Oh mother, I’m up to my neck in brine
Oh mother, I’m up to my neck in brine
I’m tired of treading water
And I’m weary of wasting time….
Oh mother I’m up to my neck in brine
Well, it’s been almost one hundred years since women got the vote
One hundred years since we supposedly got out of the
‘second class citizen’s boat’
But I’m afraid many of us are still only treading water
Just barely afloat in this man’s world.
Because it seems those age old monikers are still being applied…
I mean Women being categorized
as Madonnas
or Witches
or Whores
or Bitches
Still just reflections in the eye of the male beholder
Oh mother I’m up to my neck in brine
I’m on the phone with a friend of mine, a school Principal.
She says “I’m having a lot of trouble with these mothers at my school
feuding over what kind of Ketchup holders to use at the field day”
I say….”They’re fighting over Ketchup holders…???!
No way...You’re fooling me!”
“Nope.”
And she gives me a list of other pressing agenda items:
Litter on the playground
Snacks on field trips….
School washroom soap
And I say ‘Come on!’
Is this what life has been reduced to for stay at home moms?
Is this all she wrote???
I mean this is 2004…
These are smart, modern, women living in big houses on the Lakeshore
I'm guessing... but aren’t there any issues more pressing than ketchup holders?
What ever happened to
“You’ve come a long way baby!”
…..from the stone age maybe
Let’s be serious, I'm really curious
Why aren’t women more concerned with
Vital female issues like Equal Pay for instance?
Women still only make 76 cents
For every dollar in the pocket of a man today
Why aren’t we rising up as a group to put an end to injustices like spousal abuse?
A little over a hundred women die every year in Canada
at the hands of boyfriends or crazy husbands on the loose
Others end up in hospitals beaten up or raped
or it’s never even reported in the first place
I hear last year, in Toronto alone
the phone rang over fifteen thousand times
at the Rape Crisis Center,
I’d say it’s high time we started running for more political positions
Did you know only 15% of all the world’s politicians are female?
That means 85% of all decisions regarding
Women and children, war and otherwise
Are made by males...
Let me say it again: eighty five percent
And between you and me
I think the men are pretty damn content to run everything….
Wouldn’t you be?
Oh mother I’m up to my neck in brine
Well it’s a problem but it’s not the only one,
because you see, I'm afraid many women are collaborators
When it comes to their positions in society
Whether it be out of tradition, or fear, self esteem or pressure by peers
Women themselves are still struggling with the concept of equality
Despite the hype
Now I'm not saying there haven’t been hard won fights for Women’s Rights
We aren’t still considered property (on paper anyway)
I guess we should consider ourselves lucky in a way….
And over here, there aren’t laws favoring female infanticide
As there are in other places, or the practice of genital mutilation
which more than 135 million girls have undergone worldwide
But I say, mutilation can come in other forms…
We live in a society where incredible pressure
To stay young and beautiful forever is the norm
Oh when I have a brand new hairdo
With my eyelashes all in curl,
I float as the clouds on air do,
I enjoy being a girl!
(Rogers and Hamerstein)
Voices from another time
But can you really say
It's not still happening today?
Yes! It’s the container that counts;
Whether it be for Ketchup…. or for souls
And I see lots of mothers dressing their tiny girls,
Four, five and six years old
In clothing that says being sexy is the woman's goal in life
Our society extols the virtue of reforming bodies
Into nicer, more pleasing shapes
Ensuing in boob jobs and lifts to the face
and tummy and bum tucks and botox
And little girls starving themselves into waifs;
Wasting away in hospital beds worshipping The Beauty Myth
And so, I ask you, is that all the woman really is?
Just a container?
I’m storytelling at a school.
During a break, I’m playing guitar out on the front stairs.
A mother walks by, looks at my guitar case and stares
At the thought provoking stickers I’ve placed there
She says, "What is this? Some kind of feminist statement?"
I say, "Why do you ask?"
"Well… I’m not in favor of that!" She says,
She walks off in a huff.
Not in favor.
Not in favor of what?
Of…. Women I guess…
That made me totally depressed
Then later on,
I overhear a woman talking to another mom in the super market:
She says…
“My life is just SO busy!”
“Yesterday, I had to drive Timmy to soccer
and Tanya had two games in the same day…
And then, there’s the banquet tomorrow night for baseball.”
“I know, it’s all so true!” says Mom Number Two…
Talk about double shifts! I have no time!
Who do you think will win the Championships?”
So...I’m thinking
Ladies…. Where are YOU in this life ?
Do you know?
And Who are you really?
It’s time to do more than float.
Time to quit hanging on to the boat
Time to stop drifting along on the current trends
It’s time to reach for the Divine, Girlfriends,
.. It’s Time to stand up… And walk on water.
Oh mother, I’m up to my neck in brine
Oh mother, I’m up to my neck in brine
I’m tired of treading water
And I’m weary of wasting time….
Oh mother I’m up to my neck in brine!