It’s my birthday week, so far pretty good, an amazing massage yesterday, today seeing Jeffrey and Elizabeth Anne and the new birds. So far so good, tomorrow is the actual day, today I have things to rant about.
Two thing, there are two things that are really, well, for lack of a better term, pissing me off. The first one is something I read on Facebook last week.
There is a girl, I say girl because no grown woman would seriously whine about this, who recently moved to this country. So she is a foreigner in a foreign land. Not just any land, America, where we have a complete fascination with accents from abroad. So of course, everyone who speaks American English comments on her accent. It’s going to happen, you moved to a country that is fascinated by them. But what caught my attention was she said she wanted to hang out with her own kind, people from her country because someone made fun of her accent. I was taken aback, because while we do try and mimic them, and are fascinated by them, we rarely make fun of them.
So I asked someone who knew her, he said that someone had given her a hard time regarding her accent, another foreigner. What! Are you kidding me? So someone from a different country other than America, where you live, made fun of your accent?
I have to stop here, and tell you, every day that I am at work, people on the phone comment on my accent. I am from here! Well, I am from Owasso. I have a distinctive voice, a unique way of speaking and I recognize this. I have never once, upon leaving Owasso, have said I just want to hang out with my own kind. Why? Because I am an adult, and yes, people have made fun of what they perceive to be an accent. It’s actually a cadence, I have a certain rhythm in which I speak. It’s an Owasso thing, you would have to actually be from there to understand.
I do not take it as an insult, in fact I say thank you, we are different in the magical land of Owasso, and I move on.
If I went to her country they would call me a Yankee, to those of you who know me, you know those are seriously fighting words. But would I take umbrage with those in a foreign land that said that? No, why, because they don’t know me and don’t know where I’m from. So move on, is what I would say to her, if you do not like that fact that you now live in a country filled with nosey, noisy, gregarious, out-spoken and sometimes brutally honest people, go home.
The second thing that is really making me angry is Monica Lewinsky, not her per se, but memes about her.
Anyone that is from here and other countries have heard the story of Monica and Bill Clinton, here’s what makes me angry.
She has born the brunt of the jokes, she is the scapegoat, the shamed one, she is the one that cannot show her face in public, 21 years later, she is still the shamed one. She was 22 years old when all of this started, her boss was the most powerful man in all of America, really, the free world.
These days we celebrate a TV show showing a woman having an affair with the president, right there in the Oval Office. But back then, this young woman was vilified, she was the butt (no pun intended) of late night jokes.
Bill Clinton has been able to go on with his life, he walks freely about, he writes books, gives lectures and is paid to give speeches. Monica still cannot show her face in public due to the fact she is still the butt of the joke.
Bill Clinton was and is a sexual predator, he chose the women he seduced or in some alleged cases, abused very carefully. They weren’t particularly attractive, so who would believe them? This one was incredibly naive and young, she was 22, when you were 22 could you have fended off the most powerful man in the free world? Someone so charismatic he was the darling of late night television?
I am so tired of see this woman made fun of, I am sick of the memes, the jokes, everything. Isn’t it time we placed blame where it belongs? In the lap of Bill Clinton, for his predatory nature? For taking advantage of this young woman?
It’s a sad commentary on our society when women are made the scapegoat of a popular political figure. When future generations read about this in the history books will they be embarrassed that we blamed the woman? Or will they be brainwashed by pop culture and textbooks that are so slanted, that they, themselves will blame the woman as well?
We have to do better, we must teach our daughters not to be fooled by honeyed words and promises of more. I don’t care who the man is, if he is married, walk away, no, run away, just get out.
I know in her case it was a little difficult to do, she was an intern, this was her first official job, she had a history of being used by older men, even as a teenager. She was an easy target, let me tell you, a predator can ferret them out rather quickly.
So stop with the memes, the jokes, place blame where it belongs and after 20 years, let’s let this woman get on with her life.
Angie World 