Tough Questions

Life is pretty amazing. How you ask?
I learnt the last few days I spent smart phone less that my brain,
is way more functional than I give it credit for.
Also that aside from keeping me in the dark about people’s business that’s always front and center on social media I can survive outside of the superficial world smart phones created..
Point is its good to be back..

So again I say life is amazing but this isn’t about life and all the amazeballness  it carries around.
This is about answering questions raised by her Royal
Inspirer my fave blog buddy who takes this more seriously than me.
Her name is Atim and she blogs at Atim’s Thoughts.

She nominated me for the Sisterhood Blog Award. Part of her job as nominator is to ask me 10 questions and my job is to answer them..
This nomination was days ago but as my excitement to write brewed so did my phones need to die never to resurrect.

But thank God for two weeks internships and bosses who dont make the cast of horrible bosses, am all new yeared up with a phone!!

Where were we? Yes questions that need answers. They are 10 questions
some requiring more lengthy answers
than others..
So in the Spirit of giving each question an exhaustive answer I have decided to answer a single question in a single blog post..
(Sounds like Iam  milking the award for everything its worth)

1. Are you a feminist? Do you think feminism is overrated?
Eeeee this is huge!! But since you ask yes I am a feminist and I absolutely resent the notion that feminism is overrated.

Feminism is a movement to get girls/ women a seat at the same table with men and without the efforts of those my  ninjas, right now  I would probably be in labour with my 18th child instead of sipping away on life and its amazeballness.

I have been to various places in this country where the girl child is taught to dutifully follow marching orders of every male that crosses her path.

The result, she gets defiled and has a baby at 15.

She  suffers fistula and whatever other complications that come with teenage pregnancy.

She drops out of school, gets married off for a few goats to a man old enough to be her great grandpa who has children of the same age as her
.
She gets more babies and digs her way through her twenties.

When she is thirty she looks like she is 50 and discovers all that digging is taking a toll on her body.

She suffers abdominal pain and and heads to a health centre 2 or 4 and an unqualified nurse tells her it will pass and gives her expired panadol.

She discovers years and tonnes of herbs later, that, that pain was actually the victory dance of cervical cancer matching it’s way to stage four

She makes a trip to Mulago’s  cancer institute and because she has no way of getting the best treatment money can buy she succumbs to it eventually..

And yes I know there are gaps in that account, and maybe that is even a rosier story because she dies young and doesn’t have to live her entire lifetime knowing her potential has its  jurisdiction limited to the kitchen and bedroom (all lights out), but feminism is the reason I get to even express that gap-filled story of the African Woman deep down in Rwamukoka..

We are lucky, actually scratch that we are blessed that someone or group of people rose up to the occasion and said, “look these girls may have different body parts but they sure have the same brain, so let’s treat them as equals”.

Funny story women still have a point to prove even in this day and age even before our male peers we share an office or classroom with.

Half the time he will get a promotion she deserves more, because well the boss doesn’t want to deal with her absence when she takes maternity leave…..

I remember my Jurisprudence class last semester when we covered Feminism and how most of my male classmates vehemently ridiculed the idea of marital rape because consent to marriage apparently equals consent to sex, when, where, how he wants it.

At the work place her boobs take priority over her brain at least until the contrary is proved by putting in twice as much work to get half as much pay….

Okay I think I made my point but in case something got lost in translation let me make one last quick one…

When he that me fathered decided to pay his bail and leave, do you know what I would have really appreciated?
I would have appreciated keeping my home and him paying cold hard cash everyday until I turned 18.

Point is, had there been a strong arm around mother dearest’s shoulder to tell her she deserves all of that and more, who knows maybe she wouldn’t have had to work so hard have to raise four girls she didn’t conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit..

I think emasculating men in the name of feminism is wrong, I think the male species is one of a kind and we need them.

But I also think feminism is the best thing and continues to be the best thing that happened to the female species.
Does it have its serious shortcomings? Sure.
But at least it stands up for that teenage girl in Kapchorwa who is about to be mutilated, and tells her that she was created for more than objectification

So yes I am a feminist because you’re either a feminist or a sexist…thank you Mercy for asking

Otherwise how are you doing?
Happy New Year..

PS I love you for reading..
Let me know what you think..