Witness, a daily occurence of the majority's opression

[Flash]

This thread IS NOT a thread for discussions. IT IS A PRESENTATION THREAD.

Anyone having information to present is more than welcome.

BUT, IT IS NOT AND WON'T BE A DISCUSSION THREAD.

Why, because we have tried, a few women here, to present facts on our sex's life and situation to be mainly trolled and pushed aside by angry and frustrated people (and if your not happy with this i will name you, so better stay behind).

This was the whole story repeated again, what we have lived forever, repeated again, shutting us up and not wanting at all to see objectively.

So, I realise that information may not have been clear enough, not having had time to even be presented. How can one conclude when facts have no chance to be presented?

THE TOPIC: WOMEN SITUATION AND TREATMENTS IN THIS WORLD, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

Now, How can we talk of conspiracy when we do not even acknowledge the conspiracy going on in front of our eyes every moment of our lifes? The first conspiration started with women being pushed away and discarded from society's décisions roles.

One example, one simple one: few years ago, here on Avalon, we had a member called Akhenaten.

He was great men, with outstanding ideas, impeccable education (PhD for those who did not know) and true acute thinking.

He was sometimes tough, had no mercy for stupidities, a real man lol.

He was allowed to speak his mind most of the time.

Then, one day, on another forum I discovered that he was a she. I asked her why she hid her female identity. Her answer: because when you are a woman, your thoughts are not taken seriously and you are very subtly pushed away in the emotional realm. And I am fed up of it.

This was a woman who suffered her whole life in a cut throat academic male environment.

Lots of women are the Galileos of today. If they speak, they are good for being ostracised, in certain countries killed. Yet, some of them are great geniuses, others great artists, name it.

My dear neighbours, who has a master in computer engineering decided to quit the engineering world altogether because she had enough of the machism comments and the lack of understanding of what it is to couple engineering and children. She said the management was truly heartless. Instead of fighting, she quit. One of the brightest woman I ever met.

She also saw her very few female colleagues having to turn into heartless nothing (nor women nor men) to keep their jobs.

And she always still wonders why her McGill graduation class, organizing a meeting every two years, always invites her husband whom she met in that class, but never invites her. So she receives his invitation, but has none. She was in the same graduation class and got the same degree. It is over her head such incredible extremely macho behaviors.

I have been begged not to mention to management a women problems with her handicap kid because she would lose her job in engineering. Can you imagine! And I knew it was true, knowing her management.

So now, I will bring you movies, statistics, information,

THIS IS AN AWARENESS CLASS HERE - YOU THINK YOU AWARE, THEN DARE READING]

Yes, i do feel like Jackovest right now with my coloring lol (love you Jacko)

[Flash]

My first post will be a short movie, sent to me by our dear Ulli.

I found it interesting because it shows what it is to be a woman, if a man would put himself in the shoes of the woman.

You may think it is highly emotional, but I dare you trying it for one week. Being a woman going around doing her regular activities. What is presented in this video is daily occurrence for millions of women. The rape does happen to 1 out of 3 women in America, at least once in their life. And the way they are treated by "officials" is very typical as well.

It is a French movie, so it has a French flavor, but it does not change the reality for American womens either.


Have you seen the film Oppressed Majority (Majorité Opprimée)? In less than a week since its director Eléonore Pourriat uploaded it to YouTube, the version with English subtitles has been watched over 2.3m times – and rising. The 10-minute film tells the story of Pierre, an ordinary guy, on an ordinary day, in an unnamed French town. But something is different in Pierre's world. Women are in charge. They run around barechested – hey, it's hot! – piss in an alley, and offer sexual favours to Pierre when he is stuck at a red light. (He's riding a bike, so his lack of physical barriers provides an opportunity if not a provocation.) Events culminate when Pierre is sexually assaulted at knifepoint. Inevitably, the police officer who takes Pierre's statement is female. She raises an eyebrow, but only to check for accuracy: "She pinched my testicles … then she took my penis in her mouth and bit it"?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UWxlVvT1A


Ouch. Why that particular assault? "It is the complex of castration," Pourriat says, speaking from Paris. "The worst fright of men. I wanted it to be not so realistic but frightening."

Pourriat made her film five years ago. It won an award at a festival in Kiev but made little impact in France or online. So why its contagion now?

"Actually, when I made it I hoped there would be an interest like this," she says. "In France five years ago people asked me if being a feminist was so contemporary. Today no one asks. The feminist fight is more important now. Five years ago I felt like an alien. Now my film is making a buzz because rights are in danger. You see that in Spain with abortion rights. The whole thing about marriage for all, the homophobia and sexism. It is like a black tide today in France."

One of the strengths of Oppressed Majority is the completeness of its matriarchal vision. No woman lets the side down. They all play their part, right down to Pierre's wife, whose lack of sympathy chills. She would have come to Pierre's side sooner but was held up at work. "I couldn't get out of the meeting … But I think I really knocked 'em dead." Why is she so brutal?

"I wanted her not to imagine, not to sympathise, not to be able to feel what he feels," Pourriat says. "So often when women get assaulted, people say it's their fault. Even close people. That's what I wanted to say with this character." She says that the film "came from a personal experience. I was a woman. I was 30 years old. And my husband didn't believe that I was – I was not assaulted, but I got remarked on in the street. Very often. He said, 'Wow. That's incredible.' His surprise was the beginning of the idea for me. Sometimes men – it's not their fault – they don't imagine that women are assaulted even with words every day, with small, slight words. They can't imagine that because they are not confronted with that themselves."

Pourriat realised that the film had gone viral only when she started seeing activity on Facebook. Her YouTube mailbox filled up, but the messages were so aggressive she deleted them. "I kept one though because really, you can't believe it. Someone said: 'More patronising feminist bull****. Keep whining, bitches!' When I read that, I was more convinced than ever that I have to continue to make films." She is already working on her next project – a mockumentary about the removal of pubic hair.

[sirdipswitch]

Did you know that H.G.Wells, was a woman? Yep. Presented her work as a man, so that it would be better recieved.

[Flash]

Did you know that H.G.Wells, was a woman? Yep. Presented her work as a man, so that it would be better recieved.

As well as George Sands

[Snowflower]

Flash, as a woman, I know the discrimination first hand. But for the most part, I am more invisible than other women, because I am a fat woman. And if you think it's bad being woman, you ought to try fat woman - it's a thousand times worse. I don't get put down - I am simply not there. Invisible. Not seen. Simply - not.

[Becky]

Did you know that H.G.Wells, was a woman? Yep. Presented her work as a man, so that it would be better recieved.

As well as George Sands
And George Eliot...

[Flash]

Flash, as a woman, I know the discrimination first hand. But for the most part, I am more invisible than other women, because I am a fat woman. And if you think it's bad being woman, you ought to try fat woman - it's a thousand times worse. I don't get put down - I am simply not there. Invisible. Not seen. Simply - not.

I do understand quite well, i am discriminated on contracts and jobs because I am a woman, and a fat one too. Yet, still pretty.

In sales jobs, forget it, you may have the best skills ever, you are not even hired to teach them. In Customer service, as long as your are behing the phone, hidden. In management, well, at least they (men and women) do not say you got your job because you slept with the boss, as if your talent was not doubled theirs.

Add to this age, it becomes absolutely ruthless. For women, it does not forgive.

[Flash]

New year, new statistics? Not for the gender pay gap, one of the most oft-contested numbers in gender equality in the workplace. For more than a decade now, the comparison between the median earnings of full-time employed men and women in the U.S. has remained a stubborn 77%–that is, women earn roughly 77 cents on the dollar when stacked against the paychecks of white men.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/09/19/the-geography-of-the-gender-pay-gap-womens-earnings-by-state/

http://b-i.forbesimg.com/meghancasserly/files/2013/09/gender-pay-gap-graphic-final.jpg

[Becky]

This is a wonderful film based on a true story...
http://www.paramountpicturesintl.com/intl/uk/madeindagenham/

[Flash]

here is the trailer's video


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ509hHkHO8

[Becky]

Thanks Flash, I love this film - saw it recently. It's very empowering.

[Corncrake]

H G Wells was not a woman though George Elliot was! The Bronte sisters at first published as men in order to get published!

Flash (and Ulli) very interesting and thought provoking little film.

For a long time women over the age of 40 were considered invisible until the marketing companies realised there was a huge financial resource to be tapped into and suddenly we had older models appearing on our screens.

I have read other threads here on this subject and been put off contributing by some of the comments posted - it is a subject that gets under the skin. Many times over the years I have had male and female friends complain about radical feminists and my reply has always been 'look at our history'. I first really woke up to this many years ago on reading Antonia Fraser's 'The Weaker Vessel' (published in 1984) which gives an account of women in the 17th Century - basically they were chattels passed from father to husband with few if any rights at all.

[Flash]

H G Wells was not a woman though George Elliot was! The Bronte sisters at first published as men in order to get published!

Flash (and Ulli) very interesting and thought provoking little film.

For a long time women over the age of 40 were considered invisible until the marketing companies realised there was a huge financial resource to be tapped into and suddenly we had older models appearing on our screens.

I have read other threads here on this subject and been put off contributing by some of the comments posted - it is a subject that gets under the skin. Many times over the years I have had male and female friends complain about radical feminists and my reply has always been 'look at our history'. I first really woke up to this many years ago on reading Antonia Fraser's 'The Weaker Vessel' (published in 1984) which gives an account of women in the 17th Century - basically they were chattels passed from father to husband with few if any rights at all.

Yes they were chattel and in many countries, at least in half the planet, they still are chattel, either passed on from father to husband, of passed on in Thailand brothels, they are chattel.

I had a Professional mother so I thought it was all natural for me to be, in the late eighties and nineties. Was I in for a shock. Not only it was not natural, but to get good jobs, you had to work twice as hard, just to be pass over by a men with less talents, less work ethic, name it. Up to point where one thinks "what the f... why should I work so hard". I was even told by an industrial psychologiest, male, who had come at my job to screen us to select those for advancement, that I should have children because it is more important for women. I ranked fift amongst 35 professionnels yet, I never got the opportunities. But got bullied out of the job because it had been proven through testing that i was brighter and more able than my boss. I did make a complaint to the ombudsmen, never thinking that I would ever have to do anything like this. For my dad, we were his beautiful daughters, i did not think selection based on sex would be pervasive on the work market.

I never thought I would have to take position because I was a woman, never ever, yet, it happened.

[chocolate]

When I read the first post I had in my mind : "One determined Flash coming"

:)

Flash, at the start of my presence here on the forum i had listed much more details than i had a day ago. But I also sensed that most people (sometimes even I do it) try to make our judgments based on data such as sex, age, color of hair, etc. And I deleted everything except that I am a female, so that I leave people some room to create impressions based on what I say or do without additional influences. I also tend to be sometimes unforgiving, probably sharp, sometimes I even make jokes to point at a possible different POV.
But I am not one to speak about oppression. I never ever believed in that. It just doesn't exist for me.
I wait for men to get on the bus, or in the metro, on the stairs, through the door, because I have respect both for myself and for them. If they have the same amount of respect, they give me the right to pass first. It happens. I am also driving this way.

It is a matter of perception and inner understanding.

Recently I watched a video that turned my view quite a bit in a direction that many women will not approve, but I have my own right to create whatever rules i see fit in my own world.

Men are almost always just a bit different version of us, but we tend to blame them a bit too much.

I am not presenting an argument, only another female point of view.

Peace ladies!

[chocolate]

This world doesn't need more successful people. It needs more balanced people, both male and female.
Trust me, I have had my fare share of being oppressed. It doesn't matter. If men need so much that type of success, why not give them the chance. We all play part in one game.
Probably one reason I did not become full time professional volleyball player is because I lack that necessary 'edge' .

:peep:

[Flash]

There is no blame to men here Chocolate. But things happens sometimes through men. Most often, quite without their awareness.

My point here is to name situations and raise global awareness, through women situations. Regardless if they are provoked by men, by societies, by cultures, by lack of spirituality, by whichever reason.

To me, in fact, men are not the cause of this situation women have to confront, they are as much caught in it as we are. Their situation only looks better on the material and superficial level. But in fact, it is not, even if they/we are not openly aware of it.

By naming situations, I hope some awakenings could take place so that we become more integrated what you call a more balance universe.

This may not happen if we remain blind to all situations provoking the disbalance we have (99% vs 1%, men vs women, STS vs STO, name it)


When I read th
e first post I had in my mind : "One determined Flash coming"

:)

Flash, at the start of my presence here on the forum i had listed much more details than i had a day ago. But I also sensed that most people (sometimes even I do it) try to make our judgments based on data such as sex, age, color of hair, etc. And I deleted everything except that I am a female, so that I leave people some room to create impressions based on what I say or do without additional influences. I also tend to be sometimes unforgiving, probably sharp, sometimes I even make jokes to point at a possible different POV.
But I am not one to speak about oppression. I never ever believed in that. It just doesn't exist for me.
I wait for men to get on the bus, or in the metro, on the stairs, through the door, because I have respect both for myself and for them. If they have the same amount of respect, they give me the right to pass first. It happens. I am also driving this way.

It is a matter of perception and inner understanding.

Recently I watched a video that turned my view quite a bit in a direction that many women will not approve, but I have my own right to create whatever rules i see fit in my own world.

Men are almost always just a bit different version of us, but we tend to blame them a bit too much.

I am not presenting an argument, only another female point of view.

Peace ladies!

[Delight]

I hope this fits in your thread. The gap between the potential I saw in nurses and the reality of the behavior of nurses is about oppression.

I present nurses as an example of a majority who is potentially powerful but made impotent by buying in and submitting to a system that is oppressive. I had idealistic hopes of what it meant to be a nurse. nurses come out of the military and have a hierarchical structure of the few leaders who are bureaucratic and the many followers who are ordered around. Independent thinking is not appreciated.

The nurses I worked around were often sole bread winner, immigrants, and narrow in focus on the "procedural". Nurses are very oppressed also by "duty and obligation" and all of this leads to simmering resentments. The goals that were held were to get by under stressful conditions.

The "leaders" did take on the role to enforce characteristics of the CEO's intention for nurses. Nurse executives are usually midlevel and first to be blamed and fired.


The major characteristics of an oppressed group arise
from a dominant group’s ability to control a lower,
submissive group (Freire, 1970). The values and norms
of the dominant group (oppressor) are viewed as the
right ones in society and are forced upon the
oppressed group. The characteristics of the oppressed
group are negatively valued (Freire, 1970).

Examples of this might be gender or race, men (dominant group)
versus women (oppressed group), or White (dominant
group) versus Black (oppressed group). The oppressed
group assimilates the norms and values of the dominant
group and believes that they will gain power and control
if they become more like the oppressor.

Leaders in the oppressed group who are successful at assimilation
become marginal in that they do not really belong to
either group. They are on the fringes of their own group
because they exhibit behaviors of the oppressed group,
yet they are unable to obtain full membership in the
oppressor group because they still hold some of the
norms and values of the oppressed group, such as
heritage, sex, or skin color (Freire, 1970).
As the entire group attempts to internalize the
oppressors’ values, low self-esteem and self-hatred
develop (Freire, 1970). These characteristics arise as the
oppressed group realizes that they must reject their own
characteristics if they want to be more like the oppressor.

This eventually leads to submissive–aggressive syndrome in that the oppressed group feels aggression toward the oppressor group but its members
are unable to express these feelings overtly due to fear of
retaliation by the oppressor. Therefore, they become submissive in the presence of the oppressor.

The resultant pent-up anger is released as self-destructive
horizontal violence, whereby the oppressed group
members sabotage one another. Horizontal violence
reinforces the negative stereotypes of the group and
leads to a belief that the oppressed are unable to govern
themselves. These behaviors reinforce beliefs in the
dependent role of the oppressed group (Freire, 1970)http://www.nursingconsult.com/nursing/journals/8755-7223/full-text/PDF/s8755722307000245.pdf?issn=8755-7223&full_text=pdf&pdfName=s8755722307000245.pdf&spid=19879312&article_id=600378

[GloriousPoetry]

A great movie to watch is an Italian movie called City of Women (1980) by Italian director Federico Fellini. It's a movie about a businessman who gets lost in the woods and ends up in a city of women. He is put through psychological spaces and confronts his own attitudes and perspectives about women.

[Flash]

Here a 3 first minutes of City of women - I always thought this movie was a bit too much, but he may have described very well the situation of women at that time


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrC-oNwTKPY

[RunningDeer]

I’d offer that there are different types of “bright”. And we all have at least several out of the nine: Howard Gardner, “The Nine Types of Intelligence (http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm)".

Here’s two other resources on strengths and weakness: “7 Kinds of Smart,” by: Thomas Armstrong & “Emotional Intelligence,” by: Daniel Goleman.

1. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)
 
Designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations).  This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef.  It is also speculated that much of our consumer society exploits the naturalist intelligences, which can be mobilized in the discrimination among cars, sneakers, kinds of makeup, and the like. 
 
2. Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)
 
Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone.  This intelligence enables us to recognize, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist, and sensitive listeners.  Interestingly, there is often an affective connection between music and the emotions; and mathematical and musical intelligences may share common thinking processes.  Young adults with this kind of intelligence are usually singing or drumming to themselves.  They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss.

3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (“Number/Reasoning Smart”)
 
Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations.  It enables us to perceive relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and deductive thinking patterns.  Logical intelligence is usually well developed in mathematicians, scientists, and detectives.  Young adults with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories, and relationships.  They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.
 
4. Existential Intelligence
 
Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.
 
5. Interpersonal Intelligence (“People Smart”)
 
Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others.  It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives.  Teachers, social workers, actors, and politicians all exhibit interpersonal intelligence.  Young adults with this kind of intelligence are leaders among their peers, are good at communicating, and seem to understand others’ feelings and motives.
 
6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)
 
Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills.  This intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection of skills through mind–body union.  Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibit well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence.
 
7. Linguistic Intelligence (“Word Smart”)
 
Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings.  Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language.  Linguistic intelligence is the most widely shared human competence and is evident in poets, novelists, journalists, and effective public speakers.  Young adults with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.
 
8. Intra-personal Intelligence (“Self Smart”)
 
Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life.  Intra-personal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of the self, but also of the human condition.  It is evident in psychologist, spiritual leaders, and philosophers.  These young adults may be shy.  They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.
 
9. Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)
 
Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions.  Core capacities include mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills, and an active imagination.  Sailors, pilots, sculptors, painters, and architects all exhibit spatial intelligence.  Young adults with this kind of intelligence may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing or daydreaming.
 
From: Overview of the Multiple Intelligences Theory.  Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and Thomas Armstrong.com

Thanks, Flash,

RunningDeer <3