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I hope that you were able to take a moment today to think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the other civil rights and peace activists who have made our world so much better at the cost of their own pain, suffering, and sadly untimely deaths.  Feministing has a great list of links to posts about MLK and the importance of his memory, and F-Bomb has a great short bio posted as well.  In case you’d like a refresher, his “I have a dream” speech is below, in it’s entirety.

“As all advocates of feminist politics know most people do not understand sexism or if they do they think it is not a problem. Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media.”

- bell hooks

bell hooks is a noted feminist author, scholar, and social activist.  Her works often target the intersection of sex and race, as in her first book, Ain’t I a Woman?

“Domestic violence is a big secret. No kid goes around and lets people know their parents fight.
Teenage girls can’t tell their parents that their boyfriend beat them up.You don’t dare let your neighbor know that you fight. It’s one of the things we [women] will hide, because it’s embarrassing.”

- Rihanna

Rihanna’s experience with domestic violence played out on the public stage in the past year as her relationship with Chris Brown shook the pop and r&b worlds.  She speaks publicly for the first time about the relationship and fallout here.

1. She values health for health’s sake, not for beauty’s sake.

“Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”

2. She believes in the importance of identity.

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”

3. She understands the difficulty inherent in being a working mother…

“The work-life balance is a harsh reality for so many women, who are forced every day to make impossible choices. Do they take their kids to the doctor…and risk getting fired? Do they work weekends so they can afford to send their kids to better childcare…even though it means even less time with their families? Do they take another shift at work, so they can pay for piano lessons for their kids…even though it means they have to stop volunteering for the PTA? It just shouldn’t be this difficult to raise healthy families.”

4. …and what that “personal is political” phrase is all about.

“Policies that support families aren’t political issues.  They’re personal.  They’re the causes I carry with me every single day.”

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“I always felt that I wanted to help women, period. As a child I [saw] women really, really suffer terrible, terrible situations, and I vowed as a child to want to do something — anything — that can help them have better self-esteem so that they don’t have to be subjected to men that wanted to kill them.”

- Mary J. Blige

Mary fulfills this vow through her development of and participation in the Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation For the Advancement of Women Now, Inc.  FFAWN is dedicated to helping all women gain the confidence and skills they need to reach their full individual potential.

“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”

- Alice Walker

Alice Walker is the author of the powerful novel, The Color Purple, which was later turned into an Oscar nominated film.  She has also served as an editor of Ms. magazine, and coined the term “womanist” in contrast to “White” feminism to remember that black women (and all women of minority race/ethnicity and/or low socio-economic status) were ignored and silenced by “white” feminism through its second wave.

A production of To Kill A Mockingbird came to our small town this week, and having reread the book for the first time since 10th grade, I was thrilled to see it!  After finishing the book this summer, I poked my nose around the internet a bit to get a better idea about its critical reception.  I was surprised to learn that although it was originally heralded as a controversial and monumental statement about race relations in the south, the book has not been received favorably by many African Americans or feminists.

In reading the book for the first time in my adult life, I was able to truly comprehend the importance of the trial at hand – perhaps even in the 10th grade I was as naive as Scout, or maybe I just wasn’t that engaged in the reading since it was required.  Reading it after spending two years in a community that is even more homogeneously white than the community in which I grew up, the racial messages of the book were very prominent to me, and I came away feeling like I understood the hubub.  The fear, hatred, and judgment of the unknown, including (or maybe especially) racial differences, have become more visible to me in that time, and I felt the book did a good job of condemning such ignorance.

As excited as I was to see the play, suddenly the criticisms of the novel became clear and understandable to me.  As I sat in the theater, filled with college freshmen required to attend for their Creative Arts and English 1010s, I realized that the supposed triumph over one form of prejudice simply promoted various other forms.  And I feared that even if these homogeneous, pious young adults were paying attention to the most prominent message of the production, racial tolerance, the acceptance of sexism and classism were being reinforced.  What messages would these students really walk away with?

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I don’t follow tennis, but you don’t have to to know about the latest sports scandal.  At the Wimbeldon tournament, Serena Williams, in two emotional outbursts, smashed a racket, shouted at a line judge, and was penalized on match point, costing her the game.  And we can’t stop talking about it.

But its not like this is new to the world of tennis.

And what are McEnroe’s consequences?

“I think the answers to a lot of issues come from self-esteem.  Young girls and women have to believe they are worth something more; they have to see opportunities for themselves beyond relationship or beyond what’s right there in front of them.”

- Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer who has emphasized work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies throughout her career.  She is the wife of President Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States.

On the afternoon of her fourteenth birthday Lily Owens’ life changed.  She went from selling peaches for her cold and violent father to running from the law in a matter of hours.  And this was just the beginning of her journey.

Set in South Carolina in 1964, immediately after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, The Secret Life of Bees takes us on Lily’s journey to find safety from her father and the truth about her mother, who died when she was only four in a gunshot accident.  Lily and her black caretaker Rosaleen are on the run from the police and a mob of angry white men following a run in with the men as Rosaleen prepared to register to vote.  Lily knows she can’t go back to face her angry father, and fears for Rosaleen’s life.  Her only clue about a potential safe haven is “Tiburon, SC,” written on the back of a mysterious picture of a Black Madonna plastered to a block of wood that once belonged to Lily’s mother.

Lily and Rosaleen hitch a ride to Tiburon where they discover the Black Madonna is the emblem used by a trio of beekeeping sisters, who quickly take them in.  Lily finds her oasis in the sisters’ pink house where she learns about beekeeping, sisterhood, faith, and family.  She also learns what it means to be the only person around of a certain color, and what life was like for progressive families in the south at the onset of integration.

Female spirituality and the sacredness of motherhood are two more important themes in the story.  Lily is initiated into the Daughters of Mary, an eclectic congregation of strong black women and men with a faith rooted in the story of Our Lady of Chains, an emblem of strength and persistence passed on from the times of slavery.  The maternal power of women is also symbolized through the social patterns of the bees the sisters keep.  As the story progresses, these new realizations of feminine strength prepare Lily to learn the truth about her mother, and allow her to finally begin to heal.

The Secret Life of Bees is a page-turning, heart-wrenching read.  Filled with secrets forbidden love and family losses, it is easy to put yourself in Lily’s shoes, wishing for things to be one way, but learning how to accept the way they are.

Visit these links to learn more about The Secret Life of Bees or author Sue Monk Kidd.

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