Feminism = Triviality? | Clarissa's Blog

Feminism = Triviality? | Clarissa's Blog



When I was a kid I developed a macho ethic.  I had seen a documentary about a woman who had trekked across the Australian outback with only a camel train to support her, and I -- being  born in Africa -- wanted to be in a position to be able to flee to the bush and be self-reliant if something untoward happened to me, like terrorists approached or another danger closed in.



Already I was inclined to explore the roads and landscape in bare feet, much of the time, but I decided to step up the toughness quotient to another level by deliberately walking on rugged rocks and stones so as to harden the soles of my feet.



White kids already had rather hardened foot soles, with cracked heels being the norm, but nothing like their black counterparts' feet, which tended to have layers and layers of dead skin.



I wanted to be the toughest, because anything less than the capacity to be one hundred percent mobile at a moments' notice was a slight against my character, at least in my own mind.   I hated the notion of myself as stuck in one place and dependent on the items of civilisation.