| There once was a young person
named Little Red Riding Hood who lived on the edge of a large forest full of
endangered owls and rare plants that would probably provide a cure for cancer
if only someone took the time to study them.
Red Riding Hood lived with a nurture giver whom she sometimes referred to
as "mother", although she didn't mean to imply by this term that she
would have thought less of the person if a close biological link did not in
fact exist.
Nor did she intend to denigrate the equal value of nontraditional
households, although she was sorry if this was the impression conveyed.
One day her mother asked her to take a basket of organically grown fruit
and mineral water to her grandmother's house.
"But mother, won't this be stealing work from the unionized people who
have struggled for years to earn the right to carry all packages between
various people in the woods?"
Red Riding Hood's mother assured her that she had called the union boss and
gotten a special compassionate mission exemption form.
"But mother, aren't you oppressing me by ordering me to do this?"
Red Riding Hood's mother pointed out that it was impossible for womyn to
oppress each other, since all womyn were equally oppressed until all womyn
were free.
"But mother, then shouldn't you have my brother carry the basket,
since he's an oppressor, and should learn what it's like to be
oppressed?"
And Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her brother was attending a
special rally for animal rights, and besides, this wasn't stereotypical
womyn's work, but an empowering deed that would help engender a feeling of
community.
"But won't I be oppressing Grandma, by implying that she's sick and
hence unable to independently further her own selfhood?"
But Red Riding Hood's mother explained that her grandmother wasn't actually
sick or  incapacitated or
mentally handicapped in any way, although that was not to imply that any of
these conditions were inferior to what some people called "health".
Thus Red Riding Hood felt that she could get behind the idea of delivering
the basket to her grandmother, and so she set off. |
