I’m pretty sure the video below is the most disgraceful speech I’ve ever heard. Or it would be, if it were acceptable for me to experience emotions or exercise free speech. But, I have been enlightened. On this occasion, many thanks to Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson for making it clear that I (along with all other women) have been taught wrong. I thought I’d help him spread the good word. Ladies, take heed.
I hope you’ll watch this video, in its entirety, as I did. But for clarity’s sake, I’d like to share a few lessons from the video (that has more than 23,000 views). I’ll even include some reference points so you can see him make these points.
1. It is not in women’s nature to have love or demonstrate it with decorum. We freak out at everything. (7:45).
2. Women being allowed to vote is one of the biggest mistakes America made. 50 % of the voting population are women, and we are voting for the wrong people. (8:30)
3. You can see it for yourself. The natural “evil” of women is clear. Every place women are involved there is evil. He gives us women folk credit for gay marriage. (well, thanks.) (10:20)
4. Women cannot handle power. It’s not in them to handle power. “Power that the world give you is not real power” And God gave men the power and authority (1:45)
5. Women these days are degraded- they lack shame. He references a woman from Georgetown University about condoms and birth control. It’s actually about “maintaining freedom to kill babies in the womb”. There is no shame about all the “Sex out of wedlock.” What happened to women that this is ok? Wow, thank you for opening up my eyes. If it were okay for me to exercise my power, I’d personally organize the world so all the women who’ve ever had sex “out of wedlock” could write apology letters to the men, who were completely powerless in those situations… (2:13)
6. Men are so intimidated that they allow women to run wild and ruin everything (5:45). This one just breaks my heart. I weep for all the men us powerful women have intimidated. I can recommend some good brands of ice cream and sentimental movies so they can all recover. Here I was, thinking that in America, where there are at least 250,000 (reported) sexual assaults each year, in an economy where men make more money to do the same jobs. Where, even in places of power, women are always scrutinized or ridiculed for the slightest flaw in their physical appearance. All this time, we were misunderstanding the poor widdle boys.
As the Rev. says, lets “Start telling the truth.”
The truth is, I can mostly laugh this off and say, hey this youtube video is popular for its 999 dislikes. Maybe everyone felt the way I did while watching it. (That is, highly embarrassed for Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson).
But as an activist. I have to tell you, if one person gets some validation from this video—if one of Rev. Jesse’s old school male friends, or his grandchild who might otherwise have a prayer of growing up as a strong, respectful man, see this, and buys into this crap…then that is a crime. So spread this around. Talk about it. Keep your head up, whether you’re an unfairly strong woman, or, like poor Rev. Jesse, a man, oppressed by a world where we can all be equals. Short of God intervening, Rev. doesn’t see a turnaround. Well, I’d offer to help you pray, Rev…but I’m pretty sure the sound of God’s laughter would be deafening. You can endure that embarrassment alone.
Amen. (I’m just kidding. Awoman. Clearly.)
Originally posted May 8, 2012. You may also like “On Those Damned Women” by Carol Baker aka The Opinionated Bitch