Feminist Rallies

Hello Readers,

Yesterday in my explanation of some Youtube videos, I mentioned the song "Stranger to the World." I gave a brief summary of the inspiration, and I touched on how the song has allowed me to get involved with some local feminist groups. I wanted to write a blog post to expand on this song-- the meaning behind the lyrics, and other tidbits.

As I mentioned yesterday, the song was written for my African American Women Writers class that I took my freshman year at Berea College. That semester, and that class, really opened up my world quite a bit. I realized that while I was basically born a feminist, I now had the tools and knowledge to speak and write about issues with a certain level of scholarship that was previously missing.

We read all kind of fabulous stuff during this class. As an English major, I ate this stuff up! I adored everything we read, from Danielle Evans' Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self to Assata Shakur's autobiography, and Toni Morrison's The Color Purple. Some day I will generate a list of everything I read during that class because it is all worth checking out! Going back to the song, many of lyrics were deeply inspired by the things that we discussed in class or from the readings.

I'll include some excerpts from the paper I turned in with the song:

In The Color Purple, I was really interested in the idea that pants were this symbol of independence and freedom. Traditionally, women are supposed to wears skirts; they’re supposed to like wearing skirts and dresses.

Of course if you've read The Color Purple, you'll have a better understanding of just how significant it is to have oppressed women wearing pants and claiming their power to deny easy access to their womanhood.

I love the line, “They say I could love a woman, but they’d prefer I’d love a man.” I feel like Audre Lorde would appreciate that line. Society tries to be politically correct on certain issues and sometimes they just cannot sustain it. For instance the United States right now is on this kick where people are basically saying, “it’s okay to be gay, but you can’t get married.”

I should have also stated that this line would have fit well with The Color Purple as well. Still, Audre Lorde is one of my favorite feminists. At some point in my life I'd like to get her famous line: "Your silence will not protect you" tattooed on my body.

The last verse, which could perhaps be considered some sort of bridge, contains what is perhaps my favorite phrase of the entire song, “We can be brave, only if it means we’re prepared to fight.” I just love this. Every time I hear it or sing it I think of Assata Shakur and her spirit and attitude. She comes off as being someone who is incredibly brave and always prepared to fight. I admire that a great deal. 

If you don't know who Assata Shakur is, please her biography.

Going back to the beginning of that section, “We can black or we can be white,” to me, this line talks about racial identity. I’m not sure what you think of when you read it, but when I wrote it I was thinking about the idea of bi-racial people who either “pass” for being black or being white, depending on the shade of their skin.

Nella Larsen wrote a novella called Passing and it is a very quick read. I'd highly recommend it! It really is wonderful.

Then the line about wealth and how that changes the way society looks at people I was sort of thinking about the last text in the Danielle Evans reading with the high school girls. You either have money and status otherwise you’re pretty much invisible, unless you find some way around that. The situation in “Snakes” where you have the wealthy grandmother and the main character who is bi-racial and from parents who reject the grandmother’s wealth and go off to spend their time in jungles and places like that. This girl is pretty much invisible in her grandmother’s world.

"Snakes," by Danielle Evans, is perhaps my favorite short story of all time.  Go read it.

I think that people get caught up in wondering what the world is going to think of them and they eventually lose who they actually are; or worse, they allow the world to tell them who they are instead of making the effort to find out for themselves.

And finally:

Then, the entire chorus is really about that central idea: that the last thing society really wants from the people living in it is for everyone to be like everyone else. We talk so much about the importance of the individual and the importance of being different but then society shuns those people who take that idea to heart and we call them freaks. The other thing that the chorus is doing is pointing out how society contracts itself by giving people contradictory expectations. Women are supposed to be strong but they’re also supposed to be weak. We claim to be free people who are not held in chains by anyone but at the same time, we wear the chains that society puts on us by telling us who we’re supposed to be.

The professor that taught this class is heavily involved in feminist movements and introduced me to some great folks who organize events and have invited me to play at several rallies. So far I have not turned down the opportunity to stand for equality!

Again, this song will be available on the Two Cents From A Crowded Mind demo. As you can see, I really do have a crowded mind!

-MB