It happens every day. In fact, it is pretty hard to avoid it. There are some things that can only be understood with a slap on the forehead. Things so mind-boggling that one wonders how humans managed to evolve thumbs while being this mentally inept. Case in point:
Women re-examine social roles in post-Sept. 11 world:
Feminists are raising awareness about this post-Sept. 11 fixation on the heroic “manly man” and attack on feminism, said English professor Jill Swiencicki.
“Bush uses bullying and aggressive rhetoric such as, ‘You’re either with us or against us,’ in order to get Americans to do what he wants,” she said. “When feminists didn’t agree with his actions, it really put us in the ‘against us.’”
Granted, I completely agree that Bush, his administration and his supporters engaged in bullying and aggressive rhetoric, but I never saw it specifically directed at feminism. But, let us have an example:
Right after Sept. 11 feminist writer Katha Pollitt received death threats after encouraging Americans to “put out no flags,” Swiencicki said. Pollitt simply wanted people to hang flags of the earth rather than the American flag.
“The flag of the earth shows the interconnectedness that feminism supports,” she said. “And that is what crystallized feminism for me. But feminists that critiqued the war got flattened.”
Right… except that neither the earth or feminism was attacked on 9/11. Americans were. Because they were American. So… it makes sense that people would want to support each other by using a symbol that represents all of them, i.e. the American flag.
But, go on:
Another book published on this topic is Susan Faludi’s “The Terror Dream,” which talks about the prediction that after Sept. 11 that women would ditch their careers and return to domestic comfort and create a baby boom that never came.
The book also shows how the female heroes were excluded from the media and firefighters were called firemen.
“There were firewomen,” said junior Kyla Adams. “Women gave blood and did lots of things to help. But you didn’t really hear about any of that.”
Okay. This may be true, but there is a problem with this. Most of the footage and photos from that day show mostly firemen and policemen in the area around the buildings, helping people, giving aid and going into the buildings. I am certain there were women there, but it seems unlikely that all the cameramen intentionally ignored female firefighters police officers.
So–oh wait, there is more:
One of the first things Bush said after Sept. 11 was women should go shopping and max out their credit cards to help the economy, as if this was the most important thing women could contribute, she said.
Now, Bush is known for his crazy talk, but is that what he stated? Women could contribute best by shopping? Let us see:
Our people have responded with courage and compassion, calm and reason, resolve and fierce
determination. We have refused to live in a state of panic or a state of denial. There is a
difference between being alert and being intimidated, and this great nation will never be
intimidated.
People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping and playing, worshipping at
churches and synagogues and mosques, going to movies and to baseball games.
Nope. Another:
This work begins with keeping our economy growing. As we approach the end of 2006, the American economy continues to post strong gains. The most recent jobs report shows that our economy created 132,000 more jobs in November alone, and we’ve now added more than 7 million new jobs since August of 2003.
The unemployment rate has remained low, at 4.5 percent. A recent report on retail sales shows a strong beginning to the holiday shopping season across the country — and I encourage you all to go shopping more.
Not there either. In fact, a quick search pulled up several instances in which Bush stated that shopping is a good way to deal with the economic crisis and the trauma of 9/11, but I could not find one instance where stated or suggested that “the most important thing women could contribute” was to go shopping. Not one. The man says some fairly idiotic things all on his own. There is no need to make stuff up.
There is so much–what? Oh, the obligatory fine print:
Whether or not feminism is moving forward, young feminists are always battling with the scrutiny they get from people.
“Not all feminists are burning their bras,” said Women’s Center intern Kelly Hay. “People see all of us as man-hating machines, but it’s actually based on equality.”
Stereotyping all feminists as radicals is like stereotyping all corporations as being as bad as Wal-Mart, she said. The only feminists that are seen are the radicals in the media.
Yeah… Fox News never talks about the radical left. No mention on CNN or MSNBC of the radical right. Bill Maher never talks about those radical religious fundamentalists.
If one is going to make something up, at the very least make it sound plausible, not make people want to do this.
As I was saying–still not finished? Fine…:
“We’re not trying to fight against males,” Hay said. “We’re trying to fight against the social institution.”
If one blames the social institution on males and refers to it as “the Patriarchy” and “male privilege” and only ever blames males for social ills, then technically one is fighting against males, with lies and misinformation no less. But if that is what one needs to say in order to justify one’s flawed perspective, by all means go ahead.
Now, as I was saying… … actually, I forgot what I was going to say. I am feeling a little lightheaded too. I must have taken in too much stupid. Perhaps reading Bush’s speeches will make me feel better.
