<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">Bonham’s <i>bonfemme</i></b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">In the historic inauguration of <span style="color:#3F3F3F">Modi</span>, the newly elected Prime Minister of India, attended
by invited Nawaz Sharif, PM of Pakistan, with Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and </span><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:">Mahinda Rajapaksa</span><span style="font-family:"> of Sri Lanka, the attempt at <i>bonhomie </i>in the political camaraderie during event was evident. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">The euphoria was shattered by the
news that a pregnant woman in Lahore was stoned to death by members of her own
family for bearing the child of the man she loved rather than kowtow to the
practice of family arranged marriage.
Her father arrested for murder was following the “honor killings”
conducted by relatives of women as punishment for alleged “adultery or other
illicit sexual behavior,” aka, not following family elders’ lead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">I am colleague to a self-conscious
group within the Christian covenant that tries to overcome the normal patterns
of patriarchy deeply embedded in the symbol system of 3,000 years of
tradition. Renegades of institutional rites
and rituals, they try to rearticulate previous metaphorical expressions into
existential language that might resonate on the reality of living in our
time. Appropriately, the group is called
the Realistic Living Institute, holding Christian Resurgence Circles in their local
social net as a formation tactic to promote its understanding and behavior.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">There is no <i>“bonfemme”</i> in the French language as used in out title. I use it in lieu of “bonhomie” (from <i>bonhomme, </i>good fellow), which means
“cheerful friendliness”; a geniality in the sense of, “he exuded good humor and
bonhomie”. We often see it used like the
word “mankind” and “manpower” for both genders, sticking with the masculine
term. Its insidious subversive quality
of patriarchal superiority is often not appreciated until we refer to a female
head of a committee as the “chairman”! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">The man’s liberation movement of my
familiarity appropriates intense sensuality in instinct, passionate engagement
in intuition, comprehensive broadness in both lateral and longitudinal lines of
intelligence, and inclusiveness of corporate intent and behavior in acts and
deeds, qualities normally attributed to the influence of the female of the
specie!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">In the US, women finally voted in
1920. The great lengths women went
through to break into restricted areas like journalistic covering of the
Normandy landings to the running of the Boston marathon is viewed as
heroic. We shall keep quoting the old
Chinese saying that “women hold half of the sky<i>” (Nu ren/fu nu neng ding ban bian tian), </i>revived by Mao Zedong
during his Zhongguo watch, not because it accomplished the paradigm shift it
was meant to accomplish, for it didn’t, but the notion that the female of the
specie is a partner to their chosen counterparts highlight the wisdom that a
person is not complete without partnering with someone in a social net. (Partnering has since gone beyond the gender
limits as same-sex marriages are legalized.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">Institutions of covenant, as it is
being reasserted in marriage in all its forms, means a relationship of mutual
consent and trust where the French sense of <i>vive
la difference </i>is not just assumed but honored and encouraged. This is most evident at the way we are asked
to be sensitive in the use of our best social tool, language.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">The Ecumenical Institute (EI) of
Chicago, and its related institutional offspring hold itself accountable to its
faithfulness to its own “faith” statements mirrored in the practices of its own
institutions. It was a hard awakening as
it became clear how deeply embedded the assumption of male dominance was in its
language in spite of its enlightenment.
The Realistic Living Institute, an offshoot of the spirit movement that
EI came to represent, struggles with the same contradiction within its members
even with the heightened consciousness of its own duplicity, unconsciously as
it often comes, in the sad affair.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">To their credit, the EI folks and
their extended relations are, at least, conscious of the very contradiction it
identifies as also a part of its own body operation and is working on alternatives. Clearing up the language is just the
beginning; that’s why I was delighted to read of a young High School student
who started using “ze” to replace the pronouns “he and she,” which I had temporary
slashed with “s/he”. “Ze” is more
creative and innovative! More important
than retranslating historic sacred writs beyond their authors cultures of patriarchy
to the core of experience, is the appropriation of soft technologies and traits
especially those articulated by the female of the specie.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">MSNBC TV recently picked up research
that indicated the casualty difference between hurricanes with feminine and
masculine names showed a higher rate at almost three times in the former
against the latter. Why anyone would
make this research is anyone’s guess; why MSNBC decided to air the result is,
in my view, to cater to a high morning female TV audience! Still, we agree on awakening the female
audience to the biases we hold.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:">My point: the female of the specie
is still getting a bum steer. <i>Bonfemme </i>is a bombshell I recommend to the
“fair thee well” crowd to use. </span></div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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