Poetry and the News
It's been a busy two weeks - what with the rush up to Christmas and all the shopping and card writing and planning...blah. At least it's a nice feeling to see the xmas tree all lit up with lights and the thought that there's going to be a yummy dinner!(its the only time I can overindulge in cranberry sauce and gorgeous chocolate without feeling too naughty, hehe)
I've had a breakthrough with writing though, my first tentative steps towards writing something that matters to me again and actually makes sense. My poetry and lyric writing has been really sporadic over the past few years and when I actually have written anything, I haven't been confident enough to show anyone or post it on my blog. I bought a lovely new notebook from paperchase to celebrate (doesn't seem like much but its a funky notebook)!
Also, I'm enraged about the way that some media has been talking about the femicide in Ipswich. Prostitutes are women, they deserve exactly the same kind of respect that other women in murder investigations are given. Lots of other bloggers have posted on this and can articulate much more clearly than I can. But it just makes me more concerned about the state of our society - that most of the women prostituting in Ipswich have a drug habit and have children and prostituting themselves is the only way they can survive.
Sure, I'm a university educated, white, privileged woman but I'm hoping I'm awake enough to see that our patriarchal society is pushing women on the margins right to the bottom, and gives them no choice. I don't know enough about prostitution to say what needs to be done, but I can see that that is no way for a person to live, because all they seem to be doing is surviving. And we live in a society that thinks it's acceptable for men to 'buy' women - in prostitution, pornography and lads mags.
Women are human, they aren't toys to be used whenever someone has the urge or whim. Women's bodies have become commodities, even more so than ever. It scares me how this is allowing women to be pushed into things they think is 'just a harmless bit of fun' when in fact they wouldn't have to do this or think it an option if men and patriarchy didn't demand it. And I feel awful that women have been murdered in Ipswich because they are prostitutes - people don't think prostitutes matter. The person murdering them doesn't just hate prostitutes - they hate women.
So I'm watching the news with trepidation and hope they find the evil person who did this (I say person because I'm not sure whether they can say this is a male or female).
I've had a breakthrough with writing though, my first tentative steps towards writing something that matters to me again and actually makes sense. My poetry and lyric writing has been really sporadic over the past few years and when I actually have written anything, I haven't been confident enough to show anyone or post it on my blog. I bought a lovely new notebook from paperchase to celebrate (doesn't seem like much but its a funky notebook)!
Also, I'm enraged about the way that some media has been talking about the femicide in Ipswich. Prostitutes are women, they deserve exactly the same kind of respect that other women in murder investigations are given. Lots of other bloggers have posted on this and can articulate much more clearly than I can. But it just makes me more concerned about the state of our society - that most of the women prostituting in Ipswich have a drug habit and have children and prostituting themselves is the only way they can survive.
Sure, I'm a university educated, white, privileged woman but I'm hoping I'm awake enough to see that our patriarchal society is pushing women on the margins right to the bottom, and gives them no choice. I don't know enough about prostitution to say what needs to be done, but I can see that that is no way for a person to live, because all they seem to be doing is surviving. And we live in a society that thinks it's acceptable for men to 'buy' women - in prostitution, pornography and lads mags.
Women are human, they aren't toys to be used whenever someone has the urge or whim. Women's bodies have become commodities, even more so than ever. It scares me how this is allowing women to be pushed into things they think is 'just a harmless bit of fun' when in fact they wouldn't have to do this or think it an option if men and patriarchy didn't demand it. And I feel awful that women have been murdered in Ipswich because they are prostitutes - people don't think prostitutes matter. The person murdering them doesn't just hate prostitutes - they hate women.
So I'm watching the news with trepidation and hope they find the evil person who did this (I say person because I'm not sure whether they can say this is a male or female).
Labels: Feminism, News, Prostitution
posted by Liz at
1:47 pm
2 Comments:
I think I also meant to say that the women who were murdered are being disrespected in the media because they have been referred to as "girls", one of them referred to as "blonde", and the media has made a big deal out of their drug usage and whether they have children.
Does nobody care that these were women, who had to work the streets because society probably put them there as they were living in poverty? Because they were 'prostitutes' the media is seeing them as less than human and holding them up as examples of what happens to women who 'use drugs' and are 'single mothers'.
Sorry if I'm not making much sense, I'm just incredibly mad about whats been said in the media. The good woman/bad woman thing is still at large and it really pisses me off.
By
Liz, At
7:40 pm
A (male) columnist in the Sun newspaper suggested that if it wasn't for drugs and their glamourisation by people like Kate Moss et al, this tragedy wouldn't have happened. He obviously thought these women had turned to drugs because they saw celebrities do it and then got into prostitution to feed their habit.
While their drug addictions (BTW, were all the women murdered, drug addicts?) may have been a reason for their becoming prostitutes, drugs aren't the root cause of this tradegy- woman-hating is.
By
Michelle, At
8:53 pm
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home