Continued from #1/3....
I think your belief, Joan Blue, that all women need to be capable of independence is very true. Only in that way can women in general be freed from domination, being used, and the need to stay in a bad relationship because she fears she can't take care of herself on her own. (One was described on the forum recently. A very demanding and selfish husband. He refuses to go for marriage counselling. In such a relationship my advice is, if the woman is capable of making a life for herself she should get a divorce from this tyrant. Otherwise she will lose her self under his bullying and tyranny. I hope she can take care of herself because she will have a better life without him.) Men who know women can leave are not as likely to be abusive as this dominating tyrant.
As for bats, and the story about the woman who could only scream and weep because of a little bad that had blundered into her room: they are wild little creatures that don't want to be in a house. Open the window. Shut the door, and it will find its own way out. They have top level abilities to find their way and avoid all obstacles. Their high pitched little squeaks rebound from objects like sonar, so the bat can hear how to navigate. Bats aren't interested in biting a person who is awake, even if they are blood sucking bats. Most bats aren't blood suckers. They are fruit or insect eaters. They are among the very best noxious insect eaters and eat vast numbers of mosquitoes. Bats should be encouraged around houses. They don't get tangled in people's hair, even though there are such silly stories around.
Bats are beautiful little creatures if you are interested in learning about them, and looking at them without prejudice.
I think this bat story may have been told for an ulterior motive, which was to weaken the image of the professional woman. It seems like it is supposed to be extrapolated to all helpless little women, even professional women. No woman can make it without a big strong man to care for her. Duh! This kind of thing was done in Canada and the USA after WWII when men returned from the war. Women had been doing all men's jobs well, while the men were away. They worked in factories, welded, built airplanes, did the executive jobs needed. They were fully capable. Now the jobs needed to be vacated because the men would need them again when they returned. There was a general campaign (since provenf), through the media and women's magazines to influence women toward frilly aprons and babies, and homemaking, so they would go back home again, leaving the paying jobs to the men. It worked very well, too. We need to be suspicious of such stories. Just because there may have been one silly woman who screamed and wept all night because of a little bat in her quarters, (if there ever really was), doesn't paint us all with the same brush. Don't let yourself be drawn away from your own necessary development and advancement because of these manipulative old images of women. These images are useful to get free labour and keep women "in their place."
You have noticed, of course, that these maintained women aren't paid for all theextremely valuable work they do in the home and family? We are supposed to do it because of love and duty. How convenient. To get all that work and service, just for free.
Continued in #3....
