Silly Me!

Once upon a time, I thought that the women's movement would free us from the destruction of people's identities that happens when we treat other human beings like objects for our pleasure.

Enter My Humps, the latest hit from rap/hip hop artists, Black Eyed Peas. Humps, if you don't know refers to the female derrierre.

In this song, the female lead extols the virtues of her humps and talks about how she's going to use them to get jewelry and other goodies.

The male lead wants to mix his "milk" with a woman's "cocoa puffs." (Don't you just love the subtle stylings of great poetry?)

Sex has always sold, to be sure. But I think there's a difference between the romantic sexuality of two people who are crazy about each other and want to devote themselves to each other forever, on the one hand, and the sexuality of exploitation. One is very cool. The other is painful...and ultimately, boring.

Of course, I was an idiot to have thought some thirty-five years ago when the modern women's movement began, that it would bring lasting change to our attitudes. No human movement, dogged as it is from the start by our human limitations, will ever cause us to treat each other with respect.

That has to come from another source. Genuine, respectful, self-giving love is always imported into the human psyche. It comes from the one who inspired these words, directed at believers in Jesus Christ: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)