“Girl on the Run,” is inspired by and commemorates the 100 years of suffrage and International Women’s Day, March 8. The 100 years since suffrage have spawned amazing changes in America for women. As with most significant social changes in this country, the prominence of race is intrinsically woven into the very fabric of U.S. history, as is the intersection between race and gender. In profiling and honoring the progress of women in America, I do so by recognizing the common nature and struggle of all women. However, the distinction between black and white women is important given the median wealth disparity of 10 cents on the dollar. When examined for single women, blacks earn one cent for every dollar by whites. One can easily understand the impact of race on life’s experiences since suffrage despite great progress in general.
As metaphor, I’ve painted a little girl running alone on a seaside jetty. The relevance of this piece is the fragility of a young girl, running as if away from the past and toward the future on more or less unsteady and precarious foundation. Indeed, a woman’s past, before and since suffrage, has been fraught with discrimination, second class citizenship, and domestic, gender and sexually based violence in the loneliest of circumstances. My poem “Girl on the Run” highlights many of these issues but suggests a past as prologue to a promising future.
Girl on the Run
A cry of anguish, “Ain’t I a woman,” was Sojourner’s truth
So deeply felt by abolitionist Harriet Tubman too
No less a plea from suffragettes Stanton and Anthony
Whose hope was for a vote long overdue
Although more powerful than might for all to pursue
Except for descendants of slavery in Jim Crow.
Southern belles of gentility owned forty percent of all slaves in perpetuity
These victims of sexism were also perpetrators in slavery
Accomplices in the most sinful and avarice period of US history
There for all to see in the infamous census of 1860
How ironic is this complicity for the oppressed to be the oppressor
In a family affair without repent.
Husband, father, brother and son
Wife, Mother, Daughter and Sister
Girl on the run
Unwitting sexual objects, so statuesque, in lipstick, makeup and perfume
On pedestals they do display those wares that sway and allure
These fragrant flowers in disguise, so “fragile” and demure
Allegedly weaker of mankind with marriage paramount on the mind
Hoping for Mr. Right to tie the knot as life’s deceptively enduring prize
In a tomb of domesticity by vows to honor and obey.
Femininity overcome in a playground of masculinity
Jekyll and Hyde swing the swings, climb the monkey bars and ride the rides
Where lovers, predators and even molesters show their true sides
Sexual vulnerability succumbs to violence as common place
On a merry go round and round for those bound and never found
Out of sight and mind without a trace in the darkness of night.
Husband, Father, Brother, and Son
Girl on the run
So many years of being polite despite how egregious the plight
Glass ceilings broken by those previously token
Audacity of screams — ME TOO! – against sexual harassment and misogyny
Accusers emboldened while the accused cowed and broken
Wild fires of lies out of control in an avalanche of denials
Where few tears appear for careening careers.
Although womanhood has withstood society’s turpitude
Those who could, should, and now would in a more unified sisterhood
A little girl’s intention to be President no longer a pipe dream of the indentured
As female officeholders and voters have unparalleled power to really matter
Suffragettes Stanton and Anthony dreamt all this would come true
As Abolitionists Truth and Tubman would ponder how much more still to do.
Wife, Mother, Daughter and Sister
No longer Mister as chosen one
Girl on the run
Harry Seymour is Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His 2012 scratchboard art, Cigar Smokers, is in the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Permanent Art Collection.