Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Cunt...

Participating in a book club required me to visit Borders Books...I've never shopped there and alway visitied a Barnes & Noble on my side of town or some other small, locaaly owned place. We are looking at customer experiences and it was simply just desserts that I was assigned abook store...I love them and can easily spend hours in one. Well, I must say I was extremely impressed by the cleverness of their layouts, the clerks excellent manners and the fact that they greeted many customers by name...and they still have comfy chairs which most of the stores on my side of town seemed to quickly remove once teens began hanging out. This all leads me to the word Cunt...
I think of it as an ugly word and when I saw a book with the title, but the pretty blue cover and orange Gerber Daisy on the front I picked it up and flipped it open. I opened to a page where with dry humor a woman mentions that up all night working on a book and running out of milk for coffee requires a decision point...either do without or go to the store a couple ofblocks away. She mentions a man may throw on his clothes and head out...but that we as women realize this is not the "nice time" to head out on the streets of a city...So she phones a friends to give a heads up, puts on baggy pants and a cap so as not to appear too sexy, as well as a jacket, stuffs some rocks in her pocket for a feeling of protection and flies away on her bike, after checking for air in the tires in case of a need for a quick getaway. This struck me as I recalled in college, in the city, men had no concerns leaving their late night classes on their way to who knows where...As a woman I had been taught to walk quickly, confidently and be aware of my surroundings every second...To approach alleys with wariness and try to see through bushes guessing what might be on the other side. I even got a can of mace for Christmas one year. While I realize this was given in love how awesome would it be if women could feel as safe as men? How cool would it be to teach our daughters to own and love your own femaleness enough to always demand respect and not feel victimized by a word that simply refers to a part of the human anatomy. Men are generally proud of their dicks. And I know several women who refer to them being a part of the "dick-swinging-men's-club." Most men don't know what this means but when used in context every woman does.
So, I bought the book...Should be an interesting read.

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