Eloriel said I could come to this forum so don't hurt me [View All]

[Wetzelbill]

:-)

There was a discussion in GD several days ago, regarding weight discrimination and how women get discriminated against but men do not. For me it was probably the best discussion thread I have ever been involved in at DU. But, I think I proved my chops and got some respect from the women on the thread, because I was invited to come over here. I'm happy to do so too.

I am interested in women's issues, for several reasons. One, I am a Blackfeet Indian, and in my culture, women were always revered and had an important place within the society and in our ceremonies. However, over the course of assimilation, I am disgusted to say, women lost that respect in our community, As you all know, women are as important as ever within a commnunity and family structure, so that didn't change, but the respect and treatment of women did. I was always curious about the occurence and what needs to be done to rectify that, not just on my reservation, but in society as a whole.

Another reason stems from when I took a class on Gender, Race and Ethnicity, a few years ago. It touched on a lot of the basics of discrimination for me. Things that aren't that obvious to a man unless they are pointed out. For example, the objectification of women. Personally, I never realized just how prevalent it was. From tv commercials, to film to magazine ads. And, from this I began to gather why women struggle with weight issues, or just their looks in general. How you all have to deal with an impossible feminine ideal. Stuff that I passed by, took for granted or barely noticed most of my life was contributing to the repression of women. Now, I love to look at a beautiful model just as much as the next guy, but I never thought about how that commercial or ad affected the other 99 percent of women on Earth who couldn't possibly live up to that image. Or those young girls who watched music videos of women being degraded. It all struck me almost at once. I'm interested in nullifying that image as much as possible.

My third reason, is I would like to see more women in politics or other positions of influence. Right now, from my reservation, more women are going to college and getting degrees than men are. By a large margin. Yet, we only have one woman on our tribal council, and frankly, she's not a very good representative, imho. The rest of the men - 8 of them I think - might have a full brain pieced together between the whole lot of them. My point is, if we could get our educated young women to come back and get in positions of power, then and only then, I think my reservation could make progress. Our state Rep is an Indian woman and she's easily the most productive state rep we have ever had. We just had another woman named to the Governor's advisory board, she's a brilliant woman too. So there is some headway. I would be interested in seeing more of that. And on a larger level. Congress and especially the Senate, does not nearly have enough women. States don't have enough women Governors either, and if Jennifer Granholm in Michigan and Janet Napolitano in Arizona are any indication then, I think our country could use all the women governors that we can get. Anyway that is yet another thing I would like to work on.

Last, for now, is I am planning to run for state senate in my home state Montana. (I live in Arizona now) I am specifically interested in women and minority issues. I would like to find out as much info as I can from you all regarding what kind of legislation you would like to see, what kind of support systems for women are you interested in, programs, anything at all that you could think of. Please don't hold back, and even if something doesn't seem like a good idea I would love to hear it anyway. I am receptive to anything. The women from the thread the other day convinced me that it would be a good idea to write legislation against weight discrimination, so I'm pleased to say I will talk about during my campaign and, if elected, I will propose that legislation. Those are the type of ideas I am looking for, so tell me everything that you ever wanted to tell a policymaker but never had the chance to do. I'm an open book as far as you are all concerned. I'm looking forward to a fruitful discussion on all the issues that matter to you. Thanks.