Anytime that humans think that they can limit another human being, I say the same thing: resistance is futile.
I’m Olivia S. Benson. And if you’ve been here before, you know that one of my themes is that we all have a bag of issues, challenges that we have to deal with in life. And part of your life is deciding to go through the process — if you want to, you don’t have to — of overcoming those challenges. And as you know, in my life, one of the major challenges was growing up without my father.
And overcoming that issue is what I write about in my book, For the Love of My Father, which is this one, For the Love of My Father, which is available on Amazon. My other book, Answers from Within, talks about my journey to finding answers from a spiritual perspective to my work-life issues. Maybe everybody else has it together, but it took me a while to get it together about my purpose here on planet Earth. And that’s my second book, and it’s Answers from Within, which is also available on Amazon.
Now, I want you to know that I literally have a list — on my website, there’s a list of what I consider to be my life issues. And I am slowly working through them. Obviously, the issue with my father was significant, and I have worked through that issue, I would say, significantly. But you know, there’s always residues, and you always have to continue to work through the issues of your life. But anyway, if you want to learn more about those things, those books, and my work, please visit my website, it’s OliviaSBenson.com.
Now today, I want to spend some time talking about some issues related to Women’s History Month.
Resistance Is Futile
Now, I think it’s important because one of the things that I’ve said, and I say it with regards to every issue: anytime that humans think that they can limit another human being, I say the same thing. Resistance is futile. Because for me, if you think that another human being is incapable of something, what you’re essentially saying is that you believe that the creator of the universe and galaxies and solar systems and everything on the planet is incapable of creating a human being that could do X, Y, and Z.
And the truth of the matter is that no one can get me to believe that anything is impossible for God, energy, force, spirit, which I call GEFS. Nobody can tell me that the creator of the universe is incapable of creating a human being that can do X, Y, and Z. No one can also convince me that the creator of all the magnificence that we see in the universe — despite human insanity, despite human insanity — no one can convince me that the creator of the universe made women to be lesser beings, that they were created as afterthoughts, only incident to male’s needs.
Man’s Inhumanity to Women
And of course, we have a long history of doing that. And I say we, because even though some will say that these are things that men have done to women, I want to take a position that women have participated in sustaining and maintaining those positions as well.
And in this book, Answers from Within, there’s an entire chapter, it’s called Man’s Inhumanity to Women. And that’s chapter six. And chapter seven is titled Recasting the Relationship Between Men and Women. So get the book and take a look at those chapters.
Some Things That We Thought Made Sense
But just for the fun of it — sometimes when I see things that we do as humans, I have to say we, because we’re all part of the collective consciousness of the world. And women, as I said before, have participated in being part of the problem as well at times. But I thought, just for the fun of it, let’s think about some things that we have done, and some things that we thought made sense.
And if you’re a father, or a brother, or a cousin, or a nephew, think about what life would be for your female relatives if they did not have these rights. Women couldn’t vote until 1920. Women couldn’t serve on juries until 1961 in the United States. Up until the 19th century, women could not own property in many places, and sign contracts in many cases. Up until 1970, women could not apply for credit. You know how insane that is? That you as a woman could not apply for credit, or that your mother or your sister or your cousin or your aunt or your grandmother could not apply for credit.
Here’s a big one. You could not keep your job while you were pregnant. Can you imagine the economic impact? And we thought, we humans thought, that this made sense. And again, I have to say we, because I’m sure that there were women out there that went along with this. Of course, there were many who objected, but there were women who thought, oh yeah, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Let’s Talk About Physical Constraints
Last year I posted the picture of this woman who tried to run a marathon and men stopped her, tried to stop her from running the marathon. Women could not run marathons. They were thought not to be able to — that if the train went faster than 50 miles per hour, a woman’s uterus would fly out of her body. Yep, that happened.
It was thought that women could not box. Women’s Olympic boxing wasn’t allowed until 2012. Many places, and this still happens still today, women can’t wear pants. Certainly combat was out of the question, I think until 2013. It was thought during the 19th and 20th centuries that women could not be doctors and lawyers. Also, for 300 years, women were not allowed into Ivy League schools. Certainly if they couldn’t get into Ivy League schools, they could not be astronauts. That was believed to be impossible.
And this doesn’t even address other issues related to controlling their bodies. For example, women were not allowed to file for divorce without proving some kind of fault. Many times they couldn’t go out alone. I don’t know if I mentioned it already, but they weren’t allowed to wear pants. And of course that is down till this day.
We Are All Creations of the Creator
The thing about it that I think — and we have a long history of living this way. I mean, from the beginning, women were cast into this position and cast into a very limited and subservient role. The whole thing is that today, I always say resistance is futile. Clearly the truth about who we are as human beings, and the fact that our gender doesn’t determine our capabilities or capacities, is really coming out. It is obvious.
The creator of the universe did not create women to be in a subservient role, only incident to the needs of the males. And if you’re a man and you have a mother and a sister and a cousin and an aunt and a grandmother, you must know that this cannot be the way that the creator of the universe and everything in it intended life to be for your female relatives, for your female friends. We are all creations of the creator, and not created to live in perpetual suffering because you are a woman, in perpetual limitation because you’re a woman.
Sometimes I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to look at the pictures and the things that we did. And I always wonder about people who were fighting against something that was absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous — when they see themselves and they see their actions, if they’re alive, of course, if they’re embarrassed. Because years later, women are lawyers, women are doctors, women can run marathons. And there was never, never any real, real reason why these things were prohibited.
For This Women’s History Month
So for this Women’s History Month, I hope that you are supporting women. If you have a daughter, can you imagine that she would not be allowed to run in a marathon? How ridiculous is that? And there are a whole list of other things — her education, and for example, take something as simple as being pregnant, whether you’re married or unmarried. If your daughter became pregnant and needed to work, regardless of her marital situation, how would it affect her economically if she was not able to go out and be employed because she became pregnant?
Much of what we have done for centuries is insanity. But guess what? It’s becoming clear every day that resistance to change is futile. And I hope you marinate with these thoughts. If you’re a woman, I know you already probably know. And if you’re a man, I’m hoping that you will think about it differently. And if you have female relatives, that you think about them differently. And know that the creator of the universe did not intend women to be in a subservient, limited position for their entire lives.
I’m Olivia S. Benson. Check me out at OliviaSBenson.com.