Lately, you can’t turn around without hearing in the media of some new assail on women. Conservatives want to arrogate our birth control, enforce policies surrounding the abortion process, shame us, and generally remove our ability to have firm indisputable say in our reproductive choices. Oh, and no pleasure fucking.
Although I’m not completely sure where the archaic regression is stemming from, I expect it’s a culmination of quiet conspiracies amongst middle-aged to gray-haired conservative white men to “get back to the good ole days,” over the past 30 years. You know, the days when women focused on cupcakes, not futures.
I’ve always thought that if we can contain this kind of absurdity to that particular demographic, that we will ultimately prevail in the evolution of equality and fairness. After all, misogynistic white guys are a dying breed, right? They will eventually all die off from disproportionate consumption of red meat and pain pills, right? Nope. The frightening truth is that they are growing and harvesting a whole new army of chauvinistic minions, waiting hungrily to take the reins when they kick the bucket.
My ultimate, and truly bizarre realization of this came in the most unlikely of places. I was out rejoicing my partial Irish-ness on St. Patrick’s Day when it happened. A young, 23- to 25-year-old guy confidently walked up to me and pretend masturbated onto my leg, and then pretend threw it into my face. Yes, you read it correctly, and it’s appropriate to laugh … it’s that ridiculous. He made both stroking and ejaculating hand motions, full out, with conviction and facials to boot. Then he pointed to his friends, who were watching in approval, then joined them for a victory celebration.
Now typically I would have launched into a very loud and impassioned Julia from Designing Women style monologue, but no words came, due to what I can only assume was total shock. I simply stumbled over to him and asked if that had actually just happened, to which he affirmed and then shared credit for his brilliance with his friends. All I could muster in response was “Holy shit.”
Let’s be clear: I am not easily offended, nor do I take things personally on the regular. I am a young, obviously liberal of mind female who works in the banking/financial industry. I punch my card to the boys club daily. My skin may as well be laminated, so much rolls off without effect. But there are boundaries that are self-explanatory, and I’m fairly certain that publicly jizzing on a stranger is one of them. That’s bold.
It is truly terrifying to think that a whole new generation is buying into the garbage being peddled by the current ranks of right-winged He-man woman haters. Even Spanky and the other Rascals realized their wrongs and allowed girls into the club in the end. Why can’t some grown men get a clue and figure out appropriate behavior? I can only fear and dread what may be around the corner if these kinds of things continue to get a pass. Victoria’s Secret will start selling PINK chastity belts so that girls can stay pure for their future husbands, and we’ll all have to invest in stylish helmets to avoid getting clubbed and drug from the bar.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2012.
I am a white male. My take on this is that you should have thrown your drink in his face.
Silence is interpreted as agreement. It was a mistake to not confront him immediately, loudly, and publicly.
Why only “white men”? I thought the sterotypes of repression of women by their “men” were much more harsh in other races? Is it only “white men” that have the assumed power to promote their way of thinking on the younger generations through their position in media and other positions of power?
You should have kicked him in the nut sack. Oh wait, they probably haven’t dropped yet considering the inmature display of affection towards your legs.
Ha! In just three short sentences — one of which instructs a woman in a specifically female dilemma what she “should have” done — DLP pretty much proves Megan’s point regarding the epidemic of paternalistic white male misogyny.
Brian:
Please explain.
No one is trying to ban, arrogate or make less accessible birth control. Not sure what Bill Maher segment or NPR propaganda story you pulled that idea from, but it simply isn’t true.
The Obama administration with assistance from George Stephanopoulos during a January 7th GOP debate, cooked up this issue because Obama is losing likely female voters in droves, with polls showing about 6 in 10 women likely to vote against Obama. Moreover he has no signature issue to campaign on. But before I dive into that, first back to that debate in New Hampshire. Stephanopoulos asked the GOP candidates if states had the right to put a ban on birth control or right to privacy superseded that. All the candidates thought the question ridiculous and illustrated that very point. Personally I am an educated Political Scientist and I will tell you yes, Federalism allows states to do so, “but who wants to do that George?” Romney asked Stephanopoulos in regard to the odd and ridiculous question. “I can’t imagine a state that would want to do that……I would totally and completely oppose an effort to ban contraception” Romney added. (see for yourself http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2012/01/08/debate-abcs-stephanopoulos-presses-romney-contraception-ruling )
Contraception was not an issue in this campaign until that very moment. Now folks on the left are campaigning as if GOP candidates are running on the idea of banning contraception, when in reality that has not ever been the case. Governor Romney clearly demonstrates that in the aforementioned video.
Allow me to examine why this occurred. President Obama has a crisis on his hands. As I mentioned before he has no signature issue to campaign on. Obamacare is going to be found Unconstitutional in June and correctly so. The Judicial Branch has always explored the Constitutionality of legislation and when a law such as Obamacare is as blatantly unconstitutional as this one, it gets struck down (to educate yourself better on this issue see Marbury v Madison). Furthermore, the economy is still bad and perhaps getting worse, debt is ballooning to record levels, Federal spending is unsustainable, gas prices are through the roof, Guantanamo Bay is still open, we stayed in Iraq in accordance to the Bush timeline and troops are still dying in Afghanistan. He literally will have accomplished nothing in almost 4 years by the end of June. Obama needs to divert attention, he needs to scare voting blocks in order to obtain votes because he cannot raise his hand and bullet point his successes. There are none, save Bin Ladin. Hence the construction of the contraception issue and sadly intelligent people like you are falling for it.