Are American Women Really the Worst Type of Mate?
A look at the shaping of a woman’s psyche in America and the denigration of her beautiful strength
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Ever hear the entire lyrics from “American Woman”? The song was originally sung by the Canadian band The Guess Who in the 1970s, but Lenny Kravitz ended up popularizing it even more.
American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama, let me be
That is just the opening.
Then it gets interesting:
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
Colored lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
Lenny Kravitz came under fire for those lyrics(again, they were not written by him), and for the risqué images of women in his music video.
Some say, the lyrics are about war and America. Perhaps America is a woman metaphorically speaking. Others say, it is the denigration of the American woman. Saying she is way more powerful than she should be.
In my mind, either reasoning is kind of a bad look for women in America, but how did we get here?
The rights and suffering of women has a long history
I will not speak on foreign women because I do not live in their country nor know their histories fully; also they seem to be “choice mates” for some American men.
American women, like most women around the globe, have had to either cloak their power or beg for it.
In 1776 Abigail Adams had to write a plea to her husband to “please do not forget the ladies…do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands”. This was a plea made to the Continental Congress. She made this plea because women give birth to men, but the men have made sure to place women beneath their feet.
In fact, one of my favorite, yet melancholy stories I’ve read in college was The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which is still regarded as one of the most important pieces of literature in feminist history. The husband in the story offers a “rest therapy” for his wife when she suffers a temporary nervous disorder — which we now call postpartum — after…
