Killing, Loving,
and the Power of Women
Janet Kuypers
1/6/19
You can’t help but love the look
of the Praying Mantis; the unique way it moves
is utterly fascinating to the eye.
But I had no idea that one of the
reasons I could fall in love with a Praying Mantis
was precisely because the woman
kills her mate during, or just after
they’ve finished their mating business. Because
really, what do you need him
around for anyway, after you got
yours? And the beauty of this kind of conquest
is that it happens across species,
and it happens from insects to
animals too. Some Black Widow Spiders are known
to kill their post-coital mates.
Female spiders even have larger
venom sacks. And the things is, female bees and wasps
have the stingers — not the males.
Yeah, you heard me right, those
male worker drone bees don’t even have stingers.
And one female bee is chosen
when young to be queen, then is
raised by male bees until she rules over them all.
Female honey bees call the shots
in their caste system matriarchy,
in a female-centered hive, where the males only serve
for sexual reproduction. Also,
male insects and animals are
brightly colored to stand out to be better looking —
you know, to attract the females...
while the females stay at home
and take care of what’s theirs. Even female octopi
strangle their male mates
when the deed is done. And the
female lion does the majority of hunting for its pride,
sometimes not even sharing their food.
Female Bonobos (chimpanzees)
are at the top of their group’s social pyramid, the top
in their matriarchal society.
And get this one: in many societies
of the anglerfish, the male, which is smaller, literally
attaches himself to a woman,
and get this, starts to atrophy
until she is ready to use him for her reproductive needs.
If a male anglerfish doesn’t
find a female, he will literally die.
So I don’t know how it got so
messed up with us humans, we women have always been
the ones with the power, and now
we fight an uphill battle
because we’ve been thought of as less than human.
Tell that to Nefertiti or Pharaoh
Cleopatra is all I can think,
because somewhere along the line, men decided
to take over the world
while we only gave them a home,
gave them family and offspring to raise and flourish —
in the male’s name, no less —
and what’s our thanks?
For stopping killing you men, you’ve taken our humanity,
and for millennia we fight
for any rights back.
And sorry, but I don’t know who made this deal,
but I didn’t agree to it,
and I want my money back.
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