.
Does the rapex hold out any hope ?
This devise has had negative response from sectors of the male population and their female apologists.
Some say the rapex is " barbaric and medieval"
The majority of women in all societies say the real barbarism lies in the act of rape!
So the struggle continues and women must revisit the deep structures of their woman-centered potential which has been stymied through centuries of social and psychological engineering that have designed the outposts in our heads.
We have no choice -we must find all workable solutions to ensure that we survive the carnage.
Glenda P. Simms Gender Expert and Consultant
