COLUMN: "Today's Women Belong in the House -- and the Senate"

From Reshma Yaqub's "Text, Translation and Commentary," Spring '92. Dr. (Grayson) Kirk President Columbia University, 1967 O.K., Scotty, who forgot to beam him up? Women in America seem to think they are now considered equal to men; that the blatant sexism of the past -- which still exists in some perversely backwards third world countries and perhaaps some backwoods counties of West Virginia -- cannot or will not affect them. Well, think again, ladies. It may be more subtle, it may even have been driven underground, but it is so ingrained in our culture and our country's very existence, that we cannot escape it. Just because we can vote and own property doesn't mean that America is the land of equality. Tama Starr has captured this problem in The Natural Inferiority of Women: Outrageous Pronouncements by Misguided Males. How else do you explain the following: Despite the fact that women have bigger brains, better immune systems, better negotiating skills and we live longer, we are still the weaker sex. "Do you know why God created women? Because sheep can't type." Thank you for your holy wisdom, Kenneth Armbrister (Texas state senator, 1989). From childhood, boys are encouraged to run, explore, climb trees, be tough. Young girls are told to sit quietly and play with their dolls. Boys learn how to control their environments and negotiate conflicts on the field. Girls learn how to bake Toll House cookies. As we get older, the problem gets worse. Not only are we passive and dependent, but we're dirty. When was the last time you heard a guy ask, "Do you ever feel, you know, not so fresh?" Pliny the Elder believed that "Contact with menstrual blood turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison." Sounds pleasant. But not as pleasant as this splendid tidbit from Larry Flynt, a publisher, "Women are here to serve men. Look at them, they got to squat to piss. Hell, that proves it." Let's examine the messages that the media inundates us with. I love those "milk, it does a body good" comercials. When the boy drinks his milk and grows up, he becomes a big, strong sports hero and intimidates people, and he loves to watch it over and over on the VCR. But when the girl drinks her milk, she grows up to capture a handsome boyfriend. What is America's youth learning about sex roles here? And why do movies only show female nudity? Even more subtle than the media is our common, everyday language. Aside from the obvious "and stands for all of humankind" garbage, have you ever noticed that the masculine and feminine versions of many words are not exactly parallel? Would you rather be known as a master or a mistress? A stud or a slut? A warlock or a witch? A dog or a bitch? The feminine is automatically negative. It's always the evil stepmother, the interfering mother-in-law, the mall rat with big hair. An English proverb sums it up beautifully, "Men have many faults, women only two; everything they say and everything they do." At a wedding, the couple is pronounced "man and wife." The woman exists only in relation to the man. Confucius thinks so. "It is the law of nature that woman should be held under the dominance of man." While we're on the topic of marriage, why does a father give away his daughter in marriage? Is this a transfer of property from one name to another, perhaps in exchange for two llama and a cow? There's a charming Chines proverb which tells us, "A bride received into the home is like a horse that you have just bought; you break her in by constantly mounting her and by continually beating her." The enlightened Ferdinand Marcos thinks, "A woman's place is in the bedroom." Mort Sahl vehemently disagrees. He thinks "A woman's place is in the stove." I think a woman's place is in the House. And the Senate. With a majority female population, why do so few women in America hold positions of power? We are way behind those so-called third world countries that we look down upon. Look at Corazon Aquino, look at Benazir Bhutto, look at Indira Gandhi. And now Hanan Ashrawi. Hellooo, wake up America. You might be thinking, well, this is all theoretical stuff, and it doesn't really affect my myopic existence in this sheltered, oh-so-politically-correct campus. Then how come when the Interfraternity Council got a new president we were blessed with a front page story and photo in The Daily Pennsylvanian, and when the Panhellenic Council got a new president, it was on page 11, minus photo? Sexism doesn't stop at Penn's gates. When we make it to the workplace, we will have to work twice as hard to make half as much. As Patrick Buchanan so eloquently puts it, "The truth is that women's income, on average, will always be a fraction of men's, so long as America remains free." And in his stately wisdom, Mick Jagger would like to add, "What do women need money for?" In Texas, common law states that a married woman musn't stray from her porch after sundown. In Virginia, the State for Lovers, only the missionary position is legal. How interesting that that's the position in which women are usually raped. "What women want is not to be treated with respect and care. They want to be treated like shit. They seem to like it." (John Steed, rapist/murderer). By the way, one in three women in college is raped by graduation. We spend our lives in pursuit of thinner thighs. We suffer from anorexia, bulimia, depression, agoraphobia. We have no old-girls network to help us get jobs. Teachers don't encourage us to speak up as much as they encourage boys. Birth control is still the woman's responsibility. They like to tell us, "You've come a long way, Baby?" We've gone the wrong way, maybe? Reshma Yaqub is a senior Political Science major from Potomac, Maryland. Text, Translation and Commentary appears alternate Wednesdays.

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