here - CD8 T cells - The Body

PHOTO: CHERyl MAnn
WhOLISTIC PICTuRE
SUE SaLTmaRSH
Battle of the sexes?
with all the evideNce that there is iNdeed
a “war on women” being waged by “conservatives,”
it’s hard not to feel a “feministic” response. I am not a
feminist. But I am also not in favor of any woman being
forced to have a child she cannot support financially,
emotionally, physically, or spiritually, just as no man
should be forced into fatherhood that he doesn’t want
and can’t do well.
But I digress. Some feminists have been heard to
say that no man would be here without his mother’s
body having created him. I have to wonder how they
could have missed the fact that a man (the sperm had
to come from one of them, after all) was also involved
in that creation. But then, I thought, couldn’t such
biological criteria be used to argue the case for the
opposite side of every agenda? Women have testosterone
too and yet the number of female-only causes
far outweighs male-only ones. At this stage of human
history, I doubt that there is any black or white person
who doesn’t carry a gene inherited from an ancestor of
the other color and yet we have racism from both sides.
And, as I’ve said before, aren’t people who develop
cancer after years of chain smoking just as deserving of
the medical care and treatment they need to survive as
people who acquire HIV after years of unprotected sex
with multiple partners?
When feminists angrily accuse me of misogyny, I
stand by my belief that BOTH sexes are as valuable and
as worthy of living as the other. And yet, if a man published
a calendar called “How is a jar of Vaseline better
than a woman?” I’ve no doubt he would be verbally castrated
by the very women who publish “How is a cucumber
better than a man?” And, by the way, the word for
the female equivalent of misogyny, misandry, rarely sees
the light of day, though both obviously exist in full force.
I have frequently been amazed by the number of
commercials on PBS and other progressive media
sources that tout the urgent need to get more girls to
become scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
What about the boys who are truly, innately passionate
about math and science? And where are the commercials
urging more boys to become nurses, teachers, and
dancers? Fact is that each sex has natural tendencies
and the problem is not in getting
people to go against those natural
leanings, but in the rest of us
accepting whatever choices they
make. As a former girl, I can tell you
that there is nothing on Earth that
could’ve induced me to become a
scientist, engineer, or mathematician.
Why should I have been forced
into a field I had no interest in? Why
should any boy be forced to take
Home Ec over Shop, to play the flute instead of football,
or vice versa against his own interest?
Throughout history, there have been courageous
activists of both sexes fighting for things that were
good for everybody. Without Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony, the issue of women voting might
never have come to the forefront, but it took 56 men in
Congress to pass the amendment that gave women the
right to vote. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King were
both crucial to the civil rights movement, but it was
Lyndon Johnson, a white guy from Texas, who made it
the law of the land.
We need to stop putting each other in neat little
boxes. People—every sex, every race, every religion,
every size, every age, with every illness—have to decide
for themselves what’s worth fighting for in this lifetime.
Since 2009, we’ve had a lot of people, many who call
themselves Christians and/or Republicans, deciding
that the only thing worth fighting for is whatever goes
against everyone who doesn’t look, believe, or act
like them. But now we also have more, including some
Christians/Republicans, waking up, shaking off complacency,
and standing together in all their glorious varieties
to fight for justice, equality, and the things that are
best for the Whole.
“Men should be advocates for all and not just their
own gender!” feminists stridently shout. Shouldn’t
women? Shouldn’t we all? Regardless of the composition
of our chromosomes, we are all human. None of us
would be here without the contributions of both male
and female. So I propose we stop being “feminists” or
“masculinists” (See? not even a word for it!) and do our
best to become humanists.
Breathe deep. Live Long.
we need to
stop putting
each
other in neat
little boxes.
regardless
of the composition
of
our chromosomes,
we are all
human.
POSiTivElyAwARE.COM SEPTEMBER+OCTOBER 2012 45