ON MY MIND - Are we worthy?

Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer

By Trisha Lee, Contributor

FILLING THE pages of women's magazines, usually close to Valentine's Day and Christmas, feminist journalists and the opinionated, air their neurotic desires to have men conform.

But I ask, what about us?

Are we worthy?

I wonder how many women are willing to accept that childhood traumas and dysfunctional relationships have scarred our psyche? Incidents of physical and emotional abuse, incest, paedophilia and, to a lesser extent, forced child labour have unfortunately increased over the last 20 years or so to become the norm in the world. An even sadder fact is that in each community, almost everyone knows about the abuse.

Don't YOU?

Yet no one considers the consequences, and when infant

girls grow up to become promiscuous teenagers and uncaring, aggressive, self-centred bitches on the prowl for a man to rule, we rationalise their behaviour by further marginalising men.

It has become less about gaining respect from our men and more about our unwillingness to admit that something is very, very wrong with us.

As we remain in denial, we remain lost in a conundrum inhabited by horror stories of hapless spectators, innocuously spearing the gender that failed us because we failed them ­ or vice versa.

Will our society be able to experience positive spiritual, social and economic development with a race which, beyond the pelvis, is detached from itself? Contemporary media denies this eventuality with daily reports of a fast and furious ride to hell. Few of our learned friends can say when it may have started, but we can all attest to the end, for it IS here.

Can we begin anew? How do we start over? Was it ignorance of the ways of the world that once kept our society decent with few deviants?

There are good men and there are really doltish, dumb-assed dogs surrounding us. If we are really the strong black (white, red, yellow) women that we claim to be, let us seek a solution by assessing the counsel of those who have been to hell and back so that the regeneration of Generations X, Y and infinity can begin now.

I don't have any answers, but I know someone out there does and when she decides to let the rest of us know, I would really appreciate if she gives me a call.

What's on your mind? Tell us and we'll publish it in this space we've created especially for you. It could be a quirky observation or a serious note, we only ask that you keep it to about 350 words (include a recent photograph and a phone number or an address). We also welcome your letters. Send your views to Flair Co-ordinator ­ Fax: 922-6223; e-mail: bellington@gleanerjm.com or gcameron@gleanerjm.com; by mail: 7 North Street, Kingston.