When I was a young man, I didn’t really have a clue about the difficulties some women endure or the uncomfortable sacrifices they have to make while confronting their patriarchal and male dominated society – and it never entered my mind that some women might consider their physical beauty more of a curse than a blessing.
Because growing up I was never subjected to sexual harassment, threats or abuse at the hands of rich or powerful men – nor did my fortune ever become dependent on acquiescing to the unwanted sexual demands of someone who held a position of authority over me.
It took an early Bob Dylan folk song, recorded in 1963, to open my eyes and make me aware of the injustice that is commonly visited upon women by morally corrupt men. His song, called “Seven Curses“, was based on a centuries old folk song called “The Maid Freed from the Gallows“.
The original song is about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner, but Bob Dylan re-imagines the song so it is not the maiden who is to be hanged but her father, for stealing a stallion.
The daughter offers to buy her father’s freedom from the judge, who lasciviously responds: “Gold will never free your father/ the price my dear is you, instead“. She ends up paying the judge his terrible asking price but tragically wakes the next morning to find that her father has been hanged anyway.
The lyrics to Bob’s somber song woke me up to the presence of sexual assault and cruelty in the world.
Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck.
Old Reilly’s daughter got a message
That her father was goin’ to hang.
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand.
When the judge he saw Reilly’s daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin’, “Gold will never free your father,
The price, my dear, is you instead.”
“Oh I’m as good as dead,” cried Reilly,
“It’s only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all.
Get on your horse and ride away.”
“Oh father you will surely die
If I don’t take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I will have to stay.”
That two healers will not heal him,
That three eyes will not see him.
That five walls will not hide him,
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him.
Dylan’s song has been recorded by many artists over the years. A 2013 cover version of the song performed by the band Chapel Hill can be heard at this YouTube link (Seven Curses by Chapel Hill).
Led Zeppelin recorded a version of a similarly themed folk song called “Gallows Pole“, first recorded by Blues legend Leadbelly, on their 1970 album Led Zeppelin III. In their version of the song, the hangman accepts the family’s bribes, but laughs as he carries through with the execution of their brother anyway.
Oh yes, you got a fine sister, she warmed my blood from cold,
She warmed my blood to boiling hot to keep you from the Gallows Pole,
Your brother brought me silver, and your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard to see you swinging on the Gallows Pole
The sexual harassment and abuse of vulnerable women by men in position of power has unfortunately been occurring since the dawn of time. While Women’s Rights movements, advancements in government laws and workplace policies have made some progress in raising the awareness of this problem – and provided some protection for the powerless, society still has a long way to go to root out the widespread occurrence of sexual harassment and violence.
The World Health Organization estimates that one third of all women worldwide are victims of sexual assault and a 2017 poll by ABC News and The Washington Post reported that 54% of American women were victims of “unwanted and inappropriate” sexual advances with 95% of these incidences going unpunished.
The #MeToo movement that was launched in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein serial sexual abuse scandal and that has gone viral – sweeping the worlds of entertainment, media, politics, and fashion – has done wonders in helping society to understand the scope and magnitude of the problem.
The bravery of these female “Silence Breakers” inspired Time Magazine to select them as the 2017 Persons of the Year. By having the courage to share their painful personal stories and the resolve to shine a bright light into the dark places of sexual assault, they hope to create a movement that will lead to great social change.
In order for meaningful change to occur, however, it will require men to take a stand against behavior that objectifies women. The writer, Angelina Chapin wrote “if every woman you know has been harassed or assaulted, then every man knows another man who has made a woman feel unsafe.”
Since so much of sexual harassment is enabled by traditional views of masculinity it is incumbent upon all men to step up and intervene when they see other men demeaning women and to call out and stop predatory behavior whenever they see it occurring.
Men must also acknowledge that the flip side of sexual harassment for women is the discrimination that occurs when qualified women are not considered for job positions, are not given the same work opportunities, or must suffer pay inequities compared to men doing the same job – simply because they are considered unattractive, weak or old.
When this type of injustice occurs, everyone loses. The company loses competitiveness and valuable contributors while the women who are discriminated against suffer setbacks in their career aspirations, their family fortunes and their livelihood.
I am not naive enough to believe that we can eradicate sexual misbehavior and discrimination. But I do believe we each have an obligation to work towards a society where its occurrence is not hidden, where we stand in solidarity with all those who have been hurt and where the perpetrators and enablers of sexual misconduct and discrimination pay the terrible price, not their victims.
Words to Live By... 
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