Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Stop. (Verse) With Video Confrontation by Otep

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy reminiscent of the hierarchic pattern of a family based on patriarchy, that is, there is a figurehead (the father, pater in Latin) that makes decisions on behalf of others (the "wife" and "children") for their own good, even if this is contrary to their wishes.
It is implied that the fatherly figure is wiser than and acts in the best interest of its protected figures. The term may be used derogatorily to characterize attitudes or political systems that are thought to deprive individuals of freedom and responsibility, only nominally serving their interests, while in fact pursuing another agenda; and when the pursued agenda is directly against the interests of the individuals then the result is oppression.


The term paternalism has two important meanings: the first is the assumption that the more powerful and the better-off in any society have obligations towards the less powerful and the poor, and the second is the set of informal expectations and codes of manners held by men about how to behave towards women. What unites these two assumptions is the idea that it is the responsibility of the more powerful to demonstrate concern for the less powerful, but without disturbing existing power relations or taking steps to ensure that those in weaker social positions are enabled to improve their situations. Paternalism is frequently associated with nineteenth- and twentieth-century attitudes towards the poor: paternalistic strategies advocated acts of individual charity to alleviate poverty while rejecting more radical attempts to provide social assistance that did not depend on acts of individual goodwill. In the latter part of the twentieth century, western feminism has identified paternalism as a masculine pattern of conduct that maintains male power and is essentially random and individualistic. At the same time, other critiques of paternalism have identified it as a set of expectations that are always organized around the presumption of the authority of the powerful (whatever the source of power) over the less powerful.
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Stop.


I don’t care what the stars say
this is the age of women
women rising up and laying claim
in their God given gifted intelligence
And uttering new truths
against hypocrisies

How many of us can you beat down?

we will come at you
with that and a 1000 more

We are sick and weary
of your excesses
your abuses
your territorial
drawing of lines
in the sand not to be crossed

while bullets and bombs
rain down crushing
our sons and daughters


we are sickened by your greed
wars and unconscionable excesses

You have corrupted our children
with your hatreds and cruel expectations
we are not put upon this earth
to be in servitude to you

we who birth both sons and daughters
grow within us the very secret of all healing
we who are the foundation of the home

we are not chattel

you run around in a bag with a view all day
we are tired of you twisting religion to justify
your barbaric cruelty on our tender flesh

you deny us an education
so deeply you fear an educated woman

you make up laws that insure
we will be abused, starved, raped,
kidnapped and sold
stop imprisoning us for things you know
we work too hard to have time to do

We are not inferior

stop suffocating us with wet towels for lacking
a small piece of meat between our legs
stop throwing acid on our beauty
simply because 20 cents is a cheap revenge
and you can

Stop filling our bodies with bullets for standing up
speaking our truths and standing in our light

Stop reflecting your corruption
upon the mirror that is our hearts

when you know
we have done nothing wrong
but piss you off



Brightfire Woman © 2009 All rights reserved



Monday, September 14, 2009

I Would be a Liar






I Would Be a Liar


My world careens like a car with a cut brakeline.

I swerve along leaning into the curves
all lines have become a gray blur

so close I count the pebbles in the asphalt.
So surreal I have time to think about it
this centrifugal force that keeps me,

In round and around…

I am the master running the top of the wheel;
all out to go no where but not down.

Life has always been different than most;
peculiar, childlike, eccentric,
With the occasional shattered glass entry.

Thoughts… dropping like swat,

as my mind slips… out the back exit
avoiding that which I can not bare

the thought of happened anyway.
I just don’t have it in me to care anymore
or maybe… I just can’t call it forth

without opening the door

It matters, to even, a caged bird…
where the windows are

If they can’t escape they have a view
for vicarious imaginings of
freedoms I can no longer feel.

I would be a liar, to say, “I can’t remember“,

my flights of fancy … days were short
nights were long bated breath dances.

When I remember that… I remember what
I thought would just heal,
invisible and unknown to the naked eye

My snake like apathy of post traumatic,

coiling tightly flesh embedded,
destroying from the inside out.

I must soar rather than suffocate,
rise above falling below…
and find my way back to

being the woman that got beyond it.




Brightfire Woman ©2009




On the Edge of Shallow




I have insulate myself

I hide in flesh and hair ill-kept
the secrets I keep poisoning

the woman hides behind me
I put her into baggy clothes
and this side of locked doors

I do not know what she needs

growing weaker in a disgust for
the atrocities entertained for game

slow motion fights suicidal wishes
sinks deep barbed wire memories
of utter disgust for what was done

while time alone embeds it to bone

the darkness of an inferior evil nature
night sweats, can’t breathe, weak knees

humming bird palpitations beat hollow
swallowed back tears choke while
stomach acids rise in a too tight throat

drifting in and out of suffering lost

deliberate disarray builds to new heights
leave it where it lays booby-traps topple

just another psycho sick fuck too close
damages run deep when my dreams
drown on the edge of shallow



Brightfire Woman © 2009
All Rights Reserved