Packing the Supreme Court with Conservatives bids ill for the progress women have made in the last 100 years. Few women who have tasted independence would want to go back.
Even so, the social aspect of gender inequality still persists. Women dress in impossible costumes and killer footwear. Despite what one sees on the TV sitcoms, she is helpless to defend herself or run from danger.
She cannot open doors for herself; she cannot put on a coat or wrap and she needs to lean on something to stand or walk. She is an ornament, useless as a human, but beautifully robed like the most gracious flower and like the flower dependent on her youth and beauty for acceptance.
But now in the 21st century, many women have escaped those limits and confines. They wear the cloths and shoes of activity. They are beginning to see themselves as useful, self actualizing human beings.
A recent news item telling about Rosie’s Girls is both illuminating and enlightening – mostly from what the girls themselves experienced. For three weeks a class of 25 local middle school young women learned trades, gained leadership and collaborating skills.
Two of them, Brit and Anna were eager to be challenged at the Technology Center “without having to worry about boys being around – whether as distraction or competition”.
“I’m so glad there are no boys here!” said Anna. “It’s just that you can come here in sweat pants and a T-shirt and just be yourself. The camp is sponsored by the Northern New England Tradeswomen [NNET] and named for Rosie the Riveter – the famous symbol of working women from W W 2.
Britt said she got “a big kick out of wielding a blowtorch while Anna delighted in building furniture. Both reveled in the opportunity for challenge.
When girls are young they think they can do anything and then they get pulled into the tidal whirlpool of gender oriented customs. The camp helps them develop. It helps them to “know who they are and what they can do.”
This includes repairing bikes or cars, wiring, firefighting or welding. “There is an enormous amount of confidence you can develop when you walk into a room and know what a jigsaw is and how to use it”, explains Tiffany Bluemle, executive director of the NNET.
Along with the training sessions in carpentry and other trades, the girls talk with women in the work force, discuss social issues and engage in physical activities such as ropes courses and self defense classes.
Anna used to spend a lot of time worrying about expensive outfits or fixing her hair. “No more.” She vowed. “I’m going to lay off the outfits and the makeup. I’m going to be me. Life isn’t supposed to be something you’re worrying about. It’s something you’re supposed to live.”
Such a glorious sense of being and becoming -- but how quickly our society will move in to take her down. The very training and opportunities that boys have always been privileged to receive and benefit from are stifled for girls in the cruelest ways. They are still valued for their looks rather than their accomplishments.
And the Supremes are poised on the brink of taking women back to the 19th century unless a Democratic majority takes over Congress this year.
#
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GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
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Friday, July 28, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
SCHITT HAPPENS
Can you believe it? All over the world newspapers are printing the word, pundits are repeating it and everyone is laughing about it -- but not in this enlightened, democratic land of the 2nd Amendment.
No indeed! Here the forces of God, as strained through Bush, have prohibited the broadcasted saying or writing of certain bad, nasty, swearing words. Can you say hypocrite?
So the laughter around the world is not just about what Bush said and how boorish he acted, but AT this country that is tongue-tied over an ancient word for excrement. We can say torture and do it; we can say Constitution and lose it but we must never let #2 leave the lips of our media.
It’s a wonder we have any pride in our leadership left. Besides stupidly crapping all over Prime Minister Tony Blair’s endeavors to work on a solution to the flaming lands of the Bible, our head of state talked while stuffing his mouth full of food. Later on he groped Germany’s leader.
Meanwhile our erstwhile Slambasadore Bolton declared that the death of those fighting terrorists were more important that the deaths of innocent civilians.
Freedom of the press took another body blow as Dean Helen Thomas was nastily accused of “giving the Hezbollah viewpoint” by Tony Snow. This is often the response given to avoid giving an answer – accuse the questioner of being on the terrorists’ side.
Snow also called the word used by Bush, whose use by the media is prohibited in this country, COLORFUL LANGUAGE.
Now while all this was going on the legislators in DC were talking about stem cell research. The super godly among them assured us that “we are a country of strong moral values”.
Then, when Bush vetoed the stem cell bill, he declared that he did so because human life was sacred and he was protecting it. Tell that to the thousands of Iraqi who have died from his preemptive war and tell that to the many who could benefit from stem cell research.
They seem to think that their pious words fix everything. All that other stuff is an illusion, so we can all go back to bitching and kvetching or we could add our voices to the debates and let those folks in DC know that we vote and they are toast.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light!” – Dylan Thomas
#
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gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
No indeed! Here the forces of God, as strained through Bush, have prohibited the broadcasted saying or writing of certain bad, nasty, swearing words. Can you say hypocrite?
So the laughter around the world is not just about what Bush said and how boorish he acted, but AT this country that is tongue-tied over an ancient word for excrement. We can say torture and do it; we can say Constitution and lose it but we must never let #2 leave the lips of our media.
It’s a wonder we have any pride in our leadership left. Besides stupidly crapping all over Prime Minister Tony Blair’s endeavors to work on a solution to the flaming lands of the Bible, our head of state talked while stuffing his mouth full of food. Later on he groped Germany’s leader.
Meanwhile our erstwhile Slambasadore Bolton declared that the death of those fighting terrorists were more important that the deaths of innocent civilians.
Freedom of the press took another body blow as Dean Helen Thomas was nastily accused of “giving the Hezbollah viewpoint” by Tony Snow. This is often the response given to avoid giving an answer – accuse the questioner of being on the terrorists’ side.
Snow also called the word used by Bush, whose use by the media is prohibited in this country, COLORFUL LANGUAGE.
Now while all this was going on the legislators in DC were talking about stem cell research. The super godly among them assured us that “we are a country of strong moral values”.
Then, when Bush vetoed the stem cell bill, he declared that he did so because human life was sacred and he was protecting it. Tell that to the thousands of Iraqi who have died from his preemptive war and tell that to the many who could benefit from stem cell research.
They seem to think that their pious words fix everything. All that other stuff is an illusion, so we can all go back to bitching and kvetching or we could add our voices to the debates and let those folks in DC know that we vote and they are toast.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light!” – Dylan Thomas
#
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change address or comment:
gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
Saturday, July 15, 2006
GANGSTA RAPUBLICANS
Who knew? Something so commonplace just doesn’t get the ink anymore. When the news broke of the gang rape of a child in Iraq by American troops, most people were shocked and saddened.
“Bad apples”, was the usual comment. Surely, “our boys would never do such a thing. It must have been a mistake someone made when they were recruited for the military service.”
In a few instances, media gave the surprising stats about gang rape by Americans. One police officer admitted that it happened here quite frequently and it wasn’t just the bad boys that did it.
Men/boys in gangs, whose prejudices may be deeply embedded, helped along by alcohol and lust, willingly succumb to the collective courage of the group which easily overcomes the veneer of social upbringing.
So called, “nice young men” have admitted to being swept along to do something they felt was terrible just because group pressure made it a factor of proving their manhood.
So despite what the apologist pundits have offered for this heinous crime against an Iraqi female child [asserting that troops must hate and dehumanize those they are convinced are out to kill them], rape and gang rape occurs frequently right here at home.
http://aradece.tripod.com/WOMENS_RIGHTS.htm
Simply said, our culture devaluates women, teaches women to devalue themselves and rewards males who put down uppity women. One has only to listen to our language to experience the truth.
This attitude toward females is ancient and is rampant in all religions. The very word given to those abused by men and gangs of men is VICTIM.
Victim is from the Latin, victima, meaning SACRIFICE. We have not progressed very far from the past when virgins were thrown into volcanoes to appease men’s gods. And rape of women has always been considered one of the “spoils of war”.
We may think that gangs are street outlaws but they are also are the prime unit in the atrocities committed by college and professional sports. Initiation rites are rife with penile bonding against women.
One needs only to listen in to the locker room chatter to understand how males are taught that the road to manhood is to victimize/put down women. The proof comes from the testimony of those males who act with a gang and then later are appalled by what they have seen and done.
This power hierarchy flows from churches and government but gets its final honing in sports and the military. Republicans have always understood this and used it to consolidate their power and control.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670037745/sr=8-1/qid=1152784876/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0405035-0328145?ie=UTF8
Now comes the ultimate horror of our society’s inculcated hatred of women. Girl and woman gangs are becoming more prevalent. Their prey, their hated and despised ones, like their male counterparts, are female.
#
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change address or comment:
gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
http://aradece.tripod.com/WOMENS_RIGHTS.htm
“Bad apples”, was the usual comment. Surely, “our boys would never do such a thing. It must have been a mistake someone made when they were recruited for the military service.”
In a few instances, media gave the surprising stats about gang rape by Americans. One police officer admitted that it happened here quite frequently and it wasn’t just the bad boys that did it.
Men/boys in gangs, whose prejudices may be deeply embedded, helped along by alcohol and lust, willingly succumb to the collective courage of the group which easily overcomes the veneer of social upbringing.
So called, “nice young men” have admitted to being swept along to do something they felt was terrible just because group pressure made it a factor of proving their manhood.
So despite what the apologist pundits have offered for this heinous crime against an Iraqi female child [asserting that troops must hate and dehumanize those they are convinced are out to kill them], rape and gang rape occurs frequently right here at home.
http://aradece.tripod.com/WOMENS_RIGHTS.htm
Simply said, our culture devaluates women, teaches women to devalue themselves and rewards males who put down uppity women. One has only to listen to our language to experience the truth.
This attitude toward females is ancient and is rampant in all religions. The very word given to those abused by men and gangs of men is VICTIM.
Victim is from the Latin, victima, meaning SACRIFICE. We have not progressed very far from the past when virgins were thrown into volcanoes to appease men’s gods. And rape of women has always been considered one of the “spoils of war”.
We may think that gangs are street outlaws but they are also are the prime unit in the atrocities committed by college and professional sports. Initiation rites are rife with penile bonding against women.
One needs only to listen in to the locker room chatter to understand how males are taught that the road to manhood is to victimize/put down women. The proof comes from the testimony of those males who act with a gang and then later are appalled by what they have seen and done.
This power hierarchy flows from churches and government but gets its final honing in sports and the military. Republicans have always understood this and used it to consolidate their power and control.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670037745/sr=8-1/qid=1152784876/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0405035-0328145?ie=UTF8
Now comes the ultimate horror of our society’s inculcated hatred of women. Girl and woman gangs are becoming more prevalent. Their prey, their hated and despised ones, like their male counterparts, are female.
#
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change address or comment:
gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
http://aradece.tripod.com/WOMENS_RIGHTS.htm
Friday, July 07, 2006
FOURTEEN RED ROSES
Another 4th of July has come and gone leaving behind a tattered and torn Constitution for a people that had rather watch [and worship] “Idols” and the numerous “Amazing Soaps de jour” on TV than add their voices to protest.
Bush’s Bill of Wrongs is supplanting the Bill of Rights [BOR’s] while most of the country yawns. Have we forgotten why the Constitution was revised by the addition of the first 10 Amendments - The Bill of Rights?
It was revised by the Founders because they worried that the Constitution they had just written was so powerful that it could lead to a repressive central government.
The first 8 Amendments list basic rights to protect the citizens from abuse by the federal government. The separate states could still enact laws that took these rights away and the BOR’s could not protect them.
When the Congress in 1866 noted that state laws were circumventing the 13th Amendment which prohibited slavery, it proposed the 14th Amendment.
Part of it reads: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Because of these words, discriminatory tax laws are invalidated; homeless and underage laborers are protected; basic medical services for the poor are guaranteed. They are also the basis for gay rights and protect women’s reproductive choices.
Without those words, government can run roughshod over all of the gains women have made toward equality. And we know that the present administration and the Republicans are determined to centralize power at the federal level and destroy the protection at the state level.
In celebration of those words and the 4th of July, we figuratively lay 14 red roses on the Constitution knowing full well how close Bush is to burying those words and women’s rights along with them.
#
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change address or comment:
gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
Bush’s Bill of Wrongs is supplanting the Bill of Rights [BOR’s] while most of the country yawns. Have we forgotten why the Constitution was revised by the addition of the first 10 Amendments - The Bill of Rights?
It was revised by the Founders because they worried that the Constitution they had just written was so powerful that it could lead to a repressive central government.
The first 8 Amendments list basic rights to protect the citizens from abuse by the federal government. The separate states could still enact laws that took these rights away and the BOR’s could not protect them.
When the Congress in 1866 noted that state laws were circumventing the 13th Amendment which prohibited slavery, it proposed the 14th Amendment.
Part of it reads: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Because of these words, discriminatory tax laws are invalidated; homeless and underage laborers are protected; basic medical services for the poor are guaranteed. They are also the basis for gay rights and protect women’s reproductive choices.
Without those words, government can run roughshod over all of the gains women have made toward equality. And we know that the present administration and the Republicans are determined to centralize power at the federal level and destroy the protection at the state level.
In celebration of those words and the 4th of July, we figuratively lay 14 red roses on the Constitution knowing full well how close Bush is to burying those words and women’s rights along with them.
#
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change address or comment:
gapperserve@peoplepc.com
or in GenderGappers Blog - NEW!
http://www.gendergappers.blogspot.com/
Visit the GenderGappers link page: http://www.gendergappers.org/links.htm
GenderGappers articles may be forwarded if you wish, and translated into other languages, but please keep them intact. All issues are archived at the following site:
http://www.gendergappers.org
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