Ditz

Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: Viewpoints

Media Credit: www.cache.eb.com

In 1858, after being interrupted during a speech and accused of being a man, Sojourner Truth unbuttoned her blouse and bared her breasts to the audience. Her proclamation: "Ain't I a Woman?"

Truth's best-known speech, "Ain't I a Woman", was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention, where Truth addressed the necessity and imminence of the coming abolition of slavery and, ultimately, the struggle for women's rights. Today, in an age that masks overt sexism with acclaimed "equality" among the genders, it is difficult at times to pinpoint discrimination. But I can't help but walk by the average Abercrombie & Fitch poster, with its focus on the face of the male model and the pelvis of the female, and wonder how it came to be that a multi-billion dollar company profits directly from the subordination of Miss Teen America. To answer this, we can look at history, at the gradual structural transitions, at the trading of women as commodities to build male kinship bonds, to name a few examples.

We can also look in the faces of our mothers, in the wardrobes of our peers, in the jokes we trade at lunch, in the interactions based on gender roles that still prevail today. We have become very good at masking sexism, as we have with all isms, in our supposedly advanced and egalitarian society. But the mask, as opaque and finely crafted as it is, is still a façade. It is imperfect and permeable. It can be seen for what it is, in the right context, with an efficient lens, with a mindful perspective and a will to face reality. With willingness comes awareness. With awareness comes change. And thus, the intended platform of Truth's speech is as true today as in its first deliverance. Although the modern woman may prove herself with her skills in the debate rather than her aptitude at the plough, we are still striving to prove ourselves- and see ourselves- not as good as men, but as good as true women. We must strive to be the subjects of our actions rather than the objects of another's desires. After all, ain't I a woman? Yes. And that is a thing of formidable beauty.

Ain't I a Woman?
by Sojourner Truth

That man over there say
a woman needs to be helped into carriages
and lifted over ditches
and to have the best place everywhere.
Nobody ever helped me into carriages
or over mud puddles
or gives me a best place. . .

And ain't I a woman?
Look at me
Look at my arm!
I have plowed and planted
and gathered into barns
and no man could head me. . .
And ain't I a woman?
I could work as much
and eat as much as a man--
when I could get to it--
and bear the lash as well
and ain't I a woman?
I have born 13 children
and seen most all sold into slavery
and when I cried out a mother's grief
none but Jesus heard me. . .
and ain't I a woman?
that little man in black there say
a woman can't have as much rights as a man
cause Christ wasn't a woman
Where did your Christ come from?
From God and a woman!
Man had nothing to do with him!
If the first woman God ever made
was strong enough to turn the world
upside down, all alone
together women ought to be able to turn it
rightside up again.

Aint I A Woman:Remixed
by Kai Allen

That bro over there
says that women need to be given gifts from Tiffany's
and directions getting off the CA-2
and allowed to win every pseudo-arm wrestle.
Nobody lavishes me with gluttonous silver
or directs me to the left lane or lets me win any arm wrestle!
And ain't I a woman?
Look at me! Look at my GPA!
I have written literary analyses and engaged in academic discourse
I've stayed up all night on too much caffeine and no man could head me!
And ain't I a woman?
I could run as fast and tackle as hard as any sportsman
and bear the bruises as well
And ain't I a woman?
I have brushed the tears of countless friends
and seen so many of them shrink before men
and when I cried out for their dwindling shades of self-respect,
none but Earth heard me,
And ain't I a woman?
Those men in Hefner's mansion,
they say that I can never be president
because women belong in America's hot tubs
sporting bunny ears and skimpy bikinis!
That's where they've always been, where they've always belonged in this country
but where has this country gotten with men in the oval office?
Bloodbaths and phantom oil fields.
So what will it take to give women a chance?
If a single mythical Eve was enough to turn the minds of religion for centuries,
together women ought to be able to turn the face of society
toward new centuries in the seed.

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