gay rights

Returning to Africa after 3 and a half years in university in the United States comes with a certain amount of “reverse culture shock”. Not just culturally but personally because my views on life have grown and expanded due to the immeasurable impact of higher education and expatriate living. Coming home for me has had to include the unfortunate experience of wrapping some of my more radical opinions in tissue paper and putting them away, until I am better able to express them and the society I live in is more ready to accept them. When people are still struggling with the issue of basic human rights; having enough to eat and electing political representatives whose sole purpose is not self-aggrandizement, then the more abstract issues must be set aside, or at least related to this bigger picture.

Continuing on from an earlier discussion on sexism and other forms of oppression, here is another very good example.

Sometimes when I go to parties with my best friend, I introduce her as my girlfriend or significant other. If I'm introducing her to men (or more appropriately in this case, boys) their immediate reaction is to ask us to kiss.

This annoys me on so many levels. As a woman, I am so tired of being seen as part of the entertainment. My relationship is not for the purpose of your pleasure and should I decide to express my love for another woman, I should not be made to feel like an amateur porn artist.

New York Court of Appeals Says No to Gay Marriage - New York's highest court ruled against gay marriage today in a 4-2 decision.
[Feminist Daily News]

Coming into my own admirance of feminism, I started seeing this pattern in everything that I did, saw and studied. That is, the more I became involved with feminist theory, the more I saw the interconnectedness of well…literally everything. And the more I was able to define this interconnectedness, the more I was able to clear some things up for myself. I came to the conclusion that the problems that people face are like puzzle pieces, and they’ll only be solved when the puzzle is first identified, and then put together…correctly.

I find that the best way to start a puzzle is to look at the picture on the front of the box – the ideal photo that I’m working towards. After that, I start with the border, picking out the edges which frame the photo, providing limits and a strong boundary. From there it’s usually easy to build from the border, putting each piece in its comfy place, which ultimately leads to the ideal photo I was looking forward to all along.