All it took was one bite. One little morsel of forbidden fruit and she became the symbol of shame and root of sin for humankind. Destroying their innocent haze, God made Adam and Eve become aware of their nakedness and therefore, ashamed of their own nature. As her punishment, God said onto to her, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee,” dooming her and the countless generations of woman after her to a lifetime of patriarchal oppression. Meaning all the Eves after her would encounter horrendous discrimination, barbaric cruelty, unoriginal “Get back to the kitchen!” jokes, and so much more.
So needless to say, it has been hard for Eve. Censorship, objectification, discrimination, you name it, she’s dealt with it. Yet, some Eves have had it worse than others. The translucent, pale Eve painted upon the stained glass windows of churches has had it rough, no one is arguing that she hasn’t, but the Eves who don’t share her white, privileged skin have had it worse. While all Eves make 77 cents on Adam’s dollar, African-American Eves make 64 cents on his dollar and Latina Eves make only 54 cents. Of those affected by LGBTQ-based hate crimes, 78% were people of color, and transgender people are 27% more likely to experience hate violence than compared to cisgender people (glaad.org). Not all women experience the same difficulties and in order to make men and women equal, we have to destroy the ‘one size fits all’ feminism that pursues a common good that isn’t inclusive for everyone.
We have to go out of our way to help our sisters who don’t have even footing in this race so they can catch up to those in the privileged lead. We have to be our authentic, beautiful, natural selves and be unapologetically proud of our womanhood. We, as an extension of Eve, as bold women, will not be threatened with subservience or shame anymore. It’s time to exterminate the vilified persona of Eve because with that little bite, she brought forth knowledge and reality. The paradise found in the Garden of Eden was an illusion and the trance needed to be broken because the fictional wonderland was unobtainable. However, we are getting closer to a realistic one. A land of equality for every gender is within our grasp. And we, as the unapologetic Eves that we are, are ravenous and don’t mind taking more bites of fruit in order to obtain the paradise we all deserve.
“The issue with separating race and gender not only undermines claims of intersectional feminism, it also undermines basic feminism. Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political,social, and economic equality to men. If we think of this exactly how it is written, we neglect the fact feminism should also be grounded in the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to other women.”- Morgan McDaniel
“In a non-sexual context, female nipples shouldn’t be sexualized. The desexualization of female nipples is actually a lot more significant than many think; it decreases the objectification of women’s bodies and therefore decreases violence against women in general.”-Chloe Griffith
childs play 