Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Commonwealth essay for this year,
that I didn't enter for the competition for several reasons:
TOP TEN REASONS I DIDNT MEET THE ESSAY DEADLINE:
1. I was lazy... I like to go blur... =P
2. I couldn't choose which essay to write... >.<>
3. I was busy... Doing what? You don't want to know. =P
4. I had to maintain 2 blogs... Yeap... but y'all cant see it! Muahahaha!
5. March Pass is coming up and I have to get my big butt moving on the formations and cheers. >.<
6. Games Carnival is next week.
7. I'm a girl, I'm supposed to be socially involved all the time... this coming from an ex-nerd. =P
8. I've entered a blogging competition...
9. I'm renovating this blog =P You can tell... rite? =P
10. I'm planning things to really make good use of Form 4. I'm Motivated! =P
Hehe... Excuses, excuses =P
Anyways, It's really, really long. It's an opinion piece where I'm supposed to write on what slavery means to me.
What Slavery Means To Me
Slavery means a lot to me, it is the very thing I experience every morning when I wake up and drag my drowsy self to the kitchen. It is the very thing that keeps someone cooking, cleaning and looking good for the family. To me, slavery means being a Wife and later on, a Mother.
A slave is an individual, deprived of their personal freedom, compelled voluntarily or involuntarily, to provide their labor and services to the owner or household. A newly-wed woman’s duty is first to her new husband, her children when they are born and finally, herself. Those activities which she used to engage in before have to be cleared from her personal schedule to make way for the needs of others. Personally, I enjoy the personal freedom I have now to express my opinions as well as achieve my aspirations, and I really don’t like being treated like a machine or some tool.
In ancient Egypt, all slaves were the property of Pharaoh and were not sold to private citizens. However, there is proof that the Pharaohs gave slaves as gifts to favored generals or priests. When I found out about this, the very image of young girls, after trained to keep house and help out with the family chores for any years, surfaced almost immediately. Of course, they are sooner or later, given away by their families to be married into a man’s household. Obviously, this situation does bear an uncanny resemblance to the former Egyptian slave system.
A slave is also treated as a property of a household, taken into consideration the condition and status of the slave. In old times, slavery nearly everywhere allowed the abuse of slaves; however, slaves were usually considered and treated as valuable "property". This is usually the case where trophy wives are concerned; their husbands threaten and usually abuse them in non-physical ways, in order to get what they want, without marring their “prizes”. Of course, such methods are usually emotionally-draining and meant to achieve complete obedience in the long run, not unlike a farmer “breaking in” a new mare.
Slaves are in some ways, deprived of their rights to leave, to refuse work or to receive compensation for their work. However, slaves can be rewarded. Mothers, Wives or Slaves, they are like wet clay on the foundation stone on society, and it has been long impressed upon them that they are indebted to the household which they are given responsibility for. In a way, they are being robbed of their freedom, but they can enjoy the meager scraps of compliments and rewards that the stereotype society tosses to them when they are socially correct.
Well then, how about hired help? After all, wives and mothers have a choice to leave their kids, house, and maybe even their husband to their hired Spanish maid and just enjoy their new found freedom. Cue the buzzer, Wrong answer. After all, it is only normal that slaves overlook other slaves. Again, it is merely reward for a job well-done. Career Mum works hard to support family; she is then rewarded for her labor, plus a few pay cuts which she hardly has the right to complain about, lest she is punished by removal of her position. The paycheck, her reward, is then traded for hired help, who is usually another Career Mum, thus the cycle goes on. Therefore, the conclusion that can be formed from this scenario is that Slaves/ Mums can overlook Slaves/ Mums.
Slavery, includes sexual services. It is nothing out of the ordinary; it is merely a wife’s duties to the master of the house, to produce a healthy heir to the household. Back in the days, slaves were raped or “used” to produce many children for the man of the house. Of course, sex is also known to “relieve” a man of tension; wives are usually expected to be a helpful outlet of stress when their husbands get home from a long day at the office. Slavery at its roots, mans desire.
In history, there are examples of slaves rising to higher social status, either by marriage, doing well in the tasks assigned to the slaves or gaining favor from the master. This is very, very familiar in today’s society, especially among the women. So much so that, society, has begun advertising this in the media world. This influences women and men alike into thinking that it is natural for women to advertise certain immoral values to get to a certain status. Also, the mere fact that a woman says no to a man’s requests, even if he is of lower rank, may even cause discontent and even a drunken ‘macho’ put-down session at a bar later in the evening.
As in many later societies, there was a wide variety of slaves: from highly valued house servants and tutors, to skilled artisans, to field laborers. There are a wide variety of wives. First of all, there are the housewives who keep the household running, cooking well-balanced meals tirelessly day after day, meticulously cleaning the china and silverware while maintaining the children. They can spend hour after hour nagging their children to do their homework. Not much difference from the valued house servants and tutors of olden times. Second on the list are the creative stay-at-home wives who supervise the housekeeping with servants while they churn out marketing idea after idea to establish their own little business at home while spending time with the children. They are no doubt the prominent modern artisans of today indeed. Finally there are the working wives, who neglect everything for their careers. Women work the job market, earning a steady income and looking more like modern day laborers to me.
All evidence is laid down on the table, and the answer is obvious from the facts. Denial of this, especially after all “developments and improvements”, is easy for everyone, but the truth stands strong. From how I see it, being a wife or a mum means giving up some personal control, and I prize that above any man who can offer me the world. No matter how much frills and fancies are thrown in to sweeten the deal, it still looks like slavery to me.
(1042 words)
7:14 AM; unforgotten.Y
