Calm Before the Storm

This article on Jezebel is horrific.

"Female infanticide in countries like China has widely been considered one of the causes behind the gender discrepancies in population growth. However, Baute points out a study by Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray that shows that while infanticide is certainly an issue, the majority of "excess female deaths" comes much later in life. As Anderson notes: "Previously, people had thought that they (the missing women) were all at the very early stages of life, prenatal or just after, so before four years old. But what we found is that the majority are actually later." Those "later" deaths can be attributed to a number of factors: poor access to health care for women, high suicide rates, HIV and AIDS, and dowry-related murders (which, Burke notes, are marked as "injuries.") "

Even worse are some of the comments:

"When we go back to visit India, and people meet my father and find out he has three daughters and no sons, they say, "I'm so sorry."

It's really insulting of course, but it is honestly how people think. In a culture like that, how can you not have a dwindling female population?

I have to say, it does affect me when I'm there. It's hard to hear people lament about how unlucky your parents are and not consider yourself devalued. I could see how someone who's lived it their whole lives would turn to suicide."

-momentsofabsurdity

"Is this really all the fault of men? My mom, who grew up in India, doesn't trust any men, since she grew up in an exceeding crappy home, in which her father didn't care for her and her brother was valued above her and her 4 sisters. But she puts a lot of blame on other women for perpetuating this kind of vicious, misogynistic behavior that keeps other women down. After all, it was her own mother and my aunts who taunted her for having 2 daughters and no sons, and for marrying my father, who isn't the best-looking guy ever, but is really forward-thinking, and more importantly was the only one to move his family to the US (all other sisters are living in traditional families in India). In my mom's family, there are also rumors that an aunt murdered her son's young wife (with the rest of the uncles, who were city bigwigs, covering it up) because the wife was poor and the son was a drunkard who couldn't support the family...."

-JeromeCabaret

In a different time and place, I could have been one of these women. In fact, I'm only three generations removed from this world.

My family's story is fascinating and caught up in the politics and threads of the world. My grandparents on my mom's side were indentured servants, and my mom was alive when Trinidad gained independence as a country after being a colony of Britain. World war II is much too close historically when I think about these things. I don't like to think about how recent it was. It's terrifying to reach through the sepia and black and white to bring that horror into the real light of day.

I was thinking about art history last night when lying in bed, about how, really, it shows how history created art. The problem is that studying something like that from books is something of an exercise in futility, because many times it is necessary to see the art in person to fully appreciate it. So much is lost in photographic translation, from the brushstrokes to the size to some sort of magic which I can't explain but makes the experience in person very different when looking at a masterpiece. This is true of sculpture, also-Winged Victory is breathtaking in person. I mean this literally, as remembering it is taking my breath away. That's why I decided to include it in this blog entry.

It's hard in museums, sometimes, to appreciate what is on display, with one masterpiece after another and time as a constraint. Only afterward, when context is created, do I sometimes appreciate what I've seen.

Of course, I believe the futile effort is definitely still worth undertaking.

With Chris gone, I also have to research film and (more) music independently. I'm hesitant to say when I will do this, but I will. Also, I should research photography. So much to learn, so little time.

Tomorrow marks the four week anniversary of Chris and I splitting up. At first I was surprised at how well things were going. Now I really wish they would go faster.

Quantum Physics final tomorrow! So sorry if this seems especially hastily written or edited.