[Oe List ...] Thursday for Jaime, revised and FINAL

[wangzhimu2031 at aol.com]

The final version that will see print on Thursday.  The 7 revolutions are in the last two paragraphs.



She
 
"Ze" has entered my vocabulary.  Ze will not eliminate "he","she", and "it"; just adds to it.  It might even delight my Tejas-Mejicano campesinoswho will mistake my use of zee language. Ze does not matter.
 
So I wrote in a previous column.  "She", however, does matter.
 
It is no longer as repeated as often,but the old Chinese saying, repeated by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiao Peng, was nuren neng ding ban bian tian, “women hold half of the sky.”  China today has gone back to beingunapologetically patriarchal.  Thesystemic reasons are deep, not the least of which is the universal pattern ofnaming a child after the father’s ancestral beginnings rather than combiningthe mother and father’s gifts.
 
In my former University classes, I printed my whole name onthe board, Jaime Ravelo Vergara, to indicate how my father and mother’s lastnames are my surnames.  When I was inSpain once, I was called Señor Ravelo. My name over there was formally written as Jaime Vergara y Ravelo.  
 
The name in Spain was actually the way Filipino names were givenduring the Spanish period, still true in many Hispanic countries.  The European practice included both parent’s surnamewhen naming a child.  It varied onwhether the father or the mother’s came first or second.  In some English influenced countries, themiddle name is the mother’s maiden surname. I some places in the United States, the mother’s surname isdropped.  In China, the wife actually hadno personality in the husband’s household until she was with a child.  The only time a mother’s name shows up is whena combined child’s given name includes that of the mother, more for sentimentalreason than proprietary one.  
 
My children have their mother’s surname as their middlename.  However, in some places where themother is the primary care giver, a child’s surname often takes after themother, like those of single mothers, or divorced mothers who have sole custodyof the children and reverts back to the maiden name as well as renames everyonewith her surname.  
 
Some boutique practices have entered Americana like familieswhere the boys take on the father’s surname, and the girls, the mother’s, orvice-versa.  In some, myriad ofcombinations apply.  The hyphenatedfamily name, ie., Ravelo-Vergara is common among wives and children.
 
The family’s surname after a marriage is also changing.  In previous times, the universal practice wasfor the man’s surname to be adopted, and only after a divorce does the womanhave the option to revert back to her maiden name.  There are actually eight States in the Unionthat allows man to change into their wives names in marriage withoutpetitioning the court for the normal process of name change.  I once adapted to my Chinese wife’s surnamesince the Chinese female always retained her maiden name after marriage.  My gesture was ignored and stayedappreciated!
 
If patriarchy is deeply embedded in many cultures to the detrimentof female roles, conservative forces in Islamic countries insists that Shariaprovisions on women’s behavior need to be followed.  The kind of literal fundamentalism that doggedthe Christian church of my youth is hard to dispel when imposed on members asinerrant scriptural law.  Judaism andChristianity have variations of the same theme. The Taliban want women to be subservient.  Gang rape in India has exposed a commontravesty. But SHE is fighting back.
 
“A rose by any other name” served Shakespeare’s audienceswell, and was cute with Romeo and Juliet, but no longer.   A rose by any other name is a fluke.  She wants her name in goldenletters in the annals of history, just as much as he does, and has as muchequal right to it as anyone.  Noaffirmative action required, just the right to be SHE!
 
There were seven revolutions I’ve joined in my life: 1)youth and emotive exuberance, 2) minorities and their civil rights, 3) ThirdWorld’s independence from imperial and colonial designs, 4) university vs. multiversitywithout a cognitive overview, 5) global business against protectionism andentrenched patrimony, 6) the rise of local men and women, and 7) women’srightful place in humanity’s leveled field.
 
The ethos of youth now pervades fashion and there is nothingmore disconcerting than to watch a grandma on jeans try to look like a teenager. Minorities no longer wait under thecorporate table to catch droppings.  Theyinsist on sitting around the table of life’s feasts with the rest of thecrowd.  Third World’s fight againstimperial and colonial designs is harder to shake.  Constitutional monarchies, an anachronism,still keep the aristocrats in England and the elite in Thailand in power.  Universities try to keep things together,though pyramidal hierarchy still define tenure rather than flatbed swirlingnetworks of lively intelligences. Globalization is a monster though it shook the roots of privilegedeconomic monopolies.  The rise of localpeople is wreaking havoc around the word. My daughters have gone way beyond “God is a girl!”
 
The We shall overcome chorusis still playing at my house.


Jaime Vergara

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20140218/bfffd873/attachment-0001.htm>