The Women’s Suffrage movement, the Women’s Rights movement, “equal pay for equal work”, these phrases and grassroots signify women’s ascension as equals in a world which has oppressed them for generations. However, in respect to all of the progression that women have made in the past hundred plus years, are they indeed equal or are the odds stacked against them in favor of men? Furthermore, are the contemporary institutions of the “American life” truly fair and unprejudiced towards the female dynamic? The year is 2002, and a woman is working as an intern for a law firm in New York City. She is called into her boss’s office and asked to come into work looking more “professional”, to wear a skirt instead of the pants suit she had on. She followed her bosses advice due to fear of being fired, however the boss called her back in and still was not satisfied with her apparel, so he asked her to wear a shorter skirt next time. Red signals went off in the woman’s head and she refused. A week later she was fired for unsatisfactory work. Instances such as that are appalling reminders that in actuality, we do not live in an equal world, and we have a long way to go until integral equality. The book Too Beautiful For Words, by author, examines this very issue. In a country that prides itself on freedom, justice, and equality, women have taken a backseat in the world of men.

            The pimping game has been a crucial aspect in demeaning and keeping women from reaching their full potential. Too Beautiful For Words uses Peaches, a beautiful black woman who suffers from low self esteem and becomes a prostitute with the help of her pimp, Jesus. Jesus warped Peach’s mind into believing that there was nothing more to her. He fabricated a philosophy in Peach’s mind that she was doing gods work, that her prostituting her own body was biblical. When the reverend preached about turning one’s life around in church, a sense of anger came over her as she believed he was speaking about her and the pimping game. She then had an epiphany, she thought to herself:

And the Lord showed me that the reverend was just sending’ me a message that I can’t never leave my Jesus. See, the message said that I can’t never really leave ‘cause then my soul would be lost. I would be runnin’ around them streets with nobody to watch over my back… See, I been saved, and that reverend just don’t get it (Morris 9-10).

Additionally, Peaches had nowhere else to go or turn to, her grandparents threw her out, her friends left her, and she had no high school diploma to get a decent paying job. While with Jesus, she had money, she had a home, and most of all she had family. She had somewhere to turn to, to go for help and advice, and that’s what she craved. However, in order for her to get her end of the deal, she had to pay a terrible price. She had to put up with selling her body, the most personal property that she had, additionally, she had to put up with abuse, both physical and emotional. By putting herself in that situation, she could not get out, it was driven into her mind with a hammer that she is nothing more than a whore, a person who just fucks and sucks. How could a woman possibly find something better in her life if she knew nothing else?

            Even congregations of freedom do not view women in equal respects. The book gives attention to Chinaka, an intelligent college student from San Jose who became a revolutionary for the Black Panther Party. Her talents in the party were underused to say the least as her work details included acting as a decoy for the police so that the male members of the party can achieve their goals. Additionally, she volunteered to be a decoy in greatly dangerous situation, such as throwing a Molotov cocktail at the police so they would chase her. She did this even though she was already wanted by the police, and if she was caught, she could have been very possibly killed. Moreover, she did not have to do any of this as she already had a comfortable life as a college student (Morris 80-86). Albeit she had a cornucopia of devotion to the party and the objective of freedom, she could not manage to advance to more powerful roles in the party. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Movement correlates with the sexism of the Black Panther Party exhibited in Too Beautiful for Words. Tolerance.org, a web site dedicated to promoting tolerance and ending bigotry among the people of the world, states in the article, “Sexism in the Civil Rights Movement A Discussion Guide”, how the Civil Rights Movement demeaned women. It quotes a civil rights activist, Bernard Lee, as saying, "[Martin Luther King  Jr.] … was absolutely a male chauvinist. He believed that the wife should stay home and take care of the babies while he'd be out there in the streets (http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=159&pa=2)." Additionally, the article states, “Although King and other male Movement leaders participated in seemingly contradictory behavior (advancing racial equality, yet subjugating women), they are heroes (http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=159&pa=5).” The article further illuminates how the Civil Rights Movement was only meant to end discrimination among the races and not for any other group, such as women. How is it possible for women to progress in a society where even the factions of freedom, the most cherished philosophy in the United States, practice sexism and discrimination towards them?

            Religions impact in the United States has been tremendous. It is supposed to keep people moral, faithful and most of all clean of wrong doing. However, with all the good religion brings to the table, it also brings some bad. Religion can carry a great deal of sexism if one takes it to its extremes. For instance, Peach’s grandparents, both Christian, were considerably religious, and Peach’s wasn’t exactly a pure soul as she wore short shirt skirts, showed off her body and had sex with boys. Her grandmother, a deacon’s wife, would lock her in her room for long periods of time as punishment (Morris 63). Additionally, her grandmother would verbally abuse her by saying that no boy would ever want to marry her, and calling her a “Jazebel” and “hussy (Morris 20),” thus making her think that’s all she is and could not be better as she cannot take her virginity back. Furthermore, religion illuminates women in an iniquitous way. As it is said in the bible, Adam and Eve were given paradise in the Garden of Eden as long as they never touch the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6), however eve, a woman, ate the fruit and they were thrown out of paradise (Genesis 3: 24). Presenting Eve in that manner subsequently blames women for all the bad in the world today. Moreover, if we examine this quote from Genesis, “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee (Genesis 3:16),” we see that the bible preaches of submissiveness of women to men, specifically to their husbands.