Note: this is another old post. I’m cleaning out my drafts this week and wanted to share some of my thoughts from the past few years. Once I get through the draft posts, I’ll be posting new material. However, I believe that the drafts are highly relevant, even today, so here you go. Enjoy and tell your friends!<\/p>\n
from 24 March 2015…<\/p>\n
This week, the Duggar family was finally removed from the airwaves after a story broke about Josh Duggar (the oldest of the Duggar cult) molesting his sisters when he was 14 years old. There are many apologists (which works so perfectly since it has the dual meaning of defending the Christian faith against any question and the general idea of apologizing) who say that Duggar was young and shouldn’t be held accountable. They say he has repented for his sins and he is forgiven. They say that he had counseling and is reformed.<\/p>\n
Well, I call bullshit on this whole mess. Josh Duggar was 14 years old when he committed these crimes against his sisters. His family covered it up and he was never punished for it. The girls were never given counseling and they were forced to continue to live under the same roof as their molester for many additional years. I wouldn’t be surprised if the girls were also taken to church and talked to by the pastor to lay the blame on them for being molested. After all, the church believes that men have urges they cannot control and it is the duty of girls\/women to be ever vigilante against men and their ways. If this means that a girl is sleeping and her older brother molests her in the night, it is HER fault. Seriously. It is fucked up, but it is the way of the Evangelicals.<\/p>\n
This particular story got me to thinking about the wider society and ways in which girls\/women are held to a standard that is completely different from that of boys\/men. Women are made to feel dirty if they are in touch with their own sexuality, while men are seen as simply sewing their oats. Women are restricted from wearing clothing that is considered ‘revealing’ by the standards of men, as evidenced by the outbreak of girls being sent home from prom after wearing dresses that were anything but revealing, while men can wear anything they want without repercussion. That is, with one caveat. If a boy wishes to wear a dress to his senior prom, he too will be treated like a girl and turned away for indecency. Girls have also been sent home from prom for wearing tuxedos. It never ends.<\/p>\n
This week also brought about a new round\u00a0of backlash against Hillary Clinton as she makes her run for the Democratic nomination. Commentators have painted Clinton as being too old (when at 67 she is actually in the normal age range for presidential candidates), a bitch (we know where this one comes from, don’t try to be powerful and have a vagina or this is what you will be called), a mother\/grandmother (meaning she won’t have time to be in the kitchen and the oval office), and in possession of a vagina (which somehow makes her unable to lead the country, although I can name many women who have been mighty successful at it in MANY other countries across the globe.) My answer to that is, grow a pair of ovaries and get over yourselves. Hillary Clinton will make an excellent president. We just have to decide, as a country, that it is time for a woman to hold that office. We will, after all, be only 50 years behind India and 37 years behind Great Britain.<\/p>\n
So how do we end the oppression of women in America? How can we, as a collective, push toward full equality? And I can hear some of you out there groaning and saying, “Why is she making such a big deal about this? Women have rights! They can work in many fields that men can. They can do anything they want. Feminism is over.” And to that I say, again, BULLSHIT! Feminism is not over and, in fact, we need it more than ever. And what we REALLY need right now is the ERA. Yes, I said it. We need the Equal Rights Amendment. We need assurances written into our governing documents\u00a0that women will be treated as equals. Equality in EVERY area of life. That is what we truly need.<\/p>\n
So how do we get the ERA to pass?<\/p>\n
Learn about it:\u00a0http:\/\/www.equalrightsamendment.org\/history.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Join\/Volunteer\/Donate to the Alice Paul Institute:\u00a0http:\/\/www.alicepaul.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n Keep up the feminist work:\u00a0http:\/\/www.feminist.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n