Messages By: ktsetsi

I don't know where the idea came from that weddings are the woman's day - as I see it, both man and woman are getting married, and a wedding is a celebration of the commitment the two are entering.

On today's show, the woman didn't want her husband to wear a certain color to his own wedding.  How is that love?  Why should a wedding not be the best possible experience for both?  Men and women have to suffer under enough stereotypes, and perpetuating the myth that women deserve ALL on their wedding day simply sets the stage for what happened on the show today - the woman feels entitled and justified in making selfish and outrageous demands.

Having been married more than once, I can tell you this: the wedding that meant the most to me was the shortest, the least planned, and had the least flair.  What it did have was heart, love, and excitement and interest on both of our parts (mine and my husband's) that we were having the ceremony to make that special commitment to one another.

If he had wanted something on our wedding day and I'd have said "No! It doesn't go! It's my day! Mine mine mine!" what would that say about how much I think of his needs or wishes?

I wrote an article recently on sex slavery and why women are such a palatable commodity, not only in other parts of the world, but in the United States. Advertising and media play no small role in helping us see women as objects for use - and misuse.

Gender experts and professionals in the field of women's studies contributed to the article.

Not an easy question to answer is why our country, considered by many to be a progressive nation at the forefront of securing individual human rights, is one of the principal destinations for 14,500 to 17,000 women and children trafficked annually for the purposes of slavery.

In a 2004 Trafficking in Persons Annual Report, Miller noted that information on slavery is inexact, “but we believe that the majority of slave victims, in the neighborhood of 80 percent, are of the female gender.” He added, “We believe the largest category of slavery is sex slavery.”

Ms. magazine reported in the summer of 2007 that sex trafficking is one of the most profitable crime industries in the world — second only to the drug trade — and that U.S. trafficking victims are most prevalent in New York, Texas, Florida, and California. The question now becomes, how is it females have come to be considered a viable, and apparently an even somewhat palatable, commodity, particularly in the United States?

To read the rest of article, go to
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/10/02/airtime/doc48dbb5dae8457240505031.txt

-Kristen