Dangerous job as a maid

J Lo as maid

I have worked as a maid at various times in my life, out of necessity. Once when I arrived in a city with no money, I got a job making $2 an hour cleaning hotel rooms. And long ago when I first came to Colorado, I worked as a maid at a dude ranch cleaning rooms for the summer.

What has brought all this back to me is identifying with the poor young woman who was allegedly raped by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced and deposed IMF Chief. The other night I woke up thinking about the awful scenario she experienced that was so graphically depicted in news accounts. If she had known what was going to happen to her, I suspect she would have said nothing and endured the horror of it for the rest of her life. Her previous existence, and that of her sixteen-year-old daughter, will never be the same. The press will never leave her alone.

I read that when she tried to return home after the story broke, dozens of reporters blocked her way into her own home. She and her daughter have been "relocated" to a secure place, but how can her life ever be the same? She has agreed to press charges and probably has little to no idea of the pressures she will most likely face once the trial begins. It just makes me sick. The only bright side to what might come from this is highlighting the numerous times this same situation has happened to other young women, who have little to no recourse if something similar happens to them.

Most of the press reports I've read focus on what will likely happen to his life after he was caught. But apparently this is not new behavior for him, since he is a powerful person who thought the rules didn't apply to him. Whatever he gets won't be adequate punishment, in my opinion, because of his disregard for the rights of others. He joins the ranks of men who have been disgraced because of their inability to keep it in their pants and exposed, so to speak, for their crimes.

While I was working as a maid, I was never accosted, but I didn't spend more than a few months in the position. Because I had other skills, I was able to get better paying and more secure positions. However, I well remember how invisible I was to the people as they were checking out of their rooms. Many times I felt like a piece of furniture and was told by management that it was my place to act like one. Maybe those old guys like DSK should get a blow-up doll fastened to their pillows instead of a chocolate. But who knows, maybe the turn-on for him was overpowering an unwilling and powerless woman...
:-[

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day 2010! Celebrated every year on the 8th of March, it is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions of the world, the focus of the celebrations ranges from general respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. Unfortunately for us Americans, it's not a holiday. Yet. From my favorite information source, Wikipedia:

On the occasion of 2010 International Women's Day, the International Committee of the Red Cross is drawing attention to the hardship displaced women endure. The displacement of populations is one of the gravest consequences of today's armed conflicts. It affects women in a host of ways. Women displaced by armed conflict – often living alone with their children – are frequently exposed to sexual violence, discrimination and intimidation. Many face poverty and social exclusion as well. International humanitarian law therefore includes specific provisions protecting women, for example when they are pregnant or as mothers of young children.

That's something I have never had to worry about, being displaced by war. But this is a huge and very real problem for many women (and men, and families) across Africa and the Middle East, in particular. The movie The Hurt Locker shows what the Iraq war is like for many, including those whose lives are totally disrupted, or lost, by that awful war.

And it's fitting that on IWD Eve 2010 at the Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Director. I saw The Hurt Locker here at home on Netflix, and although I thought it was a really good movie, and although I am at a loss to know exactly what directors actually do, in my mind it wasn't nearly as good a movie as Avatar, or even Up in the Air, which won nothing.

But I think the main difference is, if I look carefully at my feelings, I would much rather live in Pandora than in Iraq. One movie was about the oneness of all things (although it had plenty of war scenes), and the other was about the horror of war (with plenty of war scenes). I saw almost all of the movies that were nominated, except for Precious and Inglourious Basterds, which I intend to correct as soon as I can. I do like to know what passes for great film these days. What do you think?
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