McCamy Taylor
McCamy Taylor's JournalWomen and the Disrespect that Starts Within Ones Own Home
We had to face this in the 1960s. Minority rights, the peace movement---these were all things on which the left agreed. But when it came to women's rights, suddenly we women were out there on our own. We were told that it was our job to have sex with men resisting the draft, in order to prove that they were still real men even though they did not want to die in Vietnam and wore their hair long. We were expected to "put out" for other members of various rights groups as a gesture of racial, ethnic, religious and socio-economic equality/solidarity. But, when we wanted to talk about how we were paid a fraction of what men were paid, how we did double duty as child caretakers, elder caretakers, homemakers and workers, we were told that our work at home was not important. We were derided as bra burners and man haters. We were told that our movement detracted from other, more worthy causes, that we held the left up to general public derision, because somehow women's rights were less right that minority rights, religious rights, economic rights. Comedians on all sides of the political spectrum mocked us in a way they never would have mocked Brother Malcolm of Cesar Chavez.
Our situation was the same as that of other oppressed groups, we were told. Women were, based on their biology, inherently different and any attempt to elevate our position within society were doomed to fail. The only group that endured the same type of criticism from within the left were the LBGT, who were also portrayed as "unnatural", "deviant" a distraction from the greater cause of economic justice. Let the (straight or closeted) men take care of things, and prosperity and equality would trickle down to the women.
We were told that our first duty was to support our men at home while they did the fighting, the protesting, the politicking. If we objected to being made into sex objects, if we objected to rape, we were called "frigid" , "unhip". If we admitted to being intimidated in the presence of men, if we requested our own groups, our own chance to form our own union, we were called unnatural, Lesbians, man haters---
Pardon me. But when people like Dr. King self identified as Black, this did not make them white haters. When members of minority groups formed their own coalitions, no one on the left accused them of "voting with their melanin (skin pigment)" But when women express concern about the patriarchy, when we call for equal representation, we are accused of "voting with our vaginas". Much the same way that psychoanalysts used to accuse us of being hysterical in reference to the hyster or uterus.
In 2008, when Black Americans celebrated breaking the race barrier in the White House, everyone on the left agreed that this was a worthy achievement, worthy of celebration.
Now, in 2016, the same members of the left (or maybe some people who only claim to be members of the left) openly deride women who want to celebrate the breaking of the gender barrier in the White House. They attempt to shame younger women into denying that sexism exists in this country. Meanwhile, our young women are taught that they have value only as long as they are young, slender, beautiful and desirable to men. Female actors are over the hill at 30. Females in school are taught to keep a low profile and never let their brains show. Rape victims continue to have their identities withheld because there is something shameful about being raped while there is no shame at all in being the victim of any other violent crime. Women continue to be passed over for promotion on the grounds that they are not dedicated workers. They are paid a fraction of what men make for the same work. They are sexually harassed in the streets and online. Men continue to use their female relatives as punching bags----when they are treated as less than men in the world outside, they can always come home and put their woman in her place and feel like a man again. When men decide that life is not worth living and that it is now time to check out, they are much more likely to turn the gun on their wives first, before taking their own lives. Because what are women here for if not to serve and suffer for their men?
Sexism is the disrespect that starts at home. As Yoko One said "Woman is the n----- of the world." Households very often contain men and women. Gender roles in our society are so screwed up that men are taught they must always be strong. Women are taught that their job is to make their man feel strong. A woman who says "What about me? What about the special needs that I have as a woman?" is a threat. She is deserving of ridicule and abuse. Her needs are frivolous needs---
There is absolutely nothing frivolous about the millions of women in this country who are sick to death of being sex toys, punching bags, goods to be bartered, underpaid sweat shop laborers and voiceless. I am woman, and whether you like it or not, this year you will hear me and my sisters roar, because we know that only someone who has walked in our shoes--our ridiculously uncomfortable and impractical shoes---understands our pain, our frustration, our anger---
Hillary Clinton is a feminist icon, whether you like it or not.
"Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights."
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/05/20-years-later-hillary-clintons-beijing-speech-on-women-resonates/
As a Southern Democrat, I Am Sick of Being Labelled "Red" and "Conservative"
The backbone of the Southern Democratic Party is made of a coalition of unions, Blacks, Hispanics and gays. When people speak disparagingly of the choices we make in our primary, they are criticizing a group of voters who are much more marginalized than Democrats in other states.
Clinton scored big with unions, Blacks, Hispanics, gays---and a lot of women. She did not score big with the KKK, David Dukes or the Dukes of Hazard, no matter what some folks at DU would like you to believe.
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