I AM A WOMAN'S WOMAN!

I am a woman's woman!I am not a feminist. They are different, I do not demand equality and fair opportunity. I demand more! A woman nurtures life. A woman feeds a nation. When a woman is empowered, her family is empowered. Her entire social circle is empowered. Heck, I believe God is woman. I am proud that all of my initiatives right now involve and are about women. I will happily spend the rest of my life lifting myself and my sisters up. 

There has been a lot of furor all over the place about two women; Desire and Leah. One has been slut shamed and turned into a meme, the other( the equivalent of slut shaming but based on physical appearance. See,there's even no word in the English dictionary to describe what was done). The treatment has been brutal, I can not imagine how they are surviving. I'd need therapy. The professional kind. Scratch that, I'd need to lay in Oprah's bosom for awhile to heal! What has hurt me the most is that the loudest voice in all this noise has been from women. We have abused, slandered and beaten down our sisters.  Why? We women need to stick together in the face of adversity. If we cannot be for each other, who will be. We already have so much working against us. We live in a patriarchal society where we need to break down barriers every single day. Everything we get, we have to work harder than normal for. There is no need to make this work harder for each other.

Anyhow, both released statements soon after the hullabaloo. Leah laughed in the face of this adversity (standing ovation for you, my sister) but on the other hand, Desire has apologized. WHY? My dear Desire, you did nothing wrong! It is your body, your prerogative on whatever you do with it as long as it within the bounds of the law. Your only mistake was to trust a fool but who hasn't. You should not be prosecuted on such baseless terms. That summon to police, hire a good lawyer and tear it up. The person who should suffer is everyone who has distributed those images. You need to take back your power and along with it that of many women,should we be victimized for a crime that is clearly not ours.

 What Father Lokodo is saying in essence is that if I were raped, I would be summoned to police as opposed to my rapist. Lokodo, desire's reputation has been raped repeatedly, by several publications in this country! They and that man who started this storm are the ones who should be summoned. SHAME ON YOU FATHER,for participating in slut shaming. You of all people should know better.

Desire dear(and all my women), I leave you with this;

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014