Sexism invisible this campaign season (6 paragraphs - 3rd try)
I saw Obama’s speech on race and I was very impressed. I like him as a person and candidate and I am immensely proud that our nation seems to finally be ready to have a frank and nuanced discussion about race. But I am growing increasing angry that our nation does not appear to be even remotely ready to have a frank discussion of sexism.
Though, I can think of few things more grotesque than the lynching of a black man -- at least twice a week I see the pretty face of a young, middleclass white woman, plastered across the TV screen because she’s either missing or has been found after a brutal rape/murder. And for every one of those, there are hundreds of women, less pretty, less wealthy, and less white, who are ignored by the major media, also rotting away in shallow graves, in blue barrels, or under the backyard bonfire pit of an ex-boyfriend, husband, acquaintance or family member. Each of these is a gender-based hate crime, a daily deluge of “lynchings” of women, who (as John Lennon said) is nigger of the world.
I almost became one of those bodies whose fragile bones may have been unearthed during the ground breaking of a construction project, or after a dog carried my dried skull in from the vacant lot as a toy. In 1974, I was 9 years old and being brutally, violently raped by my Uncle. I screamed as loudly as I could in the hopes the neighbors would hear. He silenced me by strangling me. As I went unconscious, I really believed he was killing me. I regained consciousness after the rape was over, in terrible physical pain and my future achievement potential now crippled with mental and emotional baggage. I look back and realize that it would have been so easy, to accidentally strangle me too long, or snap my fragile neck. And surely my Uncle would not have called 911. Surely he would have done everything he could to cover his crime. And regardless of whether anyone believed his story, or prosecuted, or imprisoned him; and regardless of whether my body found its way to a coffin and a proper burial, or remained under a freshly poured slab of cement in his back yard, I’d still be just as dead.
This is the daily bread of being female in America. Women travel in packs for safety and lock up their houses and cars like Fort Knox. Women are ever vigilant and even so, it is estimated that 75% of American women will be raped or otherwise physically sexually assaulted at sometime in their lives. All of this horror and I haven’t even touched on the gender bigotry of domestic violence or the sexual slavery that makes up part of the world wide sex trade.
Though I’m not saying I am convinced Hillary would be the better candidate (or Barack either), she has worked very hard and accomplished so much for both women’s and children’s rights at home and abroad. But to see Hillary in the White House, as President of the United States, will effect everyone’s perceptions of gender and power, and that is a powerful step in the right direction toward ending the killing fields that right here, right now, continue to grow in every state and territory of the USA.
Though, I can think of few things more grotesque than the lynching of a black man -- at least twice a week I see the pretty face of a young, middleclass white woman, plastered across the TV screen because she’s either missing or has been found after a brutal rape/murder. And for every one of those, there are hundreds of women, less pretty, less wealthy, and less white, who are ignored by the major media, also rotting away in shallow graves, in blue barrels, or under the backyard bonfire pit of an ex-boyfriend, husband, acquaintance or family member. Each of these is a gender-based hate crime, a daily deluge of “lynchings” of women, who (as John Lennon said) is nigger of the world.
I almost became one of those bodies whose fragile bones may have been unearthed during the ground breaking of a construction project, or after a dog carried my dried skull in from the vacant lot as a toy. In 1974, I was 9 years old and being brutally, violently raped by my Uncle. I screamed as loudly as I could in the hopes the neighbors would hear. He silenced me by strangling me. As I went unconscious, I really believed he was killing me. I regained consciousness after the rape was over, in terrible physical pain and my future achievement potential now crippled with mental and emotional baggage. I look back and realize that it would have been so easy, to accidentally strangle me too long, or snap my fragile neck. And surely my Uncle would not have called 911. Surely he would have done everything he could to cover his crime. And regardless of whether anyone believed his story, or prosecuted, or imprisoned him; and regardless of whether my body found its way to a coffin and a proper burial, or remained under a freshly poured slab of cement in his back yard, I’d still be just as dead.
This is the daily bread of being female in America. Women travel in packs for safety and lock up their houses and cars like Fort Knox. Women are ever vigilant and even so, it is estimated that 75% of American women will be raped or otherwise physically sexually assaulted at sometime in their lives. All of this horror and I haven’t even touched on the gender bigotry of domestic violence or the sexual slavery that makes up part of the world wide sex trade.
This morning, I turned on the progressive radio station “Air America” because I wanted to hear some positive response to Obama’s speech. But I turned it on just in time to hear Lionel say he wanted someone to slap Mika Brzezinski because she interfered with his ability to enjoy listening of Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe (MSNBC). His next caller joked with him that he liked Mika because she was “hot,” he just turned the sound off when she speaks. In other words, “Shut up and be titillating; that’s all you’re good for.”
I have heard so many countless sexist things during this campaign and almost every time, no objection is raised. I expect this bigotry from the knuckle dragging Neanderthals on Fox, but the urge to vomit is so much more urgent when I hear it from so-called “progressives” on Air America. I have grown envious of people of color who can now expect outrage from all corners the moment a racist or even potentially racist statement is uttered. I do not disregard the moral tragedy that the racist statement was uttered in the first place, but I would feel so much more visible and human if I could expect that kind of group, public outrage when bigotry is voiced toward my gender. And though I am so very proud that we as a nation may actually take steps toward healing our racial divide, before we can have that “more perfect union” we have a far more prevalent and brutal present-day “ism” that is going unacknowledged, unnoticed, and un-addressed, right under our noses.Though I’m not saying I am convinced Hillary would be the better candidate (or Barack either), she has worked very hard and accomplished so much for both women’s and children’s rights at home and abroad. But to see Hillary in the White House, as President of the United States, will effect everyone’s perceptions of gender and power, and that is a powerful step in the right direction toward ending the killing fields that right here, right now, continue to grow in every state and territory of the USA.
