De YWCA observing next week as a week without violence. Leh we wish dem luck, because yesterday de headlines was all 'bout cutlass rampage in Siparia - not to mention what happening in de rest ah de world. Ah doh know how long dey wus planning dis and what exactly prompt dem to do it,
but it eh too hard to guess dat domestic violence had plenty influence. Not one day doh go by without some news of another instance of ah woman suffering abuse and, all to often death, at de hands of a spouse/male family member. Women are taken for granted in too many ways and de violence takes many forms, most of which seem to stem from pure ignorance
in both de literal and de Trini sense of de word.

When a few weeks ago, de Cancer Society held ah Celebrity Auction to raise funds, there was much outcry 'bout de connotations and implied degredation of womanhood (even though dey had men on auction as well). De problem was not wid de concept of de auction itself, which is a familiar type of fundraiser in de world's big cities. De real problem was
de way it was promoted - "Single, Sexy, Sold". Now eef dat eh arksing fuh licks, I eh know what is. Miscued as de protestations were, there is validity in protesting de depiction and portrayal of womanhood in de media. But while we deservedly lambaste de blatant examples like de recent case of de wrestling at de Oval when one of de Yankee man stan' up
and say he couldn't tell de difference between de women and de dogs on de streets of Port of Spain, we too often miss de subtle ones. I not even going by why we must import artificial violence as entertainment into a country dat seemingly have more dan enough very real violence every day.

De subtle degredation and negative depictions of women are in our faces in virtually every advertisement in all de media. On de radio, every woman in de ads sound like a jammette. On de TV and in de press, de only ting deyseem to be selling is dey bodies. Dey have a fine example of an ad fuh a cleaning product dat does show de actual product, but not as well as the young lady's cleavage or her face. And her posture in said ad doh suggest dat she knows or would ever know what to do with de cleaning product, never mind de tagline dat says it puts 'power in your hands'. In de background of de ad, there is ah figure dat at first glance looks like a batsman, but on closer inspection yuh realise it supposed to be de grease she fighting, but it looks most like a male figure, raised sword in
hand about to swipe at she leg, while she is blissfully unaware,
maintaining her most unnatural pose fuh de camera.

Dis is but one example. I sure allyuh could find plenty more... and we not even going to talk 'bout de wonderful Carnival designs dat seemingly use 1 bolt of cloth fuh all 5000 band members. Tantie eh no prude, far from it... but adults supposed to know how and why and when to 'behave'
demselves. We could look at tings and separate fantasy from reality. Children dese days growing up widout much proper adult supervision and nuturing. When all dey know is dis kinda imagery, is what kinda chirren we expect from de example we setting?

Tell Tantie: tantie@trinidiary.com