But during my adventures I have discovered a very different reality and it is really, really disturbing.
Upon my arrival
During my trip to Thailand last month,
The custom has been disappearing... however, now thanks to tourists, these girls are taken from their mountain tribe to live in a fake village where stupid people (like me) can pay $15 US dollars to come and photograph the freaks, revile at the pictures of their bared black and blue necks and feel "cultured." I asked her - does it hurt? She bent her entire body to me (unable to freely move her head), with the top coil cutting into her chin, and said "sometimes." I feel sick, knowing this girl will never forget that she is different and deformed, the freakshow that warrants a photo. She has become a prisoner, never be able to enter a larger society. This is the world on drugs.
Continuing onto Indonesia, which is largely muslim - I become well acquainted with the very symbol of squashed identity - the burka. This head to toe covering may (or may not) leave a slit for the eyes. The more fortunate women only wear head scarves (which has GOT to be hot in the equatorial climate).
I ask my friend - why the burkas, why the head scarves? "Ana," he says, "because hair is beautiful and they need to protect themselves from men's lustful eyes." OK, OK... so the "answer" that has been adopted by the societies of millions and millions is that women need obscure themselves and live behind a mask because the men can't keep it in their pants?!?! This is logic??? This is the world on drugs!
In
In Jodhpur, I met Rehka, a woman my age with three children and ambition as strong as mine; though she’s not allowed to leave the house (as a wife) and has never even seen the fort that overlooks her city, bringing tourists from around the world. I asked her to come with us; she declined, smiling, saying she is sure she will go soon, but instead taught me how to make chai and Indian potato sandwiches.
I've come to believe, to truly understand now, that around the world, women are simply and completely objects to be owned. The thought that a woman is an independently thinking human who is as valuable of a man is laughable to most of the world. The "She" of billions and billions is entrapped within a gridlocked system that ensures her bonds are tight. She is property, shunned and veiled, condemned for her beauty, a prisoner in her homes. Modern slavery.
THIS IS THE WORLD ON DRUGS
(Dedicateed to Jody and Babs, the strongest women I know)