Moonlight

The Garden by Moonlight

A black cat among roses, Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon, The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock. The garden is very still, It is dazed with moonlight, Contented with perfume, Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies. Firefly lights open and vanish High as the tip buds of the golden glow Low as the sweet alyssum flowers at my feet. Moon-shimmer on leaves and trellises, Moon-spikes shafting through the snowball bush. Only the little faces of the ladies' delight are alert and staring, Only the cat, padding between the roses, Shakes a branch and breaks the chequered pattern As water is broken by the falling of a leaf. Then you come, And you are quiet like the garden, And white like the alyssum flowers, And beautiful as the silent sparks of the fireflies. Ah, Beloved, do you see those orange lilies? They knew my mother, But who belonging to me will they know When I am gone.  Poem by Amy Lowell 

Planting a fruitless seed

'Don't do it or you'll seem like a dictator'. 'You're starting to sound like a psychotic female'. 'Women and their hormonal tantrums...'.

Lately I've been working on a project for quite a long time (approximately a year) when two of my male collegues, one of them being my partner, started disagreeing with all my decision making and terrorizing me in to believing that if I demote or remove any of my junior staff that I would be a tyrant, a dictator and a psychotic female and to just stop my 'childish behaviour'. Note a woman's assertive decisions now being called 'childish'.

Funny thing is when I consulted one of my council they advised me against a certain decision to remove one of our subordinates from that same project yet when my partner removed the aforementioned subject he was praised heavily for it by those who had, just a day earlier, suggested that I avoid making that decision otherwise I would look like a dictator. Heaven forbid a woman make such an assertive decision. After all, our place is in the kitchen and not out in the world.

I no sooner quit that project only to realize just how uncaring and hypocritical both my partner and collegues were. They now have that project almost complete thanks to me and my effort handed to them on a silver platter and after I left would not even allow me to reap any of the benefits of my own project. I hope they wallow in shit without me and soon come to realize their loss...

A nice hot cup of 'irrational'

"I'd like a nice hot cup of 'irrational' with two teaspoons of 'undecipherable emotion' minus the common sense, please."

Sadly, those stereotypes are far too eminent at this day and age than any other time in history. Many males, and possibly a few females, have propagated these unsubstantiated claims some even going as far as to provide half baked 'scientific evidence' that females are the irrational, unreasonably emotional, highly volatile species who lack common sense.

Let's take a moment to ponder the concept of common sense. When attempting to define common sense, I've stumbled across a very accurate and concise definition of term and that is: 'The ability to adapt to any situation by applying what one has learned or through one's previous collective experiences through out his/her own life'. Not everyone experiences life through the exact same scope which is why one course of action may be considered 'logical' by one individual yet may not be fully understood by another.

It frustrates me to no end to see these false and completely unfounded stereotypes being thrown about like ocean waves crashing against large boulders just as it would frustrate any decent self respecting man who has been accused of being a serial rapist or a perverted scoundrel simply because he is male.

Feminism & mind games

I don't know where to start on this pressing issue so I will avoid skirting around the topic and get straight to it. I have never been much of a feminist growing up yet in recent times I couldn't help but notice certain male patterns of belittling, degrading, demeaning, condescending, patronizing and invalidating females, especially self-proclaimed feminists or females who happen to notice and speak out against such behavior.

Despite having been ill-treated by male family members I somehow managed not to over-generalize regarding all men. Yet it soon became evident that there was a certain pattern dominant among males from all different walks of life I have stumbled across whereby there is a hostile air towards their female counterparts. They appear to have a pleasant demeanor, to possess 'unfaltering' logic at all times, and to 'never make decisions based on their emotions'. Apparently that is what they accuse us of and should we attempt to correct that misconception we are ridiculed and our arguments are then invalidated, which only adds to our fury and vexation. That is the point where is seems apparent to others that we are, in fact, 'emotional', 'irrational' beings, further reaffirming all the other accusations kindly thrown at us by the aforementioned 'ever logical', 'ever rational', 'always calm and composed' males whom are obviously never swayed by feelings nor emotions, for they are immune to such tripe.

I believe this, aside from domestic violence and direct human rights violations against females, is among the issues of importance on which I would like to shed light. Moreover, I believe it is this type of behavior (demeaning , invalidating and discriminatory) which more often than not frustrates females and/or feminists around the globe.