It just ain’t the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane?
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don’t belong?
Nations droppin’ bombs
Chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones
With ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin’ really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin’ wrong
In this world that we livin’ in people keep on givin’
in
Makin’ wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin’ each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin’ on but the reason’s undercover
The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where’s the love, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the truth, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the love, y’all
People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek
Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love?
–“Where is the Love?” Black Eyed Peas
Women were created to help men–to stand by his side and cultivate the land, while living beautiful and prosperous lives. I have been going to church every Sunday for the past eighteen years of my life and one thing our pastor preaches about yearly on Mother’s Day is the role of the women. Women were not created to be used by men. In fact, women were created to be companions with men.
It’s disgusting to look at the way women are treated after all their years of being discriminated against. Women have fought long and hard for their independence and still, they are not yet free. Even still, women are abused sexually, mentally, and emotionally by men who they look up to, men who they don’t even know, and men who they are deeply in love with. Why aren’t women respected?
In Lynn Nottage’s play, “Ruined” she confronts the theme of the sexual abuse of women during wartime. Soldiers from the war ruin Sophie. Many girls are sexually abused daily, but what made her story different was how close we got to her character. Nottage opens the cruelty of war and shows us that lives can be indeed ruined by just one single incident that may have lasted less than several minutes. Various men sexually abused Sophie so roughly that she lost her ability to have children.
In many conservative cultures, being barren alone is looked down upon. Sophie was not only barren, but she was also engaged in sexual activity with men who were not her husband. In African cultures, women are basically nothing if they are not married. The role of women in these African societies is to get married, work for their husbands, have children, etc. Sophie was casted out by her husband’s family because of the shame she would bring upon them if the rest of the village found out.
One thing that really kills me is that Sophie’s life is forever damaged because of an incident that she couldn’t control. From the way Nottage described Sophie’s character, I imagined her to be a very petite and delicate young woman. It’s obvious that when these women are abused, they are unfortunately unable to really stand up for themselves and fight back. Imagine what would happen if she even did try to fight back?
Another instance where we see the effects of war on women is in Lars Noren’s play “War.” In this play, the older sister is forced to prostitute herself to soldiers to earn money for her family. Although her mother must be extremely devastated to have to see her daughter sell her body just to have a grain of rice on their plates at mealtime, they were desperate. Seeing her daughter be ruined by these men must have been devastating enough. Unfortunately, war makes people desperate and in desperate times, people go to desperate measures.
I am absolutely disgusted by what has happened and what is probably continuing to happen to women during war. Soldiers of war use women in ways that they would treat animals. They use them for sexual pleasures and when the orgasm has vanished, they kick them aside, never wondering what will happen next. Many may argue that soldiers are desperate during war and they want things that are familiar, things that will make them feel at home and at ease. However, when I think of being at ease, I still can’t imagine middle-aged men penetrating adolescent girls to the point where they are destroyed. These men are stripping women of their individual rights and for some of these women I bet they would have rather be dead than be raped so brutally. This is something that will live with them for the rest of their lives—a long-lasting scar that won’t be taken away or forgotten for as long as they live.
Where has the love gone in our world? Are we so corrupted in our minds that we have the ability to hurt others to the point where we ruin their lives? Little girls who haven’t even had the chance to grow up are raped and then killed only for the sake of another’s pleasure. Ruined for the sake of someone else’s benefit. Where is the love?
“The ax forgets, the tree remembers.”
Maya Angelou
