Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Episode 47: The Sex Cause


Late in my high school years I was a rebel without a cause. After listening to some Millie Jackson I reasoned I could develop a feeling bitchy attitude like her. Or look like her in that cover jacket where she is seated on a toilet bowl with her pants down. Certainly there was nothing I was to achieve by acting Millie Jackson. Anyway being a bitch and grumpy was part of the attitude, but such could not survive around my full of life and well, bitchy mother. So it was only sometime after I joined campus that I decided to become a rebel again, this time with a cause.

I had gone to university very psyched up to "change the world." However it didn't take long to realize that most of the comrades were more interested in sex, parties and CATS than in changing the world. And the students who were changing the world didn't seem like true believers; they spent time in meetings; all talk no action and only pretentious anger at the "state of things". After watching Holy Man, a feel good Eddie Murphy film, I was inspired to go solo. My cause was ambiguous; a combination of human rights, going green and protecting the ozone layer. I started by vowing never to take tea because I had read somewhere that tea workers were paid peanuts. It didn't matter to me that one cup of tea might not make much difference. I believed " It starts with you" the catch phrase of those in solo protests.  Then when I told my mother about my tea boycott he laughed and informed me in jest that a cup of coffee at Starbucks was $ 2 while the farmers here were not getting even a dollar for kilogram of cherry. I boycotted coffee too, not sure how that was going to make farmers get better prices.

Around the same time I read about farm to fork. A campaign to ensure that what is eaten is produced without harming the environment, and all those in the production chain are adequately rewarded. My farm to fork campaign involved creating a lot of fuss whenever I went to buy greens, fruits or sometimes even eat in a hotel. Of course few in this country have the patience for such fuss. So I relented. But to compensate for the guilt I  felt for failing to trace the food I ate from the farm to the fork, I decided to recycle polythene bags in a big way; carrying my own papers even when going shopping in supermarkets.

Well the first protest lasted only a few months. The fire ebbed because I could not see the reward of my protest, and well I missed tea. Lets not talk about principles. But I still wanted to change the world. I still wanted to be a rebel of some kind. Thus after some few months I decided to take on the sex cause. As a woman I felt I needed to do something about our lot. I reasoned there were two ways to go about in approaching sex as a cause. One was to campaign against the portrayal of women as sex objects. And two was to empower women sexually almost literally; women to use sex as a weapon. There were already people doing the former so I settled on the latter. My mantra was simple: If a woman was to have sex with a man she should not only get the pleasure but also some material gain. The challenge was how to communicate the message without sounding a sort of desperado. And well we were in university where sex just for the kick was part of the experience. The idea became a cropper. But to make up for my failure I vowed not to have sex with men and engaged in a lesbian affair.

All this came to mind yesterday when in the process of doing something else I saw  my university notebook that I used to plan my causes. I had even toyed with some slogans for the sex cause. When I read them now they seem a joke:  A condom & a cent. V for Value.  Dont just open your legs: Open your bag. You make a weapon everytime you part your legs.  Sex is power.  Then there was the classical : Women of the world unite, you got nothing to lose other than your..... . I could no come up with a punchy phrase to capture what I intened then.

So much has changed in the world  and in me since then. At the moment I have a different opinion about that sex is power cause, and I am not sure I would advocate for it. But thinking of it on a lighter note and in light of how I earn my living, I didn't sell out. I am leading from the front. I am one of those rare hands on rebel leaders. ;)

-I have answered 26 more questions. I will answer the rest soon. 

-If you had paid for the Illustrated Book and I haven't refunded your money kindly email me. I will refund you the money asap. The Illustrated book will be available free of charge sometime in October.


18 comments:

  1. every single article intrigues me. Keep up the good workevery single article intrigues me. Keep up the good work

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  2. U have a very wonderful writing skillsU have a very wonderful writing skills

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  3. Huh? So now what is the cause?

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  4. Excellent post Sue, Really appreciate your good work.

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  5. Hello Sue. I am in campus and this made me laugh out so loud. Out of curiosity how do you manage to joggle very different topics and writing styles? I want to write too.

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  6. You are just a perfect story teller.

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  7. My enigma. I love you Sue!

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  8. Maybe it's just me but your posts have been out of sync for a while. iz how sue? I want you back (for good. har har!)

    limbo

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  9. Sue is off the hook!!! keep them coming Sue

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  10. Fuck you half-assed whore..your blog nolonger ticks..Wanjohi wa kigogoine beats you 10-0 in terms creativity and humour.. Go suck cocks if u've run out of ideas.Fuck you half-assed whore..your blog nolonger ticks..Wanjohi wa kigogoine beats you 10-0 in terms creativity and humour.. Go suck cocks if u've run out of ideas.

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  11. @ anonymous who commented at 2:22. stop being abusive coz u suck! if you simply cant appreciate some some excellent piece of writing by sue, then just quietly go read that blog of your wanjohi-wa-kagogoine. oh, and while at it, tune to some ken-wamaria or man-karish music. am sure u wil be in a black god-papa and brown stiletos as you sip your freshly brewed muratina. @ anonymous who commented at 2:22. stop being abusive coz u suck! if you simply cant appreciate some some excellent piece of writing by sue, then just quietly go read that blog of your wanjohi-wa-kagogoine. oh, and while at it, tune to some ken-wamaria or man-karish music. am sure u wil be in a black god-papa and brown stiletos as you sip your freshly brewed muratina.

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  12. Hey... i dont support what you do (prostitution et al), and i believe with your intelligence, you would have done something much better for yourself, but i have to admit.... you have very nice articles. liked this one in particular... the thoughts about pleasure and material gain... i have had them too. but then again, i dismissed them from my head really fast... LOL! dont mean to be judgy

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  13. Hi Sue,

    Did your mum raise from the dead????? 'Then when I told my mother about my tea boycott he laughed and informed me in jest that a cup of coffee at Starbucks was $ 2 while the farmers here were not getting even a dollar for kilogram of cherry'........ and mum knows about starbucks..not bad at all.

    in article earlier.....

    Lastly and dearest was Mum. We buried her last Friday. I hesitate to say much about her lest I give her identity and mine away. Anyway for the larger part of this year she has been in and out of hospital. I being the child who was physically nearest to her In the last two months I have spent many days with her, I being the nearest of her children. I am also the only one who is self employed, so I could take time off my business liberally. I loved Mum and looked forward to the day I was to tell her the truth of what I actually did for a living.

    She saw her death coming and at many points when the pain was too much wished for it. As a family we knew she was to die sooner than later and thus prepared ourselves psychologically. Though thus prepared I still shed some tears for her. I comfort myself by saying at least now I have a close dead person to pray to. Yes, someone told me the most effective prayers are those to the dead. Somehow I believe it.

    you sound like my old housemaid, she burried her mother at one point and another point she went to visit her at the hospital! i advised her if she said the truth she will never have to remember what she said.

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  14. Anon above. Read the article again. She is talking of her days in college. Seriously you don't get it?

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  15. @ Anon, exactly do people ever read. She is referring to her campus days. Man our education system is failing us. People can not use their present, past or past participle tense lessons..... Good work sue, u got me hooked.

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  16. I don't c y pple so hate u n r abusive. I actually c ur intelligence which is what I apprcte wen I read ur blog. Ur writing style is unique n u don't hav to b like so n so so affably mentioned here. U rock!!!

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