Welcome to this edition of Newsgram.
The mission for equal rights for women and in fact the idea of advancing rights for women has been a long time in the making. Legal, sexual, civil and even voting rights have been on the docket – just in the last 100 years. I have to be very careful here because I don’t want to give the wrong impression. This is not a political show and it’s not a history lesson but despite the many movements throughout history it seems we are still living in a Male Dominated Society.
You’re probably too young to remember the Sufferage movement resulting in the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. I was around for the women’s liberation movement of the 60’s and 70’s which was more about workplace and lifestyle issues than it was governmental. We’ve had the Riot Girls movement in the 1990’s that shook up the music industry and most recently the “Me Too” movement bringing awareness to sexual abuse and violence. They have all brought positive change but we’re not there yet.
For Amy Croft it’s personal.
In her new book A Longing for Justice: In a Patriarchal Society she sums her own experiences in a word Patriarchy.
The irony of a man writing this story is not lost on me but just as white men marched with Dr. King I think a male can help shine a spot light on a patriarchalsociety. Now we may have differing opinions on all of this but this episode of Newsgram is not about me. It’s about Amy Croft.
She has just written a book that focus on her own complicated childhood and fraught adulthood. She understands the pressures on women having worked in social services for the majority of her working life, and hopes that her story will encourage women to find their way out of outmoded patriarchal arenas and move toward a more matriarchal vision.
In the preface to her book she say’s “…my journey’s been hard for me, personally-but perhaps fighting for justice is better than longing for it…”
I love that quote. It takes guts to get off the sidelines and, “..do something about it”, and Amy is not fooling around. In her book she shares her own personal trauma and refers to our male dominated society as the Big Bad Wolf.
She writes, “…this is no wolf. It is much more dangerous and insidious tan a wolf; it is a beast that seems unstoppable. It’s modus operandi needs to be examined so we can reveal the breadth, width, and depth of it….It has been allowed too much power, too much leeway, and too much attention, and it has become a loathsome monster to women and children (and to many men as well).
Now I was gonna stop there because those are some pretty strong words but she goes on and it’s pretty compelling stuff. Here’s more:
Wow. Her feelings are not vague. That is a segment of Chapter One. There is a lot more. She goes on to give you a very candid glimpse into her dysfunctional childhood, rape as a teenager, a series of unhealthy relationships leading to the loss of her children in a custody battle. There is eventually true love, new beginnings and lots of life lessons learned.
If you’re still listening to this podcast then I’ll bet there are parallels in your own life or the life of someone you know.
Amy Croft’s book A Longing for Justice: In a Patriarchal Society is ready for you to download at BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and quite a few other places.
And that will do it for this edition of Newsgram.