We Women Already Hold the Power
by Josephine Laing
I've said it before, but like the deeper layers of the onion, our understanding grows and becomes more pungent and rich with time. Here we are, in the nation that is by far the world's largest consumer and we women are responsible for 86% of the purchases made in this country. Even if a husband is going to buy a new car, he usually runs it by his wife. We women are the ones who decide which goods and services we want to purchase for consumption. And that, right there, is the mighty and awesome power that we already hold. We are waking up to realize that as the world's primary consumers, we actually hold the futures and destinies of the huge majority of our country's and of our international corporations in our hands. Our choices determine their successes or their failures. And our choices are reflected in the health of our world.
Advertising or family dynamics or irresponsible theology may have formerly convinced us that we are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. We may have experienced violence and been wrongly told that it was our fault. We may have been convinced that our wrinkles of happiness and experience are ugly. Even our taste buds have been ramped up to a frenzy for cheese and bacon and super sweet sweets. But we are women. Deep within, we know that we are a part of nature. And we're waking up to the error of all of this false conditioning.
And how are we waking up? We open our eyes through therapy, through activism, through women friendships and women's circles. When we sit in the circle of equality rather then continually trying to grapple with the pyramid of hierarchy, we are healed. We spill out our grief in those supportive trusted relationships and reclaim our voices. We take a look at ourselves and how we have been formed and shaped by our families and by our society to fit into molds that have mostly prevented us from expressing who we truly are.
When we can see ourselves for who we really are, then we can begin to see how the dollars we spend affect the world. And since money represents our energy, we can start to have our energy, in other words, our ethics, our beliefs and our ideals be reflected more accurately in the world. So, we are starting to pay attention to which phone company reflects our feminine values in the world and which ones don't. AT&T or CREDO, for example. The slightly more expensive choice, CREDO, supports women, minorities and the environment. While the slightly less expensive choice, AT&T supports the status quo of rabid radio republicans, domination and destruction. We women are starting to ask ourselves which one holds the more far reaching cost.
We women are mostly now starting to know that the inexpensive goods produced in China are produced using slave labor or near slave labor conditions. So we're not buying these "black-hearted goods." Seeing this, the distributors took the little "made in china" labels off of the bottoms of their products. But then emails went around showing bar codes revealing that all products made in China start with the numbers 690, 691 or 692. The producers and distributors of these goods may be sneaky, but we're waking up to not buying it anymore.
We're starting to not buy "slave chocolate" anymore either. Something like 80% of the world's chocolates, (Godiva, Cadbury, Sees, Hersheys, Mars, etc.) are produced using children who are slaves who were lured and kidnapped from their villages. Poverty is the underlying cause for the need to steal slaves. Chocolate growers in Africa are paid less now for their beans then they were in the 1970's. So their young slaves are then set to work on the chocolate plantations in the Ivory Coast. Children are easy to manipulate. They live in compounds, they are barely fed enough to keep them strong, they carry machetes to harvest the pods, they lift heavy burdens all day and they never once taste the end product. When they are older and are not as easy to intimidate, they are cast adrift to fend for themselves in the cities, far, far away from the villages that once were their homes.
Once we know, really know, we consumers don't go back. Chocolate labeled "Fair Trade" insures that the growers and workers are paid a fair price. On the other hand, "Free Trade" is quite the opposite. It insures that corporations have free rein in the affairs of other nations and can thus squander and ignore environmental policies and human resources for profit at their will. So we consumers insist on and take the time to look for the "Fair Trade" label. Pema Chodron said it this way. "We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts."
We women have also seen the overwhelming evidence regarding the health advantages that backing off of the consumption of animal products brings to us and to our families, not to mention the intense cruelty of those industries. Our outrage at the cruelty caused our representatives in government to bring legislation to the ballot boxes for change. Here in California we said loud and clear "No more downer cows." And our insistence on healthier choices has even brought salads into fast food establishments. Once we all come to realize that those very McJack salad greens are dredged through known carcinogens to keep them fresh looking for days if not weeks, and let our disapproval of that unethical practice be known, then that will change too.
You know the old saying, "Put your money where your mouth is." It usually refers to the words that we speak, but it can also refer to the food choices that we make for ourselves and our families. Traditionally, we women hold the keys to the cupboard. Deciding what our families eat is one of our primary long standing powers.
And our awarenesses and our ideas get reflected in corporate response. Because our spending directly tells them what we want and what we will no longer tolerate. Corporate response is evidence of the healing and re-connection which results when we open our eyes from the long sleep we've had and let our voices be expressed through the dollars that we spend.
But it's hard to wake up. Most of us have been taught to be extremely focused on petty and distracting concerns. Like our appearance, for example, we must be beautiful, or at least pretty. How much time and money have we collectively wasted on that ruse? According to the thousands of advertisements little girls see every day, nothing else is acceptable. For many millennia, we have also been thoroughly conditioned (even selected through mass femicide in the dark time of the witch hunts) into proper behavior. Women and girls should be compliant and pleasing. We should say "Yes," and listen to and do what we are told.
With hierarchical religious training and misguided family priorities, we are taught to yield to societal programming and thus too often we believe that we are not worthy of speaking up for the truth of who we are and what we feel in our hearts. Such personal expressions have long been strongly curtailed and most of us women have become convinced of our inadequacy. Depression results and holds a stop sign in our heart. But the truth is that we are more than adequate, we are perfect and beautiful just the way we are. And we don't have to believe what we've been told. It is our truth and our voices that are direly needed in the world. Blessedly, all of this manipulation is starting to erode, right here in the western world. In our female friendships and our women's circles, we create safety and equality and share our grief and our stifled emotions. We learn how to trust again and how to love ourselves enough to open up to our inspirations for change like the indomitable grasses of spring.
And men have also been dealt the same repressive blows from childhood on, and like us, they have for too long submitted themselves to the patterns they were taught. But now with these current generations, they are waking up as well to the oppression of our cultural disfunction. Many men are similarly working on healing themselves, and they are finally being allowed to express their true natures too.
Together we are beginning to see our intelligence and our strengths and we are supporting each other in creating a new vision for humanity. We are starting to let go of the misconception of the dominator model of "dominion over" which has almost killed us and everything else. Instead we are embracing with honor our collective ability to nurture and cherish and love. It is our human nature to love and protect nature.
With those images first seen in the 1960's, of our earth, our beautiful planet, floating in the inky black universe of nothingness, we have come to realize, just like children do when they grow up, that the mother is not omnipotent. She is vulnerable and needs care and can be over extended by the demands of those she loves.
As we awaken together we are starting to see our role in creating the over burdening of our planet. We are seeing that fast food burgers sold so cheaply in America are stripping bare our tropical rain-forests, the lungs of the planet, the very air that we breathe. So, we begin by purchasing local grass fed beef. It costs more, so we do it less frequently and we continue to grow from there. We are seeing that federal subsidies for agribusiness are polluting our water and aquifers with pesticides and defeating small farmers who grow organic. So we buy at the farmers market and pay more and go organic so that we no longer personally contribute to that catastrophe. We are seeing that lack of efficient mass transit (like the electric undergrounds of Europe) and our addiction to oil is devastating ecosystems like our fragile and pristine northern territories, not to mention our entire global weather system. So we take the bus, ride our bike and get hybrids for a start.
As we awaken we start to realize our part and then change and begin to flex the muscles of our purchasing power. As with CREDO vs. AT&T, we see the more far reaching implications of the dollars that we spend and make different choices. We open our eyes and realize how petty and distracting our cultural conditioning has been. We pull those blinders off and let ourselves see, really see how much power we American women, the largest consumers on the planet, already hold in our own loving hands.
With thanks to "Songs For Teaching" and Lorraine Bayes and Danny Deardorff along with further adaptations by me, Lets Sing It!
We've got the whole world in our hands,
We've got the whole wide world in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the itty bitty babies in our hands,
We've got the sisters and the brothers in our hands,
We've got the whole sweet village in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the great blue whales in our hands,
We've got the little nightingales in our hands,
We've got the rivers and the oceans in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the mountains and the meadows in our hands,
We've got the forests and the farmlands in our hands,
We've got mama's and the papa's in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
The time is now for all to know,
We see that planet Earth is our only home,
People of the world in every land,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
© 2012 Josephine Laing
I've said it before, but like the deeper layers of the onion, our understanding grows and becomes more pungent and rich with time. Here we are, in the nation that is by far the world's largest consumer and we women are responsible for 86% of the purchases made in this country. Even if a husband is going to buy a new car, he usually runs it by his wife. We women are the ones who decide which goods and services we want to purchase for consumption. And that, right there, is the mighty and awesome power that we already hold. We are waking up to realize that as the world's primary consumers, we actually hold the futures and destinies of the huge majority of our country's and of our international corporations in our hands. Our choices determine their successes or their failures. And our choices are reflected in the health of our world.
Advertising or family dynamics or irresponsible theology may have formerly convinced us that we are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. We may have experienced violence and been wrongly told that it was our fault. We may have been convinced that our wrinkles of happiness and experience are ugly. Even our taste buds have been ramped up to a frenzy for cheese and bacon and super sweet sweets. But we are women. Deep within, we know that we are a part of nature. And we're waking up to the error of all of this false conditioning.
And how are we waking up? We open our eyes through therapy, through activism, through women friendships and women's circles. When we sit in the circle of equality rather then continually trying to grapple with the pyramid of hierarchy, we are healed. We spill out our grief in those supportive trusted relationships and reclaim our voices. We take a look at ourselves and how we have been formed and shaped by our families and by our society to fit into molds that have mostly prevented us from expressing who we truly are.
When we can see ourselves for who we really are, then we can begin to see how the dollars we spend affect the world. And since money represents our energy, we can start to have our energy, in other words, our ethics, our beliefs and our ideals be reflected more accurately in the world. So, we are starting to pay attention to which phone company reflects our feminine values in the world and which ones don't. AT&T or CREDO, for example. The slightly more expensive choice, CREDO, supports women, minorities and the environment. While the slightly less expensive choice, AT&T supports the status quo of rabid radio republicans, domination and destruction. We women are starting to ask ourselves which one holds the more far reaching cost.
We women are mostly now starting to know that the inexpensive goods produced in China are produced using slave labor or near slave labor conditions. So we're not buying these "black-hearted goods." Seeing this, the distributors took the little "made in china" labels off of the bottoms of their products. But then emails went around showing bar codes revealing that all products made in China start with the numbers 690, 691 or 692. The producers and distributors of these goods may be sneaky, but we're waking up to not buying it anymore.
We're starting to not buy "slave chocolate" anymore either. Something like 80% of the world's chocolates, (Godiva, Cadbury, Sees, Hersheys, Mars, etc.) are produced using children who are slaves who were lured and kidnapped from their villages. Poverty is the underlying cause for the need to steal slaves. Chocolate growers in Africa are paid less now for their beans then they were in the 1970's. So their young slaves are then set to work on the chocolate plantations in the Ivory Coast. Children are easy to manipulate. They live in compounds, they are barely fed enough to keep them strong, they carry machetes to harvest the pods, they lift heavy burdens all day and they never once taste the end product. When they are older and are not as easy to intimidate, they are cast adrift to fend for themselves in the cities, far, far away from the villages that once were their homes.
Once we know, really know, we consumers don't go back. Chocolate labeled "Fair Trade" insures that the growers and workers are paid a fair price. On the other hand, "Free Trade" is quite the opposite. It insures that corporations have free rein in the affairs of other nations and can thus squander and ignore environmental policies and human resources for profit at their will. So we consumers insist on and take the time to look for the "Fair Trade" label. Pema Chodron said it this way. "We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts."
We women have also seen the overwhelming evidence regarding the health advantages that backing off of the consumption of animal products brings to us and to our families, not to mention the intense cruelty of those industries. Our outrage at the cruelty caused our representatives in government to bring legislation to the ballot boxes for change. Here in California we said loud and clear "No more downer cows." And our insistence on healthier choices has even brought salads into fast food establishments. Once we all come to realize that those very McJack salad greens are dredged through known carcinogens to keep them fresh looking for days if not weeks, and let our disapproval of that unethical practice be known, then that will change too.
You know the old saying, "Put your money where your mouth is." It usually refers to the words that we speak, but it can also refer to the food choices that we make for ourselves and our families. Traditionally, we women hold the keys to the cupboard. Deciding what our families eat is one of our primary long standing powers.
And our awarenesses and our ideas get reflected in corporate response. Because our spending directly tells them what we want and what we will no longer tolerate. Corporate response is evidence of the healing and re-connection which results when we open our eyes from the long sleep we've had and let our voices be expressed through the dollars that we spend.
But it's hard to wake up. Most of us have been taught to be extremely focused on petty and distracting concerns. Like our appearance, for example, we must be beautiful, or at least pretty. How much time and money have we collectively wasted on that ruse? According to the thousands of advertisements little girls see every day, nothing else is acceptable. For many millennia, we have also been thoroughly conditioned (even selected through mass femicide in the dark time of the witch hunts) into proper behavior. Women and girls should be compliant and pleasing. We should say "Yes," and listen to and do what we are told.
With hierarchical religious training and misguided family priorities, we are taught to yield to societal programming and thus too often we believe that we are not worthy of speaking up for the truth of who we are and what we feel in our hearts. Such personal expressions have long been strongly curtailed and most of us women have become convinced of our inadequacy. Depression results and holds a stop sign in our heart. But the truth is that we are more than adequate, we are perfect and beautiful just the way we are. And we don't have to believe what we've been told. It is our truth and our voices that are direly needed in the world. Blessedly, all of this manipulation is starting to erode, right here in the western world. In our female friendships and our women's circles, we create safety and equality and share our grief and our stifled emotions. We learn how to trust again and how to love ourselves enough to open up to our inspirations for change like the indomitable grasses of spring.
And men have also been dealt the same repressive blows from childhood on, and like us, they have for too long submitted themselves to the patterns they were taught. But now with these current generations, they are waking up as well to the oppression of our cultural disfunction. Many men are similarly working on healing themselves, and they are finally being allowed to express their true natures too.
Together we are beginning to see our intelligence and our strengths and we are supporting each other in creating a new vision for humanity. We are starting to let go of the misconception of the dominator model of "dominion over" which has almost killed us and everything else. Instead we are embracing with honor our collective ability to nurture and cherish and love. It is our human nature to love and protect nature.
With those images first seen in the 1960's, of our earth, our beautiful planet, floating in the inky black universe of nothingness, we have come to realize, just like children do when they grow up, that the mother is not omnipotent. She is vulnerable and needs care and can be over extended by the demands of those she loves.
As we awaken together we are starting to see our role in creating the over burdening of our planet. We are seeing that fast food burgers sold so cheaply in America are stripping bare our tropical rain-forests, the lungs of the planet, the very air that we breathe. So, we begin by purchasing local grass fed beef. It costs more, so we do it less frequently and we continue to grow from there. We are seeing that federal subsidies for agribusiness are polluting our water and aquifers with pesticides and defeating small farmers who grow organic. So we buy at the farmers market and pay more and go organic so that we no longer personally contribute to that catastrophe. We are seeing that lack of efficient mass transit (like the electric undergrounds of Europe) and our addiction to oil is devastating ecosystems like our fragile and pristine northern territories, not to mention our entire global weather system. So we take the bus, ride our bike and get hybrids for a start.
As we awaken we start to realize our part and then change and begin to flex the muscles of our purchasing power. As with CREDO vs. AT&T, we see the more far reaching implications of the dollars that we spend and make different choices. We open our eyes and realize how petty and distracting our cultural conditioning has been. We pull those blinders off and let ourselves see, really see how much power we American women, the largest consumers on the planet, already hold in our own loving hands.
With thanks to "Songs For Teaching" and Lorraine Bayes and Danny Deardorff along with further adaptations by me, Lets Sing It!
We've got the whole world in our hands,
We've got the whole wide world in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the itty bitty babies in our hands,
We've got the sisters and the brothers in our hands,
We've got the whole sweet village in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the great blue whales in our hands,
We've got the little nightingales in our hands,
We've got the rivers and the oceans in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
We've got the mountains and the meadows in our hands,
We've got the forests and the farmlands in our hands,
We've got mama's and the papa's in our hands,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
The time is now for all to know,
We see that planet Earth is our only home,
People of the world in every land,
We've got the whole world in our hands.
© 2012 Josephine Laing