Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Act like a woman, think like a (?)

In light of recent events in South Africa, the country has surmounted to speculation around Gender-related violence, and issues of women and child abuse have taken a pivotal toll on the country's development toward furthering and nurturing the democratic ideal, by which it solemnly leads. The death's of recent women, and the modus operandi by which their lives were ended, have led many to reconsider that democratic ideal, leaning instead toward their own justices and defense mechanisms. Truth is, no one feels safe and secure anymore, and people aren't trusting of each other; at least not trusting enough, that is. Survival is both a conscious and subconscious desire, and all else is eroded by that, so people look out for themselves more than they would a fellow citizen. Obviously this is not a generalization, because not everyone leads this tightly knit life. Some people are free and go about life in the ordinary. It's not strange, and it doesn't matter that they do. It certainly doesn't infer that they don't care either, it's just that they have a different perception of something- it's a priori, I think to arrive at the conclusion that the least bit of democracy we can live up to, is having our own point of view.

Violence, particularly violence against women will never go away; it may abate overtime, but will continue to exist, so as long as there is human life in occupancy. Because violence is inherent, and stems from whichever mental states and behavioral propensities we may harbor, not through our assembling or merging as people. Yes, it is largely exacerbated and exposed to us through media platforms, and in our families, and then societies, but ultimately, it still stands...if you have the tendency or inclination to, then you will lead up to. Just as there are intelligent people in the world, there are violent, prejudiced, hateful, and sadistic people out there.

However, I am of the belief that we have been socialized to reenact violence, particularly violence against "feeble" counterpart...women, through the ongoing presumption that women occupy a smaller margin of society, or that they're inadequate. Sure women are in different places today, than they were in the past, and this is nothing like the East where perverse means of subjugation against Palestinian women are exorcised. The fact is, to take away that violence, you're gonna have to take away all the influences of that violence, such as; caste, religion, family traditions, culture, learned stereotypes, and self-formulated thoughts, which I dare warn you, is virtually impossible. There is no solution, and fighting for one, won't bring about either. How do you alter the mind states of dozens of 'other-thinkers', by showing them boards with words of anger? Presumably, they know that already, and still participate in those actions, pertaining that we're not fighting a altercation here...we're at war with minds in opposition. Call it neurological warfare, maybe?

When the Banyana Banyana soccer star was brutally slain a few years ago, people gulped and felt themselves becoming frail, against the news that her alleged murderers had gotten away with a very light case. People are wondering what sentence Oscar Pistorious will receive, after allegedly killing his supermodel girlfriend, and former FHM model, Reeva Steenkamp, at their panache-cum-private estate in Pretoria. Similarly, people are calling on justice for victim, Anene. Activist are going crazy. I say, let's look at this logically; maybe if we think neutrally and not create that binary between genders, we'll see the violence as violence towards each other, and not particularly towards women. Because in so doing, we ourselves further preserve that notion that women are weaker, by continuing to assert that self-pity and worthlessness, by which women are met. Though it be unfeasible to arrive at that, it's not difficult. However, what we have today and how we see things today, is a result of how we've taken to what we saw yesterday and how we imbibed that, based on our subjective needs and preferences. If you're disposed to, you're amenable to, and so action will follow. If you can abstain, or aren't in that way inclined, then you're not.
My point is people are people. We create the things we fear the most, and we barely realize that. We are a product of our own doing....
I think that has something to do with that trust issue I spoke about earlier....

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