What I did
18 June 2007 
Today I went to the courthouse and listened as a convicted rapist postponed his sentencing and requested a retrial because a juror fell asleep during three minutes of the prosecution.
And then I went back and wrote the unbiased, objective account. My male editor requested that I point out near the top of the story that the man raped a stripper that he had hired to perform in his home. After all, that’s where the interest lies.
Instead I wrote that he raped a woman he had hired for a striptease in his home. After all, isn’t she a woman before she’s a stripper?
I still feel like a jerk. Sometimes I wonder how I’ll make it in this business.
The Power of Illusion
11 June 2007 
Women are stuck. The very things that give us power are the downfall of our power.
Our beauty, our sensuality, our ability to create life, these wonders should be respected, exalted. Yet beauty has become demonized, and women kill their bodies for a beauty that radiates from without rather than within. Our sensuality is used against us, and those of us who embrace it are criticized by those who fear it. Its entire existence is kept behind closed doors or else proclaimed an abomination. As for our ability to create life, how many times has it been called a burden? Countless. Rather than a gift from mother earth, it is the curse of Eve.
In America women are free…what a lie. In America there is an illusion of freedom, but for a woman to really rise in the world, to be taken seriously by her peers and enjoy a mutual respect with the men around her, she has to act like a man. How many women in power, whether they are CEOs or legislators, embrace their femininity? How many wear their hair long or wear colorful flowing skirts?
And how many women in power dare speak out for women in our culture whom society has disgraced? This was something I hadn’t noticed until reading “Cunt: A Declaration of Independence.” But really, when whores, even strippers – women who choose to embrace their sexuality, women who in ancient societies were revered and respected for their role in society – when these women are abused and threatened, what power of law comes to their aid? For those of us who are products of our society, how easy is it to think, oh they had it coming?
In the Middle East, there is no illusion and there is no freedom. And women protect each other at all costs. Why do we separate ourselves here? Are we afraid of admitting that we’re all women? That if some of us deserve freedom all of us do? Why is there an animosity that lingers around the word “feminist”? Are some women afraid of what this word could do to their patriarchal-society reputation if they appear partial to it?
And so, to gain power, we lose it. We give up our sensuality, cut or pull back our hair, wear black suits and brush off the chauvinistic jokes as if they mean nothing until they don’t mean anything, until we laugh at them too. And we call this freedom.
