REMEMBERING REBECCA WEST

LET'S NOT FORGET REBECCA WEST 1892-1983
HAPPY SOLSTICE to all.

Remembering Rebecca West, born on December 21, 1892.
Most of us remember this quote:

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

Here are more quotes: I especially like the one about the difference between men and women.

A strong hatred is the best lamp to bear in our hands as we go over the dark places of life, cutting away the dead things men tell us to revere.

Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience.

Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.
But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example.

Did St. Francis preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.
He was every other inch a gentleman.

It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk.
Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.

The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West

Comment:

Where have all these magnificent role models been all my life? Why at near middle-age am I just hearing about them now?

by: catfish

There are many reasons but IMO, as women became aware that their movement to equality was opening doors or revealing doors they never knew were there, many just settled. Birth control, abortion, college education, able to get credit without dad's or husbands permission, keeping one's name after marriage and many other things made many women satisfied.
Also at this time the good 'ol msm was pummeling the hell out of the word and meaning of "Feminist", just the way they did "Liberal" and with the same results.

This divided women who feared repercussions as the feminist tag became another word for lesbian. Many backed away, left off the fight for equality. Black women righfully resented the lack of color in the leadership and IMO the lack of guts in the women who settled. Since these groups were the movers and shakers, the decline and fall of the women's movement [notice how I avoid the word feminist], fell like the Roman Empire.

Catfish, all those women you speak of were thrown into the dump of history as the msm from without and the cowardness of the leadership from within prevailed.

Leadership at the National level further eroded the movement as it perpetuated class, that is, it set itself above most of us in the ranks. It talked with each other, not us. It hob knobed with politicians. It embroiled itself with it's own writings and the movement became enshrined in Women's Studies at colleges and universities and died. It split into fractions ie new wave, radical etc. as it became a corps for academic vultures to ravage.

Women do not have a history, they never did as they were deemed by men and by themselves as an adjunct of men - put here to serve and entertain mankind. We have no statue of a woman in Congress or a Holiday set aside in honor of a woman. We have no Equal Rights amendment. Our sisters who still strive are treated like prostitutes by pretty frat boys and cheered on by a society that believes a woman's place is still on her knees.

I wished you could have known and been thrilled by hearing Rita Mae Brown, Alice Walker and Bella Abzug and so many others as I did when they spoke at my University. They were giants.

by: twandx

THE ONCE AND FUTURE PRINCESS

We hear that presumptive NY Senator [CK-S] has made a “listening tour” into the NY hinterlands. A closer look reveals that she did not go to hear the people but to cuddle with the politicians. And of course media was more concerned that she snubbed it than anything else.

Reminds us of how presumptive King BHO made the same kind of tour, going out to the American hinterlands to “listen”. He met with every ward-healer and party hack, giving them the glad hand and promises of contributions. Strangely, this was briefly reported and quickly ignored, as the media was starry eyed in the first phase of courtship.

The love affair blossomed and bloomed throughout the Primary and General Election. Some of the stardust has been rubbed off but the msm still responds to the commands of The One. There are some more honest reports being made and published, but you’ll have to look quickly because just as soon as something is printed that the Transition Team objects to, it gets scrubbed.

But it appears the love is still strong enough to wrap up and deliver Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg into the arms of the New York Governor Patterson. It is unknown whether enough political promises come with her for him to appoint her to the seat held by Senator Hillary Clinton when she becomes the Secretary of State.

Most bets are that with all the political pressure, CK-S will get the nod from NY’s Gov. But think about it – what if her name was Caroline Palin? And how would this appointment be any more morally acceptable than selling the seat for cash [as alleged in Illinois]? Cash is just one form of political pressure.

There are women that CK-S could be compared to such as fellow socialites or qualified senatorial candidates, for example. But the media creams when presented with any opportunity to vilify and degrade, Senator Clinton so it may gleefully raise CK-S up with lies while smacking HRC down with lies.

At present, most of the media is licking its wounds because CK-S won’t talk to them but it continues to report the Obamacratic Team’s Talking Points. Senate leader, Harry Reid, The Rev. Al Sharpton, NY Mayor Bloomberg and many others join in to rave about the genetic qualifications of the “Child of Camelot”.

However there are legitimate concerns from many of us out there especially in the Blogs, if one takes the trouble to look. Her CV appears to be packed with the accomplishments of underlings that she claims are hers. We find CK-S lacking any commitment to women’s civil and reproductive rights.

And we shall never forget that she turned her back on all women when she refused to support HRC, and also supported the false claims of racism made against her by the media. All the time she never made any effort to criticize or curtail the misogyny flowing like sewerage from the Obama campaign.

But the big boys like her, or we suspect, like the fund raising promises of the Kennedy name. It would be tough to top the juice of the one who reminds Caroline of her father, Jack.

The hopes of some well known and experienced candidates for an open senate seat awaiting the nod of Gov. Patterson appear to fade in the glowing light of a real live princess of the realm and the backing of her new Daddy Dearest.

MISOGYNY IN THE MOUNTAINS

Our Vermont paper has published some Op-Eds from people bemoaning the fact that people object to the decorations on two of the Burton’s line of snowboards.

The “Love” line feature Playboy bunny images with scantily clad models; the “Primo” line shows people mutilating their own hands into popular cultural hand signs such as the sign for peace and OK.

The OE,s criticized protestors who objected mostly to the Love line and there have been many protests, including local government officials and owners of resorts who are banning the use of these boards on their slopes.

They defended the Love and Primo boards as “freedom of artistic expression”. But many in the community agree more with Michelle Fay, Umbrella's executive director. [Umbrella is a community resource center for women and families that offers support and advocacy for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.]

"Rape culture is fueled by the dehumanizing images of women as objects in porn," she continued. "There is an established connection between consumption of porn and aggression, as well as a sense of sexual entitlement that endangers women and children," Fay said.

Nonsense, to paraphrase the Burton family and their supporters, we have a right to free artistic expression and people should be able to buy these if they want them.”

Burton also reminds Vermonters that it brings in a lot of cash to the State and threatened that if people continued to protest their board, they could go some place else to manufacture them.

Another reason given is that those who oppose the boards are bringing discredit to the State. The Pros in this debate appear to outweigh the Cons.

In fact, their support of the Naked Playboy women boards sound very similar to that expressed by those, who like Columnist Kathleen Parker, defended the misogyny of Obama’s speech writer, Jon Favreau and staff.

Parker claims that the groping and the other perpetrators of indignities on the cut out model depicting Senator Clinton [in a widely circulated picture] was, “harmless male sport.” She opines that they were “young men goofing around.” kparker@kparker.com

Perhaps true but they were also spreading the culture of violence toward women; of hatred of misogyny. A culture that tells young people that it is OK to beat up on women and to degrade them.

The Burlington Free Press front page of 12/14/08 featured a story of three murderers of women.

“One year ago, Howard Godfrey, Brian Rooney and Christopher Williams stood as suspects in three of the most notorious and painful murder cases in recent Vermont memory: two random attacks on young women — one unsolved for 14 years, and a domestic dispute that exploded into a school shooting.

“The suspects now can be called murderers. Their crimes stood out in a state with few homicides each year and even fewer examples of stranger-on-stranger killings:

”• Godfrey, now 62, raped and killed 28-year-old Patricia Scoville in Stowe in 1991, although he evaded capture, and even suspicion, for more than a decade.

”• Rooney, 38, sexually assaulted and strangled University of Vermont senior Michelle Gardner-Quinn, 21, in Richmond in October 2006. She disappeared in downtown Burlington and was missing for a week before hikers discovered her body.

”• Williams, 30, carried out a jealousy-fueled shooting rampage through Essex in August 2006 that left two people dead and two others wounded. Killed were his former girlfriend's mother and a woman who taught with his former girlfriend. His target, whom he never found that day, was a former girlfriend who taught at Essex Elementary School."

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081214/NEWS02/81213012&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

It would be a good guess that these three atrocious crimes against women brought or will bring much more discredit to the State than the opposition to misogyny and porno on the slopes of the Green Mountains.

GUYZ JUST HAVIN' A GOOD TIME

Arguably one of the greatest disappointments to women and supporting men has been the perfidy of some of the leaders of the woman’s movement for equality. Outstanding in this regard is NOW – the National Organization for Women.

“The National Organization for Women, which last struck issuing news releases on why Sarah Palin isn't a real woman, refused to comment on the Obama speechwriter incident.” - Andrew Breitbart
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/i_believe_hillarys_cardboard_c.html

Early on, many of these so-called leaders turned away from the most qualified presidential candidate, who happened to be a woman, and embraced her male rival. If nothing else this should show women why the gains they have made are largly ephemral.

This would suggest that it is time to find new leaders who will not sell out their sisters for political gain and hunkyness. If you were burned, despite your contributing financial support to NOW, check out these women, and if the fit is right, join them. http://thenewagenda.net/

Think we got it bad? Check out what British women have to contend with:

How Far Have we Come in 80 Years by Rachel Cooke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/07/women-equality-rights-feminism/print

We certainly may have common cause and perhaps together we can help bring forth a truly international women’s movement. It would be a great time for it with Senator Clinton heading up State.

The Cooke article is well worth reading. This quote strikes home, referencing the rapidly increasing ‘sex encounter clubs’ - “The rise of these places is just one aspect of a culture in which the buying and selling of women's bodies has become so ubiquitous, we are now almost blind to it…”

My emphasis in this excerpt. In three lines, Cooke sets forth the problems and the solution.

“… as Germaine Greer once put it, 'there have been women in the past far more daring than we would need to be now, who ventured all and gained a little, but survived after all'. These days, the law is mostly, if not always, on our side. All we have to do is quit being taken in by appearances, stop pretending not to mind about the bad stuff, start refusing to take the joke, cease mistaking everything from lipstick to leather for empowerment.”

In “It’s th System, Stupid”, Violet Socks explains to James Carville:
“…sexism is a system. Women’s second-class status in society is a 24/7 deal, a full-time gig, an all-pervasive set of mores and assumptions. It’s interwoven into the very fabric of society, and every thread contributes to the pattern. It starts in the cradle and follows us to the grave; it harasses us at work and diminishes us at home.
http://thenewagenda.net/2008/12/09/its-the-system-stupid/

For more background and understanding of Gender and Politics, you can check into the Research Rooms at the Liz Library.
http://www.thelizlibrary.org

Does anyone who watched or still watches “Hogan’s Heroes” see the similarity between Obama and Sergeant Shultz? Misogynistic campaign, supporters, Rev. Wright and now Gov. Blagojevich – “I know nothink, nothink!

GENETIC PARDONS

Obama's speechwriters groping model of Senator Clinton


Sure, things are moving at a terrific pace but sometimes it's wise to slow down a little and consider the past and how it relates to the present. There are lessons there we can all learn from; there is information to help us avoid mistakes and waste time.

Know your history. Bookmark this LIBRARY for information and research so you can read about and understand the woman's movement for equality was never just a collection of words.

The Liz Library logo:


http://www.thelizlibrary.org

The recent yearlong battle with misogyny of 2008 was lost, as women took hit after hit. Every effort to resist or defend oneself was met with derision and more misogyny.

What did become apparent to everyone was that our society of so-called human beings condoned it and more than that, it has put it right alongside genetic male characteristics as pardonable. "They just can't help it - it's hardwired in their brain", they tell us.

Oh yes, the male is programmed to hunt and women are his prey. The whole idea of respect for, or equality with the other is a myth. Even all the world's great religions give credence to man's vilest and thoughtless actions.

Many women over the years have been swamped or drowned in the tidal wave of sexual discrimination that goes along with the male privilege and genetic pardon. They may have been bloodied but they are not only holding up their heads, they are proceeding to continue the fight.

There are now many blogs and movements where women and supportive men are fired up to fight against misogyny.

Heidi Li tells us that

"we each, as individuals, must object every time and every place we hear or read sexist or misogynistic language". She advises us to say, "Please stop braying at me!"

http://tdg.typepad.com/heidi_l...

Here are just a few of the other blogs in the fight; you'll find links here to blogs they recommend:
http://alegrescorner.soapblox....
http://riverdaughter.wordpress...
http://susiemadrak.com/ http://www.free-us-now.com/
http://thenewagenda.net/blog/

The common message is that we should put our collective foot down and stamp sexism and misogyny out. Just as racist speech and writing has been made socially unacceptable we should demand the same of sexist speech and writing.

Will we be hearing soon that the ethics of young males is hardwired also? Check out these alarming statistics:

Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth
Copyright 2008 Josephson Institute
http://charactercounts.org/pdf...

It should certainly be looked into to find out why both men and women teach their sons and daughters different values; Values that have caused such massive putrefaction of the Blogisphere.

The fight we are in started centuries ago; it continued in the last century with your mother's and grandmothers fighting for your right to vote, for equal pay and opportunity, equal education and reproductive rights.

The past year will live in infamy in the annuals of women's history as a time a society that considered itself progressive, regressed to Stone Age values and actions.

"If women want any rights more than they's got, why don't they just take them, and not just be talking about it." - Sojourner Truth