Where My Ladies At?

I view myself as a feminist. Am I a man-hater? Am I lesbian? Am I crazy?!

No! It just means that I believe in equal rights for every single human! Because guess what? Those stereotypes are exactly the reason that it's important to have equality. The things Sarah Vowell taught me about the Puritans who settled America got me thinking about how truly deep-rooted the attitude of not only misogynism, but of native oppression in our country from the very beginning. It's all about the True Entitlement of the Great White Man.

"Fight the patriarchy!" they say. Patriarchy means "the rule of the father", and if pater is Latin for father, and to the Puritans Father was representative of God, then equality is the last thing on their minds. Then again, these Puritans were Pope-hatin' pious folks. If the Pope is the father, then perhaps they could be convinced of the idea in some roundabout manner.

It's clear the Vowell is a fan of the more modern rights that we have, and much less of a fan of the attitude “She is either male property (Mrs.), wannabe male property (Miss), or man-hating harpy (Ms.),” writes Vowell in a spew of I-am-bothered-about-the-state-of-things. Her adoration of Anne Hutchinson, the only strong female in the whole of New England, was annoying at times although it gave me more perspective on the lack of gender equality. Hutchinson was able to attract many people to her ideas even as a mother of twelve children, and she was both smarter and more in the right than her prosecutors at her trial.

Vowell also made it very clear that it was despicable how the New Englanders felt about the Native Americans, and how they treated them. Even the illustration at the very beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony seal saying "Come over and help us." Seriously? Seriously? These Puritans, these self-hating, god-loving (or perhaps fearing) people have this feeling that these perfectly happy and self-sufficient people need their help.

Winthrop could certainly have benefitted from a healthy dose of equality. He seemed like the sort of man who, if approached in the right way, could have changed his mind and fought for equality. He considered himself of high moral standing, and perhaps having such a cause would have fed his mind and given him energy. He certainly proved that he could fight for causes. The only problem is that no matter how far we seem to have come from these times of early white America, we still have so far to go.