Cool Cleveland contributing writer Lyz Bly examines politics, current events, art, and popular culture with an unabashedly feminist lens in her Skirting the Issue column, thereby "skirting" contemporary issues. Her initial installment below, White Man's Reign, examines feminism in Cleveland. You'll find that things have gotten better, thanks to the efforts of women who fought for equal rights in the 1960s and 70s. However, women's life today is not equal to men's by any stretch of the imagination.

Over the past few decades, our country has had a penchant for giving years, decades, and eras grand monikers; the '70s was the ambiguous "we" decade, and the 1980s was peculiarly dubbed the "me" generation. By the 1990s, as the burgeoning phenomenon of postmodernism adulterated our collective attention span and seemingly escalated the very conception of time, years were individually and more specifically labeled: the "year of the child" and the "year of the woman," but it is not clear what purpose these hollow monikers served. It is doubtful, for instance, that in the "year of the woman" women's rights were raised to the forefront of the political arena, or that corporations began to offer women equal pay for performing the same jobs as men. However, it was an attempt by politicians, the media, and marketing executives to recognize (and, no doubt, capitalize on) difference and sexual or cultural disparities.

The naming trend seems to have gone out of fashion in the new century, and I have a theory about this; so far, this century has blatantly been the era of white men. True, every era in this country has ultimately been centered on white men, but in the last few decades, there was at least an attempt to make it appear as if we were collectively interested in the needs, desires, and ideas of others. Since 2000, not coincidentally the same year George W. was handed the presidency, white men are not only everywhere, they are using their power to furtively change policies, set agendas, and shape local, national and global attitudes.

If you want blatant examples that support my theory, look at one of the most popular television shows of the season, The Apprentice. While I could not stomach this program myself (looking at Donald Trump for more than ten seconds at a time makes me nauseous), at my version of the proverbial water cooler, I did hear blow-by-blow accounts of the corporate drama as it unfolded every Thursday night. Of course, there were the MTV Real World-inspired conflicts, especially the alleged racial slur in an argument between one of the white women and the female African-American candidate, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.

The candidate's interviews with Trump's trusted staff members during the second to last episode are documented on the NBC website. Trump's staff members' reports on the candidates were telling; while the men (including the African-American man Kwame Jackson) in the group were assessed based on their abilities and talents – Nick was described as a "good leader," but not an intellectual – the one remaining white woman, Amy Henry, was vaguely described as "getting on [one of the interviewer's] nerves," and as irritating ("she irritated the hell out of me," said one of the interviewers). Another interviewer equated Amy with a Stepford wife, stating that he was "bored talking to her." In itself, it is problematic that Amy was so easily dismissed. And it is indicative of a real world (and I do mean "real world") trend of judging others (those people who are not white, and not male) against what is deemed as the "norm" (being white and male). And, in the end, when it came down to two candidates, Jackson and white man Bill Rancic, was it really surprising which of the two "won" the job in Trump's empire? While The Apprentice is only a television show, millions of people were riveted to their television sets, soaking in not only the reality TV drama, but also the underlying messages. The ultimate messages, that women are easily discounted, and white men always win, have broad, complex social implications.

A more serious example of the era of white men is the way our personal freedoms are eroding. Even what goes on in our bedrooms is open for contestation by white, male community leaders. Earlier this year in Texas, Joanne Webb, a white mother of three and a grade school teacher, took on a second job as a sex-toy home party salesperson to earn a little extra income. After advising a young couple via telephone on a few products, Webb was charged with a misdemeanor under Texas obscenity laws (punishable by up to a year in prison and a $4,000 fine). The "couple," purportedly in search of sexual rejuvenation, turned out be undercover cops.

CNN recently interviewed Webb, who is still awaiting trial, and reported on a similar incident in Mississippi, where another woman in the sex-toy home party business was arrested, and her merchandise seized, when local authorities discovered that she was marketing "pornography." The stout white male police chief of the rural community was also interviewed. He stated, "We will not allow this kind of degeneracy in our community. This kind of immorality will be stopped." Only in the era of the white man could vibrators be deemed immoral. Defining sexually self-reliant women as immoral or degenerate has more to do with white male emasculation than it does with the law. The problem is, when white men rule, they can create laws to quell their fears and inadequacies.

The white male era has also brought the disappearance of information about women of all races and social classes. Last month, the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) released a comprehensive report on what they define as "suppressed information, slanted scientific panels, and altered research reports." After reviewing a myriad of governmentally published documents and websites, the NCRW found nearly two dozen incidences where information that affects women's health, jobs, and overall well being was skewed, altered or omitted.

Some of the most egregious examples include: Information on a Health and Human Services website, which altered and distorted research data on abstinence-only approaches to birth control to make abstinence appear to be more successful than it actually is in preventing pregnancy; A Census Bureau report, which states that "the ratio of women's earnings as compared to men are 'at an all time high', [when] in reality, the disparity in wages has remained nearly constant with less than 1% change in the ratio in recent years, and was characterized in 2000 as a lack of pay equity"; the potential appointment to Chair and continued role (as a committee member) of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA's Reproductive Health Drug Advisory Committee. Hager is "known for prescribing prayer as a treatment for premenstrual syndrome and refusing to prescribe birth control pills to unmarried women." Finally, and perhaps most contemporaneously relevant, "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to terminate a 53-year-old panel, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services… [while] the committee was resuscitated after an outcry by Representative Heather Wilson, [its new mission] to focus on issues such as health care for servicewomen and the effects of deployment on family life, [clearly omits]…issues of equity and access [in the military]."

These are just a few of the examples listed in the NCRW report. To experience the full scope of their findings, visit their website http://www.ncrw.org . My "era of the white male theory" may be difficult to swallow in the context of The Apprentice, but it is harder to discount when you see the ways it is being played out among governmental agencies. By returning to our penchant for era/decade/year naming, and labeling this decade – or century – what it is, we can more honestly address and confront white male power. In a 2001 single, riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna and front woman of the band LeTigre, sarcastically comments on the state of affairs for women in this country at the dawn of the new century. She bellows, "We've got equal rights… on ladies' night." Unless we (and here I mean people of all races, genders, and classes) speak and act-up, that's as good as it's going to get in this era of the white male. from Cool Cleveland contributor and feminist Lyz Bly (:divend:)