FLAVOR OF THE MONTH
by sonya hammond
Employing one of the least controversial presidential tools for achieving both
political correctness and an entire block of votes in one incredibly effective
and cheap gesture, our nation's chief executives regularly issue 'Presidential
Proclamations' that affect to varying degrees our calendars.
While this executive activity is relatively benign compared to signing legislation into laws that eradicate critical portions of the Bill of Rights, it can indirectly pose problems.
Enforced observances of really neat stuff like National Tofu Awareness Week or Male Pattern Baldness Day for some reason usually pass without making specific demands on the nation's credulity. Entire months devoted to groups historically relegated to the back burners of history, however, challenge both bias and ingenuity.
Miraculous resurrections of previously ignored black Americans from the archives of our hidden past suddenly proliferated once it became obvious that stuffing February with the usual token recognition of 'Black History' tended to reinforce charges of prejudicial neglect.
Appreciation of March honorees posed a similar problem. Credibly finding ways to fill 31 days with 'Women's History' is apparently a daunting task. Preliminary efforts included dredging up a few hardy pioneers, adding some suffragettes most men would prefer to forget, and in desperation advocating the pitiful argument that the election of a few female senators atones for a century of what amounts to taxation without equal representation.
Fearing political repercussions should any woman stained with the dread 'feminist' tar brush be offered up as an icon, male candidates for offices to which they pray women will not aspire, piously commemorate woman's 'most important roles' as mothers and the powers behind the testosterone throne.
With patronizing lamentations over their scarcity, promoters of women's month of glory manage to cite the occasional female artist or composer, sidestepping the shameful historical circumstances responsible for this shortage.
Writers fare somewhat better, in numbers if not critical acknowledgment, although in order to be published some very talented women were once forced to use male by-lines.
Sighs of relief are audible as male historians skip hastily to the 20th century where, they rush to point out, 'women's rights' are legally available for female enjoyment. Few mention that if the righteous right has its way, these will not include women's freedom to make decisions about their own bodies, areas in which some men seem to take an all-inclusive proprietary interest.
Not to question presidential good intentions, but the concept of focusing a month on any segment of the population raises the question of why it should take a proclamation to grab public attention.
But as long as a month has been graciously conceded to feminine history, we should not forget two areas in which women figure not only prominently, but almost exclusively, and for which historians will not have to dig far to find abundant examples. As any daily newspaper will attest, women far and away lead the field as victims of abuse and harassment.
They cannot, of course, take all the credit; they must share this particular place in history with men ... Men who just don't get it, for whom battering, beating, bruising and breaking are male prerogatives handed down from the cave, for whom verbal abuse is just a guy thing that can't hurt anyone, for whom harassment is really a compliment misunderstood, and for whom the word 'no' is a coyly disguised invitation.
Perhaps a month devoted to women's achievements does serve a purpose, even for those of us who are weary of admitting that baby has come a long way, when we know painfully well just how damned far away baby was to begin with.
And perhaps including victimization as one of our historical roles is simply one more way in which we can approach turning our negatives into positives. Women have mastered the art of going in back doors in order to arrive at the front entrance.
Even when we enter like lambs, we can go out like lions.
It is March. Hear us roar.
©sonya hammond 1996