Wednesday, November 9, 2016. Waking to the news that Donald Trump is the president elect.
“Fuck.” On the news, a Hilary supporter is saying “I can see that glass ceiling…” So can I. I can see it and it’s shattered. Not because Hillary ran for president or that she lost. Not because anything is going to change for women generally. It’s shattered because, with trump’s win, America’s fear of women in charge just came crashing through, reining shards of glass upon us all. Some of us are bleeding and it hurts. As I sit here watching the raindrops fall into the puddle outside my window, I’m thinking how gloomily appropriate the rain is today. I watch as little bubbles form and travel down the short stream of water, some going further than others, but each ending up bursting somewhere along the line. Their end is the same. It seems the same for women today. Our end is the bubble bursting wide open with nothing left to show for the traveling. We’ve engaged. We’ve raised awareness. We’ve raised children. We’ve buried parents. We’ve buried husbands. Some of us have buried children. We’ve held jobs; some rising to levels of authority. We’ve faced obstacles too numerous to mention. Our sex is put on display and taken advantage of to sell everything, even the manly sport of football. Our sex has been deemed not our own. Sexy women are put down. Women who like to have sex and say so are called derogatory names. Our wombs are the object of much controversy. Our wombs are where we’ve had to launch our battle to make choices for ourselves. Our personhood revolves around our ability to produce persons or not. So what really happened to the glass ceiling in this presidential election? Most would contend that it’s still there keeping women down. And why would I say it’s shattered when nothing will change? Because something has changed. Something in me and I suspect I’m not the only one. Way back in 2008, Hillary lost the primary to Barack Obama. America would rather have a Black man as president over a woman. John McCain offered up Sara Palin for VP and he lost because of it, which ushered in the Obama era. In 2012, women helped to defeat Mitt Romney based on his stance on abortion among other things. But that same base of women couldn’t defeat a man with the same stance on abortion because he was up against a woman in 2016. America would rather have a racist, sexist, pro-lifer man than a woman. And this is what has shattered the glass ceiling for me. Women want rights. Men want to be in charge. A man losing to a woman still has the same effect as it does on any field of play where men play the dominant role. It spells weakness. And whether any of us believe it or not, social conditioning has allowed us, even required us to embrace this idea of strength and weakness of the sexes. Women who dare challenge a man are challenging his strength as a man. And what strength of woman can match that of a man? Her womb. The womb of the woman is where her fight is. Her womb carries her strength. The womb carries the weight of women’s rights. And where the is a womb in charge…well we don’t yet know generally because we, both men and women, have never allowed ourselves to see it on a national scale. But the glass ceiling has been shattered by our own fear of ourselves and what we as women are capable of. Our wombs are the key to the future. Our wombs hold the promise of that future. Our wombs are the fear of men. Our wombs have been our fighting ground. President elect Trump is a reminder to us all that it is not only men who create the glass ceiling, but it is also women who help to keep it in place. So today, at least for me, the glass ceiling is shattered on the fear and strength of the womb. Comments are closed.
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