lumière des étoiles

The Governator
2003-10-12 12:16 p.m.

What is it with republicans being able to spin things like sexual assault and drug abuse and make their people look like survivors instead of the criminals they truly are?

Clinton has consensual sex with a woman who is over 18. The governator repeatedly grabs the breasts and tears the shirts off of several women working on the sets of his movies, PUBLICLY, and the two are compared as if they're the same thing. I'm really starting to get repulsed by and almost frightened and suspicious of people who say there is no longer a need for activism, activist education, or activist organizations. Oh certainly not, I often say in response, since every elected official isn't a TRACE racist or sexist, since everyone is happy and has lots of food on the table, wonderful health care, and no reason to be so angry that they'll kill. Yes, aren't we happy. Tra-la-la.

I shouldn't get angry at them, though, I suppose; people who say things like that to me often aren't very bright, despite whatever degrees they may hold, and seem to have this distinct ability to believe that the biggest problems on the planet are their own; that whatever fight their having with someone or whatever ex-significant other is giving them a hard time is, like waaaaay more important than any "news stuff". Argh, I'm glad my family somehow managed to teach me that I wasn't the center of the universe, and that I should care about things besides myself and my immediate life.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked anymore; I guess nothing should surprise me. Not after the fiasco that put this ignoramus into the presidency and let him make decisions that involved very big guns. However, I sometimes forget how much we cling to gender-specific characteristics and excuses. Do you know I actually read an article that insinuated "boys will be boys" in response to the accusations against the governator? I was so repulsed I threw the magazine out the sixth floor window of my office. How embarrassing, how humiliating to insinuate that men are so stupid that they cannot control themselves. That they're so PRIMITIVE-minded that they can't remember basic social skills.

If I were a man and read that, I'd be just as offended as I was as a woman; first by the justification behind a PHYSICAL ATTACK, second the insinuation that all men act badly and can't help themselves.

Reason one-billion-and-twelve I'm ecstatic I married Steve: he actually thinks about these things, and doesn't just wave me away when I bring them up. He told me about a commercial he saw the other day for a flu medication or vaccine that was being aired on day-time TV. The slogan was "Who would take over for you if you got sick?" The commercial includes an idiot father who apparently can't even dress his children right, as he sends them out into the snow with shorts on. Other things he can't do: wash a dish, boil water, run a washing machine. Apparently, as a man, having manly genes, or something like that, is TOO STUPID TO PUSH BUTTONS AND REMEMBER THAT SHORTS ARE BAD FOR SNOW.

How offensive, how horribly degrading for both men and women. Why do we cling to this? Most people I know don't act anything like these stereotypical depictions of men and women, most men I know are uncomfortable with the idea that they should be "dominant" over women and act "like boys", which might include attempting to grab random women's breasts against their will and struggle.

Tell people who say activism is dead to read something once and a while. Throw out their TV. Inform them that there's a whole big world out there that doesn't just end at their driveways and has nothing to do with the kinds of problems they have on Dawson's Creek.

xoxoxoxooxox