Wednesday, December 13, 2017

And We Shall Purify

Boy howdy, some year, huh? We women are getting us some justice after a lifetime of abuse, or possibly the whole of human history--anyway we're finally holding the boys to account, and it's exhilarating. We got 'em by the balls and we're dribbling down the court for the score. Seems like the good guys were due for some kind of win, since it didn't work out for Colin Kaepernick and the gang when they tried to respectfully point out that the police were getting away with murdering them. You could sort of see why they might be aggrieved, what with all the death, not to mention the previous three hundred years of dehumanization, but unfortunately for them it turned out they were just overpaid niggers who hated America, as the President clarified, and they didn't get much traction. Maybe some other year. Maybe more death. Maybe it's not quite their time yet.

But it's sure our time now, right, ladies? We are done with being groped and cat-called and having to keep quiet lest we lose our jobs and the whole bit, which we get to call the Rape Culture because there's nothing that can be said that hyperbole doesn't say even better and louder. Women are refusing to remain silent in the face of oppression and men are finally learning how pervasive it has been. This is a good thing. Many men were unaware of what we've been going through, especially the ones who up till now had labored under the delusion they were innocent even though they are clearly equipped to be on the rapist side of the rape culture ledger.

This is particularly fun for me because I've never been in a mob. I was only one year old when Joe McCarthy was in his heyday, so my memory of it is patchy, although I certainly remember "the Commies" serving as the bad guys for decades. (We call them Muslims now.) Of course this is different. All those people accused weren't actual Commies and it shouldn't have mattered if they were, whereas now we know who's truly guilty on account of all the penises. It's wonderful to see men getting what they deserve. From off-color jokes to rape, it's all the same. We're through.

Show you just how much we mean it: we'll take down good ol' Al Franken. He's been an effective senator on the right side of durn near everything when we don't have any good senators to spare, but he engaged in shenanigans. Sometime. Probably. Ha ha! Take that, Al! Bet you're sorry you allegedly did all that stuff you probably might have done! Sure, it's the kind of stuff I've done myself, like butt-grabbing without permission, and if you'd done it to me it probably wouldn't have offended me or the next fifteen women, but it offended at least a few, and that should be that. It's our time now, baby. We've got a big net and we're fixing to catch a lot of men in it. We've all been groped and leered at but we ourselves are pure and we're taking you down. Zero tolerance, baby. It's the very definition of principled.

Maybe another day we'll have time to take aim at some other principles. Maybe we'll take a hatchet to radical capitalism and the party that primarily promotes it, the politicians who serve none but the rich and have seen no commons that shouldn't be privatized for profit, no resource that shouldn't be mined or harvested for profit, no population that shouldn't be demonized or destabilized or destroyed to smooth the way for more profit, no warmaking that can't be turned to profit. Who feel no shame about stumping for guns and against abortion whether they care about those things or not, because it will fool so many people into voting for them, so they can continue to wreck everything for profit. Who will happily devastate the living earth. For profit.

Talk about your rape culture.


[Author's note: today is International Margaret Day! You all know what to do!]

23 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. I heard a guest on NPR the other day refer to Al Franken as the Democrat's sacrificial lamb, with which I heartily agree. It's NOT all the same, no matter how broad the brush, and I feel for his frustration that so few people can see that.

    We've got the horns of *a* bull, certainly, for a little while at least, but it's not the bull that makes a profound difference in the long (or short) run.

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    1. I *didn't* know what to do on International Margaret Day, having only advanced as far as 9/2011 in the archives, but I followed the link and I know what to do now: try to keep a straight face while I perform Christmas carols with the chorus this afternoon!

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    2. You are remarkable! Soldiering right through like a big girl. I hope you continue to enjoy. "Margaret Day" is one of my favorites. So was Margaret. I hope that came through!

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  2. Taking an online class on 19th Century art and boy did the women artists get the shaft. This whole s##t is long overdue!

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    1. I can think of a dozen writers and musicians who went by male names in that century. Just to get that stuff out there.

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  3. I am bummed about Al Franken (but happy as a piggie in kimchee about Doug Jones!). I want to know if Franken's resignation is permanent. Could he run again for his old seat in the special election in 2018? Is he eligible? Let the people of Minnesota decide if he is qualified or not to continue to represent them, especially if he can address the allegations in a comprehensive way between now and next year.

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    1. The people of Minnesota have been disenfranchised by the Democratic Party. There's something of a movement afoot to have him stay, now. But that will backfire on the party too, because then they're open to charges of hypocrisy and expediency. This moral "high ground" ain't worth what we're paying for it.

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  4. Yes, a big resounding yes! All men are not guilty. But some of them are egregiously guilty. Lots of shades of grey between the black and white.

    And I think of you and your sister whenever I buy new undies, which is a lot more often since reading that post. That sounds strange but I don't mean it that way. It's just that you made a big impression on me.

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  5. I wrote on the calendar last year... Margaret Day! This is a holiday I can get behind!

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  6. AMEN to this post!!

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  7. Emptying the drawers now. Great post, Murr.

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  8. Inventorying drawers, and preparing to purchase new underwear as needed! Thank you for the reminder.....And, *great post*!!

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  9. What they ^ all said. I totally forgot about Margaret Day.

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    1. It's not on your Googles Calendar? Not to worry. I'll always remind you.

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  10. Al Franken getting punished now for something he did years ago when it was NOT a crime really isn't a good solution. But considering how filthy politics has become, he may be happy to get out of the snakepit.

    You do give me lots to think about.

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    1. I'm not even 100% sure it was annoying, let alone a crime, or even took place. We won't know that because no ethics probe. We're just tossing him out.

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  12. You're saying what I'd like to say! You say it better, but even yet it's a hard point to make and doesn't fully get across. I volunteer at a Senior Center and I heard a small group of "old ladies" musing on these events. One said something like "in my day these overtures would have been taken as a compliment!" I don't get a lot of things nowadays. I don't get why a woman would put up with demands for sexual favors out of fear of losing her job. That's just beyond me, but I haven't walked in her shoes. I HAVE seen a woman throw a man into a wall from halfway across the room, and that I understand!

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    1. Yeah, circumstances and expectations about jobs and careers are different now than they used to be, and many things were put up with because there was no HR to run to or different scenario anywhere else. I have not seen a woman toss a man into a wall but there's always a first time!

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