11/8/09

Lanham Method Revision

Bitterness regarding the nature of women is obvious even in the historical context of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello where, during that time period, women were not valued as equal human beings with rights. Shakespeare constantly harangues women indirectly through his characters who portray slave-like women, their only jobs being classical women’s duties (cooking, cleaning, etc.) and sex. He puts a much darker spin on women in society, which at least commanded some respect for the roles they did play.

The blatant examples of this male dominance and female weakness are practically constant during the course of the play. Iago has a discussion with the rest of the main characters about the qualities of women. Desdemona challenges Iago to praise a woman who is worthy. She asks him to say what he thinks of a woman who is beautiful and smart, then one who is ugly but smart, and then one who is beautiful but foolish. Iago is cynical and bitter about women’s qualities saying that the women with beauty and wit simply know how to use their beauty for their own gain, women who are ugly and smart will find a “white that shall her blackness fit,” meaning she will be able to trick a quality man into fitting with her and marrying her, and of the woman who is beautiful but dumb, he says there has never been such a woman because even her foolishness allows her beauty to take her as high as she can go, making it intelligence after all, not foolishness.

It was in that year that the MMR, a name for the well studied Maternal Mortality Ratio (appositive), finally broke 50,000. The sudden outcry that had accompanied the passing of the United States’ MMR from the thousands to tens of thousands was swamped with the constant factual point that now half the prospective mothers that became pregnant, died from said pregnancy. The MMR was measured in parts per 100,000. Deaths rather, per 100,000.
It was after the outcry that pregnancy was finally classified as a disease by the US Government Conglomeration. Parading and wildly reveling at the dawn of a new age (participle), the streets filled with men and women and children and elders and everyone who had or had once had an interest in continuing to replicate for our species. Now that we had recognized the true problem and accepted that pregnancy, with its plethora of complications and risks leading to maternal death (absolute), many of which could no longer be classified or understood, was by healthcare definition a disease--any condition that worsens and if allowed to progress, results in death. Now we could take the long overdue steps to correct our ailment.
I was there. I remember it all.
The support groups started springing up all over. Accompanying the long running Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous for sufferers of the alcoholism and illicit drugs diseases (participle), came MA: Mothers Anonymous. They were wonderfully open and beneficial groups, warm and welcoming (adjectives out of order), despite the name. At-risk fathers were also welcome at these meetings, often running right next door to AA and NA (participle out of order?). Some at-risk fathers found it a perfect system to attend their alcohol session and then their pregnancy session, alcohol being one of the known leading causes of at-risk fathers for developing pregnancy.
Years before it had seemed ridiculous to say that a “father”--as the definition of father had changed since those years from a male that has reproduced to a male who was at risk for reproduction and consequently, maternal mortality--could develop the not yet classified disease of pregnancy but we had sloughed away our ignorance and realized the error in that thinking. It was a reverend by the name of Politician Carlyle that brought to our attention the age old belief, understanding and fact rather (absolute), that sexual intercourse created a bond between a male and female that modified their bodies into “one flesh.” Everyone was at-risk.