The last one

After reviewing this weeks reading one sentence jumped out at me. Allan Johnsen wrote, "There is no 12-step program, no set of instructions that will turn it [patriarchy] into something else." The first thought that pops into my mind when I hear "12-step program" is alcohol. The next would be drugs and then it turns into a struggle. One participates in a 12 step program to help rid themselves of a horrible habbit or problem as well as gain support from other people in a similar situation. Before taking this class I could never see patriarchy as a habbit or problem that needed a 12-step program. I knew what patriarchy was, I had read about it countless of times. I read about it in the Bible and I read about it happening in different cultures. I read about it but was never really touched by it until this year. By this class. The bible, although known about it's sexist content, is a history. I read about what life was like for women of the time. I can imagine their struggles of daily life. I then think about what my life is like. I can see a difference in our lives, not just because of the difference in date. Everything I have is because of women who took a stance against patriarchy. It wasn't that they hated men, although some might have, it was that they took a stance against societal structure. It is human nature to want something better. Ever since the beginning, feminism has be linked with strongly opinionated women and has been seen as negetive. Even though it is seen that way now it's meaning is changing into something more positive. A 12 step program can only truely work when a person is ready to move forward. Women, and some men, are always ready to move forward and Maya Angelou's first stanza in Still I Rise illustrates this as well as captures the spirit, and history of feminism.

Still I Rise~Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You ma 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 certanty 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 haughiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefullness,
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 ride

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