"For Colored Girls..."

This past Sunday, I had a motivating ladies' day. My girlfriends and I went to see For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, by Ntozake Shange, which debuted on Broadway in 1976. This performance was (incredibly) directed by Jasmine Guy and starred Robin Givens and Nicole Ari Parker, among other beautiful and talented sisters.

I recall my mother having the book and me reading excerpts of the play many years ago. I can say that while I'm a huge advocate of reading, actually seeing the theatre production brought the words to life in a way that only a live show could. I was moved to laughter, tears, anger and above all, inspired. For colored girls... highlights the pain, strength, vulnerability, passion, beauty, wit and weaknesses of black women. Each character was the girl around the way, the aunt, the friend or a mirror of ourselves. I walked out with more understanding of myself as a black woman.

Needless to say, I'm certainly recommending the show to all who can catch it. I'm also encouraging everyone, including you men, to read the play.

Reclaiming the Feminist Movement

In a recent interview, pop performer Lady Gaga stated, "I'm not a feminist - I, I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars..." This was after saying that she loves the gay community because they love "sexual, strong women who speak their mind," and immediately prefaced by "You see, if I was a guy, and I was sitting here with a cigarette in my hand, grabbing my crotch and talking about how I make music 'cause I love fast cars and fucking girls, you'd call me a rock star. But when I do it in my music and in my videos, because I'm a female, because I make pop music, you're judgmental, and you say that it is distracting. I'm just a rock star."

Sounds like feminist speak to me, Ms. Gaga. But, in the true spirit of someone unaware or ignorant about the movement, you decide to perpetuate the stigma of the man-hating, bra-burning feminist.

So, to clarify to all of you women, who like Gaga feel that you can't love men and treasure your own equality, you're wrong. It's more than possible and pertinent that women are also hailed and given the same regard as men. Our patriarchal society still proves to be sexist, be it through workplace discrimination, the consistent over-sexing of women or the fact that many schools still fail to encourage girls to excel in mathematics and science fields.

Actually ladies, men can also be exceptionally pro-feminist. For example, I hail Kevin Powell for being very vocal about the contemporary feminist movement and its importance.

Feminism should not be looked upon as an ugly word, though I've noticed that among my age group, the theory is becoming taboo. In a sense, we're going backwards and the result has been a plethora of anti-woman images invading our space and permeating our psyches. Thus, some of us are confused about our value. We need to seriously revisit the movement or our daughters and our daughter's daughters will be in danger. Somehow, the image of the powerful woman has turned into that of the shamelessly exploited one. Rather than making an uproar about the Sarah Baartmans of the world, we think that volunteering to be her has given us back our power. Somewhere, sister bell hooks is shaking her head.

Thumbs Up for War.

In Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Thailand, thumbs up is traditionally an obscene gesture, equivalent to the use of the middle finger in the Western world. So far, about $800 billion of US taxpayers' funds have been spent or approved for spending through mid-2009. There have been 4,325 US soldiers killed, and 31,430 seriously wounded (as of July 8th, 2009). 82% of Iraqis are "strongly opposed to presence of coalition troops. For more stats about this senseless war, go here.

Thumbs up.