I was called out, and rightly so, on my use of a quote at the end of my blog post of yesterday. The Dalai Lama's purported claim that Western women will save the world has been made into numerous memes that get shared around the interwebs.
I've always understood the quote to indicate that the economic privilege and social freedom of women in the Americas and Europe might be used for leverage to effect positive change. I certainly didn't think it meant that Western women were more powerful or more committed than women elsewhere.
Since I was blogging about the hyper-masculinized woman of the military culture of the U.S. in the 21st century, the quote sprang to mind. I had just mentioned Hillary Clinton who is, in my opinion, the quintessential militarized woman. And I don't mean that in a good way.
My kind critic pointed out that she thought non-western women would find the quote "horribly offensive."
She is right, of course.
For the record, here are the kind of women who I think are most likely to save the world.
Siabatou Sanneh of Gambia (see photo above)
Dr. Vandana Shiva of India
Dalia Ziada of Egypt
Dr. Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala (seen here with the Dalai Lama -- maybe this is the kind of Western hemisphere women he had in mind?).
Sikwani Dana a Penobscot of Maine, USA
橋本あき Aki Hashimoto, 黒田節子 Setsuko Kuroda, 大河原多津子 Tatsuko Okawara, 高橋幸子 Yukiko Takahashi, 木田節子 Setsuko Kida and 森園和重 Kazue Morizono
of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
“The government is 80-90% men and they are making all the decisions. It’s time for them to become enlightened to the fact that they are wrong. I want them to listen to us women; the women need to speak up, I feel that very strongly.“ --Kazue Morizono
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