VOICE

I am mad again!

Ah, this is what happens when you start to acknowledge your feelings; they keep on coming.

So yes, I am angry yet again.

Last week, while heading to Hudson to see the changing foliage, I noticed a political billboard that had been defaced.

Now I don’t like political signs. I find them wasteful, ineffective and usually tacky.

Still, this was not what irked me.

What upset me was the way the sign had been marked up. This was not your typical vandalism: black teeth, moustache or red eyes and devil horns.

No. This particular sign had been «embellished» by a different kind of artist.

This poster featured a female candidate, whose image had been altered by the addition of a penis just below her mouth.

I looked at the image and thought to myself: « Really? Did we really have to go there? »

As we drove on, I became more incensed – partially because of the unnecessary sexualisation of a woman looking to secure a position of power but even more so because it was not the first time I had seen such a demeaning act of vandalism.

And while I was annoyed by the vulgarity of it all, what bothered me more was that this type of drawing seems reserved exclusively for women.

We would never see a vagina drawn out on a poster in an effort to discredit a male politician. That is simply not an image vandals default to. So why is it different for women, still now after a supposed recent awakening to the inequalities in our society with respect to women?

Ok so it was just a poster, and the drawing was probably done by an ignorant kid.

Still, it got me thinking.

Why is sex generally used as a means to take away a woman’s power?

(Side note to any man that thinks he has all the power when he is receiving a blow job, think again. The real power lies with the person who has your prize possession literally in her hands…and mouth…just saying).

But I digress…

No matter how far we have come, things remain very different between both genders.

I heard something on tv the other day that struck a chord. When men are asked what the worst thing a woman could to them, they answer: « laugh at me. » When women are asked the same question, they answer: « kill me. »

The gap between those two answers is a chasm of truth.

I don’t know how we will change some of these ways of thinking or how long it will take. Some days I don’t believe it will happen in my lifetime.

But I am determined to try.

Because I want my girls to walk into a room and be taken seriously for their ideas, their voices, their brains and their strength. I want them to be strong women who will never live their lives in fear and who will never be silenced by another person’s view of their sexuality.

Who’s with me?