International Women’s Day fuelled countless follow-up discussion forums about women’s liberation.
A couple of them grabbed my attention: the Vatican singling out the washing machine as the greatest liberator, and given this year’s IWD anti-violence theme, the disclosure that Rihanna reunited with Chris Brown after an alleged beating. She was called a poor role model. Women face a myriad of choices and it’s a great travesty when we fail to appreciate the power of choice. Ann Coulter’s rendition of the single-momcurse in her latest controversial book: “Guilty” crudely highlighted this.
In it, she condemns the modern portrayal of the single unwed mother as the innocent, perennial victim, denouncing them for foisting a host of costly social ills upon society.
Although, many of Coulter’s foes would take fiendish delight in imagining her burnt at the stake, there is a message to decipher in her acrid approach to confronting the poignant social malady of single motherhood: the misuse of the power of choice.
The choices North American women have today came at great toil and we have reason to celebrate the history of our sisterhood. Women were key players in the 19th century abolitionist movement. The first organizers for women’s rights started by working perilously with black women who had escaped slavery and wanted to learn how to read and write. Yet it was a momentous display of unity for the rights of all women. In 1848, the Declaration of Sentiments was finally ratified, proclaiming men and women to be created equal, giving women legal, social and voting rights.
We’ve come a long way baby‚ because now we can choose. Recently, I was horrified when an older lady called our talk-show —On the Line — to say that she stayed with an abusive husband for decades because one church leader told her to. We delude and denigrate ourselves by allowing others to define our self worth, including celebrities like Rihanna.
Young women’s role models were meant to be those of their own household. If it’s a dysfunctional one, the cycle must end somewhere. There is help for those willing to reach out from beneath the veneers of pain and pretexts in a genuine search for wholeness.
No physical invention, including the washing machine — or even law — can free someone from the shackles of the mind. Such advancements however provide opportunity that we should never take for granted: the opportunity of choice.
– Christine Williams is the producer and host of the live current affairs daily talk show On the Line at CTS?TV in Burlington, Ont.
