Random Thought for the Day:

Consider these songs & song lyrics...

“Girls just wanna have fun”… “All I wanna do is have some fun, until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Blvd”. “I really really really wanna zig a zig ahhh”.,,,”we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl”….”The best part about being a woman, is the prerogative to have a little fun - man I feel like a woman” ….”all the single ladies… if you like it then you shoulda put a….” firework!”… “ I love it!” …”Oops I did it again”….”I’m coming up so you better get this party started”….”just dance”…”Umbrella” …”Shake it off”…. “thank you next”….

Then, going back to the 70’s, when it all really kicked off:

• “I Will Survive” – Gloria Gaynor (1978)

• “You’re So Vain” – Carly Simon (1972)

• “Free Man in Paris” – Joni Mitchell (1974)

• “It’s Too Late” – Carole King (1971)

• “Me and Bobby McGee” – Janis Joplin (1971)

• “Goodbye to Love” – Karen Carpenter (co-written with Richard Carpenter, 1972)

• “Different Drum” – Linda Ronstadt (1970)

How many more songs do we need to hear from women telling us how they really feel and what they really want?

How many books?

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
• Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman
• Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
• What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman
• Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude by Stephanie Rosenbloom
• The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by
• Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner
• Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea by Kira Salak
• All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Geraldine DeRuiter
• Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves

How many Feminists?

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) Ella Baker (1903–1986) Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) Dorothy Height (1912–2010) Rosa Parks (1913–2005) Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) Betty Friedan (1921–2006) Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) Luce Irigaray (1930–) Toni Morrison (1931–2019) Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020) Yoko Ono (1933–) Gloria Steinem (1934–) Audre Lorde (1934–1992) Kate Millett (1934–2017) Helene Cixous (1937–) Madeleine Albright (1937–2022) Germaine Greer (1939–) Maxine Hong Kingston (1940–) Julia Kristeva (1941–) Robin Morgan (1941–) Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942–2004) Alice Walker (1944–) Angela Davis (1944–) Rita Mae Brown (1944–) Donna Haraway (1944–) Shulamith Firestone (1945–2012) Catharine MacKinnon (1946–) Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Barbara Smith (1946–) Hillary Clinton (1947–) Patricia Hill Collins (1948–) Gayle Rubin (1949–) bell hooks (1952–2021) Cherríe Moraga (1952–) Wendy Brown (1955–) Judith Butler (1956–) Susie Bright (1958–) Alison Bechdel (1960–) Sara Ahmed (1969–) Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969–) Sheryl Sandberg (1969–) Rebecca Walker (1969–) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977–) Emma Watson (1990–) Malala Yousafzai (1997–) Meghan Markle (1981–)

Men. You are not listening. Let me sum this all up if I can. Women are LOUDLY saying ALL to men:

We don’t want or need you now that you have conquered nature, incarcerated, or killed most of the rapists and murderers, and made the world safe for us . In fact, we hate you. We hate you for the bad things that bad men did in the past - despite you being the ones who avenged those women.

Furthermore, we don’t hate those bad men as much as we now feel contempt for you. No woman should have ever had to suffer like those women did 100’s of years ago. Who cares what wars you fought, how many of you died defending women and children.

We don’t care. We just want to have fun. The fact that you are alive means that you were not one of the ones who died. You want respect as a man? Die. And no, we will not acknowledge you when you’re gone. We will count you among the “patriarchy” and “oppressors”. You will die, we will be out in the clubs dancing to this sort of music. Because fuck you, girls rule. That’s why.

So leave us alone to sing songs and write books aimed at younger women, about running around in the streets, hating the men who saved our lives and made the world a better place. We are leaving our families to travel the world and have sex and explore and “find ourselves” - well into our 50’s.

So, unless you are HIGHLY sexually or financially attractive, just go back to your sewer job and start unclogging my (literal) shit, haul our nasty garbage, and do all the other disgusting jobs that disgusting men do. You are peasants and you are lucky we don’t have ALL the power like men did in the past. Because if we did, we would treat you with raw hatred and punish you for the behaviors of people who were not even your ancestors.”

How close am I?