misogyny, misogynic, misogynous:
1. A hatred of women.
2. In psychiatry, when the hatred of women is part of a morbid mental state, it may be associated with a wide variety of nosologic entities. The most common explanation for the condition has to do with the events of childhood, particularly those relating to the parents.
Via Murphy at Pumapac, last night Lynette Long and three of her friends were attacked with misogynistic language while waiting for a table in a popular Washington, DC restaurant. One of the women was brutally assaulted and dragged by her hair across the floor.
When I arrived my friends were already there. One was sitting at the corner of a packed bar while the other two were standing behind her. Beside them three guys would not release two seats they were saving “for friends” for at lease 30 minutes. When I arrived, one of my friends eager to find me a seat, tried to take one of the seats held by the guys, saying she would be happy to return the seat once his friends arrive. He pulled the seat back and yelled, “You are just a bunch of C****.” What??? Haven’t we seen that word emerge during the very recent Presidential Campaign? I was flabbergasted. I have never in my life heard a woman called the C word. Ouch.
After the women attempted to get assistance from a dismissive bartender and an impotent manager, one of Lynette’s friends lost her temper and poured a glass of water over the head of one of the men.
When the police came we stepped outside to explain what happened. When the woman who was assaulted told the police they called us a C****, he said, “That’s a part of a horse.” When she showed him her broken glasses and bruised face, he said, “You started the fight.” Something is not right here, a woman’s been pummeled in the face and you tell me it’s her fault. Disgusted, we left, found another restaurant and had dinner.
This morning I called a lawyer who is an expert in these matters. After reviewing the facts her response was calling a woman a C**** is not a hate crime, throwing water on someone is considered an assault, and you’re lucky the guys left or your friend who was pummeled would have been arrested.
Clearly, Lynette’s friend “crossed the line,” and Lynette admits as much. But have you ever heard of an incident like this happening in an upscale restaurant and the staff declining to intervene?
From Violet at Reclusive Leftist:
Any hope that the hatred unleashed by the Obama movement would subside post-election is starting to fade. The signal features of Obama’s movement have always been fanaticism and misogyny — and note that I’m talking about the real Obama movement, not the Obama™ movement — and these were ratified at the polls on November 4. They’re now part of acceptable behavior.
We have often talked about the dangers of rewarding the Obama Campaign’s sexist behavior with or votes. We stood strong, but many women voted for Obama despite his misogynistic campaign. As Riverdaughter wrote this morning, this is what Barack Obama has unleashed in the past year. He has used misogyny to stir up hatred of women in the media and on the blogs that supported him. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, it won’t soon be put back. We are going to be dealing with this for a long time to come.
Thanks Barack.
Filed under: Barack Obama, General, Politics | Tagged: Lynette Long, misogyny, sexism, violence against Women |
The Confluence 
What is wrong with people?
I have never heard that C-word used as much as it is now.
I guess the ladies should have held out a bar of soap and said open wide. . .
This is what the attacks on Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have unleashed. No one in the media or the DNC or the Party leadership saw fit to address what was happening and object to it. Women’s groups endorsed Obama despite his misogynistic campaign. Now all women will pay the price for his disgusting, craven behavior.
It has never been more fashionable to be violent to women. We need to all be very careful.
This is horrifying.
the fact that c*nt and f*cking whore were perfectly acceptable language, but “that one” caused a huge ruckus says it all
and I just realized that both of my examples above were used by women. unbelievable
It IS horrible. And the only ones who are going to do anything about it are we women. We ARE 51 per cent of the population. We are going to have to hang together and with the men who share our horror at the cultural ratification of misogyny.
pugetsoundislandgirl, on November 15th, 2008 at 10:48 pm Said:
Hello pugetsoundislandgirl! You’ve probably been on these boards and I’ve just missed seeing you, but I feel like I’ve stumbled upon an old friend.
I think it’s frightening. When I first saw Murphy’s post, I assumed that Lynette and her friends were attacked for not supporting Obama. But they were attacked because they were women. We are going to see a lot of this, I’m afraid.
kiki, on November 15th, 2008 at 10:55 pm Said:
Correct.
I’m making some concrete suggestions about our safety, physical and emotional. We need people we can call in the event of any emergency – local friends or family if there is a problem locally; political friends and allies who we totally trust when the problem is internal and psychic.
BB – this is really shocking. But this is the behavior Obama and his supporters modeled. He got away with it, in part, because women were too afraid to stand up for themselves. I can’t believe what a bunch of cowards we are.
Heidi Li,
I simply could not believe this. What’s so shocking is that it happened in a popular restaurant, and no one blinked when the c-word was used in public.
Hi Heidi—-those were the days (back when TM was fun!). I come here OFTEN and post comments rarely.
This post really pissed me off. We need to stay strong and look out for each other.
pugetsoundislandgirl,
Please keep commenting. We need all our voices to be heard.
Heidi — it is the disgrace of our gender that so many women have been complicit in perpetuating the idea that women are not equal partners in this society.
So much sexism as been fostered in subtle ways throughout the years that many of us paid “no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
Maybe it is time for us to claim the word, just like we queers claimed that word as a powerful one when Reagan did nothing about AIDS.
“Hell, YEAH, I’m a C*NT! And I’m about to use all my inner C*ntiness on YOU, you ASSHOLES!!!”
Grrrrr. (Back to the other thread where I can really curse!)
I cannot tell you how many times I have been called the c-word this election cycle – by anonymous commenters when my blog was on blogger (part of why I moved the blog to its new home).
Lynette should name the restaurant. Women and men who are decent should either boycott or take over the bar area, order and not tip, for days and days and days.
[[[[ Heidi cover your ears – you said you were squeamish 😉 ]]]]
BB – when women start calling other women that word, it puts the terminology into the mainstream.
I fucking hate Obama and the brainless idiots that think he is Jesus. God damn them to everlasting fucking hell.
Yes, she should name the restaurant. And someone should have pulled out a cell phone and gotten video or at least photos of the attackers.
Correct. And you know what I am sick of? All the former Clinton supporters bashing and second-guessing Senator Clinton. SHE never claimed to be perfect and like each of us she has the right to decide for herself what her circumstances require. I’m reminded of when women turned on her for sticking with Bill after the Lewinsky affair. It is HER life, SHE has to live it.
And I’ll be dam’d if I am going to back down from my view that one way we as women can fight back immediately is by ridding Clinton of that dam’ primary debt. Obama is NOT going to do it no matter how many people think he should.
For me this is about our loyalty and solidarity with one another – not about Senator Clinton per se.
madamab,
I remember so clearly how shocked and horrified I was to see the photos of women involved in torture at Abu Ghraib. I was almost as shocked to see a woman wearing one of those ghastly yellow anti-Palin T-shirts.
Yeah, I like the cell phone video part. And then let it go viral all over the net with the actual restaurant named.
Also like the idea of women tying up that bar with orders and no tips for weeks at a time. Except that it doesn’t seem to punish the right people.
The drunken rant thread is up. Thanks for reading this post everyone.
VOICE. That is what we must keep doing – giving voice to ourselves and one another.
PROTECTION. That too is what we must give to each other.
We don’t have to agree on every last thing. But when we disagree we need to do so with civility and graciousness.
We have to have each other’s backs.
SOD, although I share your frustration, PLEASE dont blame women. Heidi Li is right — we need to stay UNITED.
blame obama. blame howard dean. blame the media. blame KO. blame the NYT LAT WAPO and KOS. Blame our ridiculous education system in which there are EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE children’s books about Rosa Parks listed on Amazon and NOT ONE about Alice Paul (look it up, it’s true). I was 39 YEARS OLD before I had even heard the name Alice Paul.
There is NO DISGRACE to our gender.
sorry, just needed to vent that.
Yes, Heidi Li. You are so right. Women have to have each other’s backs. How many generations will it take for us to learn?
Like “Bitch is the new black”? I don’t know scrubs, I don’t know if I could ever wear that word.
We’re in for a hard ride, but I also have a feeling we are at the start of a powerful forward push.
There are kids my son’s ages: 11 and 14, that are seeing the mythology of “feminism” and the lie that women are supposedly equal is being thoroughly exposed.
PUMA cubs and Palin kids are going to come out swinging.
Amen, Murphy!!
BB – these women were not taught that you never appease a bully. That’s all these weak, terrified men are. No, girls, they are not going to like you more if you betray yourself and your sisters. They are just going to use you and throw you away.
have you all seen this video of Dean and Co posthumously lamenting Hillary’s destruction? it’s a headspinner? Betty Jean Kling has it up on her blog.
Somewhere along the way, we became complacent.
joanie – I have 11 year old twins and they are definitely being taught about all this by me. They will NOT grow up complacent but they WILL grow up knowing how to care for others.
By the way, if Lynette’s account is accurate, withholding tips from the bartenders would be penalizing some of those who stood idly by. Also here in DC bartenders don’t share their tips with the rest of waitstaff – so servers and busboys would not suffer.
boston boomer, I agree.
Take pictures of the injuries, name the restaurant, (assuming the half an hour the hoodlums held onto the chairs with no friend showing up is true), and perhaps other pumas will join in a daily visit to the restaurant. Show up, be polite, stay as long as possible, then just get up and leave.
It would be a shame if meals arrived and then the PUMA people left. After a couple of weeks of this behavior, I think a message will be heard.
And I think a lawsuit could result as the restaurant is responsible for the environment and behavior. Even though dropping water on someone’s head is considered “assault”, the reaction was completely inappropriate and I would pursue a “lying in wait” charge.
If a potentially stronger person or group creates a publicly humiliating situation for another group, that is a form of lying in wait to then punish the second group should they react.
http://www.DailyPUMA.com
Lets think about the result that occurred. Now what if the exact same situation occurs again? Are people just supposed to leave because a hoodlum has taken extra chairs they are not using?
Since the outcome is currently unsatisfactory, I think more needs to be done, irrespective of what an attorney has already said. Attorney’s tend to whimp out when it comes to taking on a case that may or may not lead to a settlement.
Perhaps attorneys fear losing because the judge may associate them with being a loser and it then affects their future ability to win cases??? This is clearly not a frivolous case.
bb, I’m glad you brought this here as I’d just been reading the story and comments at Violet’s blog. I didn’t comment there but I think incidents like this are more than misogyny. There’s a generational component, too.
I ask you, what are the chances these young guys would’ve been so disrespectful – to the point of violence – if those middle-aged ladies had instead been young and attractive girls? Or that the police wouldn’t have pressed charges against the attacker?
Something in the Obama movement has created a generational, as well as genderational (h/t myiq iirc) divide. Witness Obama’s own warning to “boomers” that they’d have to just get over themselves (see story linked at cannonfire yesterday). I’ve seen this resentment crop up in forums all over the net. Most commonly: Boomers are selfish. “They” had it all and now don’t want to leave any of the good stuff for the X’ers. “They” are still living in a ’60’s fantasy world and now the X’ers are going to have to clean up their mess. And so forth.
This resentment seems to have started with Reagan, but Obama has poured a lot of fuel on that smoldering anger and convinced young people that HE will save them from the depredations of their parents.
Speaking as one born at the beginning of the “baby-boom,” I’ve become damned uncomfortable with this attitude.
OMG! I just watched that video that murphy linked to and one hardly knows where to start or stop being ill. Scheduling conflicts?! Howard Dean wracked with pain over how women of his WIFE’s generation felt? The horror, the horror.
Murphy,
Thanks for the link. I couldn’t sit through all of Dean’s BS, though. I don’t want to upchuck.
Alessandro Machi, on November 15th, 2008 at 11:18 pm Said:
boston boomer, I agree.
Take pictures of the injuries, name the restaurant, (assuming the half an hour the hoodlums held onto the chairs with no friend showing up is true), and perhaps other pumas will join in a daily visit to the restaurant. Show up, be polite, stay as long as possible, then just get up and leave.
**************
Right on. We need some verification – a police report was probably prepared since the cops were called? – and then we take direct action. Polite but direct.
By the way, very difficult for women to bring a lawsuit over this behavior unless and until gender based discrimination is treated with the same heightened scrutiny as race based discrimination. This is why we need the ERA.
if the restaurant was upscale was it also a meat market?
SherryNC,
I agree. The generational wounds that Obama opened are also very destructive. This was evident back in January when I was still posting at the Daily Cheeto. There was intense rage against baby boomers and the elderly coming from Obama supporters.
On the other hand, I experienced horrendous sexual harrassment when I was a young, attractive women working in an all male workplace.
roofingbird, on November 15th, 2008 at 11:30 pm Said:
if the restaurant was upscale was it also a meat market?
Entirely possible. I can think of at least one DC restaurant that fits that bill perfectly.
Heidi Li,
Do you know Lynette Long? Maybe she would tell you the name.
What I want to know is, where is Gloria Steinem? Barbara Morgan? Gloria had plenty of time to go on Oprah and chortle about how ridiculous it was for any woman with Barack’s qualifications to be taken seriously–now that they’ve lost their credibility by using their platforms to validate these attitudes, are we going to hear word one about it or is it just going to be swept under the rug?
bostonboomer: just as with racism, misogyny just takes different forms as it is directed at different “kinds” of women – so its sexual harassment at one time, marginalization at another. For women of color it can take on a different form than for white women. The point is the one you made: the trait that all these people have in common is that they are women. And they are hated and demeaned for that.
Can you guys tell that I am fed up? I am absolutely fed up.
Seriously, on November 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm Said:
Steinhem sold out so long ago.
BB: I only know Lynette very slightly – not well enough to ask her to name the restaurant. Perhaps we could ask her on blog?
I having trouble analyzing how I feel about this report. I agree this kind of thing will increase for a while. However, as one who has worked as a bartender, my observation is that women are always viewed as the troublemakers in any upscale place serving alcohol. If they are there they are meat and to be chewed if desired. Rage, yes, hurt, yes, resignation to the fact this hasn’t changed in 40 years. yes.
I’m fed up too. But I refuse to give up. Yes, I think we can put comments on Lynette’s blog. She really does need to name the restaurant, and I think she should print the names of the bartender and the manager.
I am so sorry to hear this story. I would bet that even mormon boys would be a whole lot nicer than that. even tho they have a really different world view, they have been taught how to behave in public. Weird, but polite. I would hope it wasnt republican guys and really doubt any of our recent vets would act this way. It is sad anyone would act this way and not be immidately tossed out
bb: “On the other hand, I experienced horrendous sexual harrassment when I was a young, attractive women working in an all male workplace.”
As did I, and we had to try to be a “good sport” about it, didn’t we? sigh
Now, I’m not saying that those young guys wouldn’t have sexually harrassed younger women – that would almost be a given. But I feel quite sure that there wouldn’t have been a violent attack as was done in this case, even after water was poured.
I sure hope someone can get Lynette to divulge the name of the restaurant. That place needs to feel the wrath.
Perhaps this is the kind of thing the New Agenda would be interested in sharing. Your idea about naming names is great, but since there is some involvement on both sides, care is required, to assure no harm comes to Lynette and friends.
I never realized how much society hates women, and how Hollywood has played a role in the continuation of this hatred of women. The media went on a frenzy on hate upon women. CNN allowed a ‘contributor’ to call Hillary a ‘White Bitch’ while DONNA BRAZILE and others sat there…DONNA BRAZILE said NOTHING! Had he said the something about Obama he would have been fired. I NO LONGER WATCH CNN!
The thing that gets me is that my daughters in their late thirties, both of whom voted for BO, don’t even think any sexism or mysogony happened in this election. How can we wipe it out if so many of our girls and women deny it exists?
CNN claims some women are “Bitches”
When Palin was named CNN went out to get her and they did. Young women don’t get it, because they haven’t suffered the brunt of it. This unchecked misogyny/sexism will bring all that back and they will come complaining to us about it. The women organizations left me cold in there endorsement of Obama without any meetings or discussion on the matter.
I also think that the organizations need to look at their mission statements and see if they only recognize DEMOCRATIC WOMEN…because when women are RAPED or ATTACKED the attackers don’t ask if they are DEMOCRATS. That was by far the worst excuse for them not coming to Palin’s defense. You don’t see the NAACP asking if the person that suffered racism is a REPUBLICAN!
WOMEN GET A CLUE…WOMEN MEANS ALL WOMEN! IF NOT THEN GIVE It UP AND CLOSE SHOP! How many of you know of a rape victim that was asked about their political affiliation before being attacked?
So a cop in DC responds to a woman being called a c#nt – “That’s part of a horse.”? A horse? What an effing idiot. He just didn’t want to be bothered to his job to look for these guys. Assault with a glass of water is alot different than the physical assault that resulted in obvious injury of bruises and damage of property (her glasses).
Let’s face it. These thugs were trying to get these women to leave because they were taking up space that these guys hoped to fill up with “hotties” more to their liking. I can’t count the times I’ve met my girlfriends at a bar just to hang out and been hounded by men who thought we were there to be picked up – no matter how many times we told them we weren’t interested.
Look what Randi Rhodes said about Hillary Clinton and Jerri Ferraro — F**king Wh**res — I looked it up last night and had not remember what she said was so unacceptable.
The thing is that Rhodes said this at an Obama fund raiser — and as usual Obama said nothing. This has been his pattern — he is accepting of this sort of behavior.
Obama has established a pattern — by his remarks, by his actions and by not condemning sexist, misogynistic behavior from those around him.
Now women’s groups are asking pretty please hire a few women?? What a joke — the lower paid work horses will probably be female — but the higher paid trophy jobs will be males — as it has always ben in MALE run political jobs.
Nothing has changed — in fact it is far worse then it was in the 70s.
Many women dismiss this bad behavior from men — as this is just in our gene — gotta accept it. NO this is learned behavior, it is taught by example.
What should have happened as soon as Obama and his thugs began their anti women campaign was to give a UNITED MESSAGE — this behavior is unacceptable.
I will forever be grateful to Sarah Palin — because when the exact same misogynistic behavior was directed at Palin — immediately after being directed at Hillary Clinton — THIS work people up. The nasty sexist behavior wasn’t simply due to Hillary being a Clinton — no Hillary got that treatment because of her gender. Palin was treated like an incompetent bimbo — because of her gender.
The solution for some people may be to ban women from going out at night — blame the victim. This is what some colleges used to do — women could not go to the library at night — women were a “distraction” for the male students. Only males were the serious students . . blah blah.
Unify — give a message that gender hate speech is unacceptable — Massive numbers need to unify.
Obama is just another male — and he has no sensitivity to gender issues.
One night a guy posted, on 3 or 4 posts some 520 identical comments. “rose is a cunt.” It was a blog attack which shocked everyone.
In response, someone posted this – hope it helps:
Ah, “cunt”. What a great word! Oh, I know it’s supposed to be a shockingly vulgar & derogatory term but its ancient etymology says otherwise as does current modern feminist thinking. After all, the vagina (as it’s known in polite company) is such a warm & wonderfully powerful & pleasurable thing that history is full of examples of men who have wrecked their lives, minds & careers just trying to get some. The vagina ranks right up there with money, power & status! It is usually the wrecked or rejected men who can’t quite attain or achieve the goals they set for themselves who resort to such colorless descriptions of what is so highly prized & sought after by their gender.
Some women might take offense at the word but smart women snicker to themselves because they know it speaks volumes more about the speaker than it does about them: she’s hurt or scared him somehow.
What disgust me is the fact that not one “Man” stood up and defended these women! Shame on all of them for standing by and doing nothing! Seems their Mama’s never taught them to be “Real Men!”
How I wish I was in that resturant when this happened! I would probably be sitting in jail for kicking the snot out of these punks!
There is no way in hell I would have stood by and done NOTHING!
Si this is what it has come to? All I have to say is…..God help the Mofo that disrespects my wife or daughters or any other woman in my presence.
I am so sorry this happened to you Heidi! But know that not all men treat “God’s Gift” this way!
What the woman did was an assault, but the man was not acting in self-defense so he was guilty as well.
In a domestic violence situation he would be considered the “primary aggressor” but that principle does not apply here.
Appalling.
Even though misogyny has been around for eons, I fear for mi little daughter now more than ever.
I’ll never, ever, be able to forgive BO for the hatred against women that he, aided by his minions, the media goons, NOW, and also too many women (a majority voted for him?) have unleashed.
Besides becoming a voice for Native Americans, I would love for the PUMA movement to also become a voice for women. A place where both issues are treated with the seriousness they deserve, and also a place where the notion of fairness for the sake of it (true democratic ideals?) is not tainted by either religious beliefs, political affiliation, etnia, sex, or purse’s size.
¡Que viva el grupo PUMA!
P. S. Though late in the game—I have a funky job that keeps me away for days at a time—thanks for your significant contributions to the above mentioned grim to even think about for a stinking instant issues, and a warm welcome to both. I love your posts.
P. P. S. due to $ shortness, I was going to send just $10 to the Pine Ridge Blizzard Fund, but my mom has told me to put it on her card and to add another #10 on her behalf. In one way or other, she’s been helping our Native American people for as long as I can recall. ¿Love this woman? ¡You betcha!
In most areas of the country, I would hope that calling a woman in any derogatory term would be immediately find a gentleman standing up to the offender and demanding an apology. I guess that DC, Chicago and urban areas are different. I’m from one of the areas that include low educated, religious, gun-clinging hicks but at least we respect women as we would our own mothers and would not tolerate such vicious and slanderous behavior. BTW, we also would not tolerate children being in danger of dieing going to and from school by random shootings like is occuring in Chicago. Has anyone ever heard Obama standing up to this violence that is terrorizing his constituents there?
I am appalled that men exhibiting such disgusting public behavior believe they are entitled to use such lewd language in public and I am appalled that not one patron told them to watch their mouth.
And you would think that after all these years, all the dead women assaulted by abusive men who love to use such words, cops would do their duty when a cursing male beats up a woman in public regardless of perceived “fault”. We really are back to the days when the first words out of their mouths are, “What did you do to start it?”
According to a Womensphere 2008 report, 2 million women a year are injured and every 2 minutes a woman is raped. And, for some reason statistics show that women in college are particularly at risk of gender violence. Could it be that it still has something to do with women not knowing “their place” in the male dominated culture?
Esta Soler, president of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, which carries out public health campaigns for the federal Centers for Disease Control, and other advocates “share a time-worn perspective on violence against women: Preventing violence means transforming a culture and its institutions.” Soler also says “Changing attitudes is our greatest long-term challenge. But we are making progress and we can do even more.” But the condoned official hatred spewed against all women in this 2008 election seems to have stopped this progress and made cave men in vogue again.
As for the Dean video, he and the Senator Clinton spokesperson still doesn’t get it. Every placating word was said from the male perspective, the lofty pinnacle of male superiority . Oh, he said a lot of the “right” words but there was no conviction or no passion to change behind them; just a desire to get it over with so they could smooth it over and go on as they had before.
And I was particularly offended by his glossing over the fraudulent primaries and using the language that Senator Clinton “lost” and mystery man Obama “won”, letting me know that he still thinks we’re too ignorant to notice that his political party was guilty of stealing the 2008 election and that continuing to say that it was Clinton’s fault that she “lost” is the equivalent to the tired old excuse: “YOU made me do it to you.”
I guess this is as good a place as any to mention the protections women don’t have. We have to obey the law when it protects men against us, and it does, but the law does not protect women. I apologize for the length, but it really needs to be known how little protection women have.
The Violence Against Women act was passed in 1994 after a mountain of congressional testimony and data showing that male violence touched the lives of almost every single American woman. The Act was eviscerated in 2000 in “U.S. v. Morrrison”, a case in which two black Virginia Tech football players raped a white student. Morrison bragged about it in public afterward. The other guy was let off. The student was told Morrison was suspended and was told by Va. Tech administration not to file with the local police. Without notice to the student, Morrison was admitted back into V. Tech with full rights and allowed to graduate. The student sued under VAWA; one of the most anti-women circuits in the country, the 4th, determined she had been raped but said she had no federal right to sue her attacker. The Supreme Court agreed in 2000. Although it left intact protection for black men against racism based on the commerce clause (“Heart of Atlanta Motel”), protection for women was denied on the very same basis , in the face of what the court admitted was a “mountain of data” that law enforcement does not protect women.
The 5 member majority blithely said there must be *something* else to protect women and mentioned the equal protection clause. That fairy tale got thrown out in 2005, in Gonzalez v. Castle Rock. Gonzalez murdered his three little girls to get back at his wife; he was able to do this despite a restraining order against him, and in spite of his wife’s frantic efforts to get the police to act after he had kidnapped him. The Castle Rock, Colorado, police force did nothing – oh, they did shoot the guy after he showed up in front of the police station with his murdered children and brandished a gun at the officers. The Supreme Court, with the addition of Alito and Obama-approved Roberts, ruled that women have no federal right to police protection at all, not under the equal protection clause, not under any of the constitutional provisions or federal statutes that protect black men. The mother took back her own name and the case is now in international court as Lenehan v. Castle Rock, showing the U.S. to be the third-world country it is with regards to the rights of half its population. http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/gen/23227lgl20051223.html, http://hrbrief.org/category/iachr/
As for hate crimes legislation, federal hate crime laws specify protection on the basis of race, creed (that’s religion, including those that openly discriminate against women), ethnicity and national origin. Not gender. The oldest of these laws, the one to just collect statistics, even includes sexual orientation, but leaves out gender.
Of the 45 states and DC that have hate crime laws, all of them cover race, religion and ethnicity. Only 28 cover gender. Again, more cover sexual orientation – 32. Source data here: http://tinyurl.com/6e2yyj
Women are in deep trouble in the U.S.
I’m not surprised by this after what we saw during the election – and through his silence Obama condoned this behavior – he is complicit.
I posted the following on a previous thread last week – I will continue doing this as have several of my friends agreed to do the same. I suggest that you all think about – no – do the same in your own style:
I attended a business breakfast meeting this AM – there were about 100 women in attendance.
When they asked for comments at the end of the meeting I took the opportunity to point out that
The reaction was interesting – rather positive – I intend to keep doing this until I help the women I come in contact with realize how anti-women they may have been in little ways and thus anti their own self-interests as well.
I also understand why no one stepped up to help those gals – there is so much violence now that people are afraid – we are living in a police state and don’t even realize it.
Do not argue with a drunk.
This is a generational thing and the parents of some of these mindless thugs are responsible. My generation was taught to respect our mothers and fathers and we were not permitted to talk back and further we were to respect our elders.Do you remember the T shirts that were worn at a McCain rally and the use of the C…. words on the T shirts. There were some young women wearing those shirts. I wonder what their mother thought of that and I further wonder if they even spoke to their daughters about that kind of bad conduct.
gmanedit,
These men were not drunk. Furthermore, blaming the victim is not the solution to violent behavior in public places.
Heidi Li, on November 15th, 2008 at 11:13 pm Said:
VOICE. That is what we must keep doing – giving voice to ourselves and one another.
PROTECTION. That too is what we must give to each other.
Yes, thanks Heidi Li. and the rest of you for continuing to discuss this issue!
It is truely terrible what happened at the restaurant. Uggh!
I am a GA at my local university and honestly, I have watched the women faculty treat their fellow women colleagues like crap and me, someone who aspires to be faculty someday, like dog doo on their shoes.
What is wrong with this picture?
I have been asking myself why do I even want to become faculty if this is how it will be like.
Anyways…although I am completely disgusted and exhausted from this campaign season I have tried to start taking some local action, in addition to the other activist work I do to prmote women’s and LGBT rights.
Right now, as a doc student, I am mentoring two masters level women, and I have started a women’s writing team so those of us grad students who aspire to be women faculty / researchers can get published. No thanks to the women (LGBT and otherwise), at my university who are faculty now! This after I have approached over 5 women (including LGBTwomen) to ask for mentoring for myself. They looked at me like I had green horns on my head and as if I had not walked the proverbial 2 miles in the snow uphill long enough or had not scubbed enough toliets, to receive the priviledge of their time.
Please, I am asking you, find a woman, who needs / wants a mentor and start mentoring / coaching her.
Sorry for the rant
Brt142,
Watch what the female faculty have accepted.
If she’s settled for a weak position in a female ghetto (Masters in where the men have PhDs, significantly less salary than the men, “women’s work” in a scientific area, etc.), chances are she’s a token for the men to manipulate. She’ll shove the resentment she hasn’t the guts to show the men onto you.
I hope you find a university where there are strong women faculty in strong departments.
Perhaps this is something the PUMA movement can become involved in, advancing gender as a hate crime and working to make gender and sexual orientation a hate crime in all of the 45 states that have hate crime laws.
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