Comments on: What Feminist Movement? http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/ Exposing the ugly truths about the Bush Administration. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:53:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1.3 by: Pandagon :: Abortion by Chanel :: December :: 2007 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-509813 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:34:15 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-509813 [...] Reading Anne Applebaum’s standard issue “the pointy-headed, white, liberal, middle class, self-absorbe feminists don’t care about women in the Middle East” routine a few days ago juxtaposed with a recent Bitch magazine article about the resurgence of the Jewish American Princess stereotype got my mind moving, but ever so slowly because it only occurred to me today what’s largely going on here with this particular feminist scapegoating. You know how the right has transformed a lot of anti-semitic stereotypes onto the more diffuse category “liberals”, because it’s both bad news to be openly anti-semitic nowadays (though more openly anti-black or anti-Muslim is still okay, apparently) and because these stereotypes were just too juicy to give up completely? Now we don’t have as much talk about Hollywood Jews, but there’s still plenty of crap you’ll hear about the Hollywood liberal set. The War On Christmas nonsense is about transferring a traditional slur against Jews onto this vague group called “secularists”. And it occurred to me that the favorite right wing myth about how feminists are supposedly all overprivileged spoiled brats is an update to the Jewish American Princess stereotype. Replace Prada, Chanel, and Lexus with reproductive rights, equality in the workplace, and anti-rape activism, and you have the 21st century version of an old slur. You don’t hear the words “boutique cause” attached to feminism for just random reasons. The baffling amount of “Sex and the City” references in right wing screeds against feminism is no accident, either. [...] […] Reading Anne Applebaum’s standard issue “the pointy-headed, white, liberal, middle class, self-absorbe feminists don’t care about women in the Middle East” routine a few days ago juxtaposed with a recent Bitch magazine article about the resurgence of the Jewish American Princess stereotype got my mind moving, but ever so slowly because it only occurred to me today what’s largely going on here with this particular feminist scapegoating. You know how the right has transformed a lot of anti-semitic stereotypes onto the more diffuse category “liberals”, because it’s both bad news to be openly anti-semitic nowadays (though more openly anti-black or anti-Muslim is still okay, apparently) and because these stereotypes were just too juicy to give up completely? Now we don’t have as much talk about Hollywood Jews, but there’s still plenty of crap you’ll hear about the Hollywood liberal set. The War On Christmas nonsense is about transferring a traditional slur against Jews onto this vague group called “secularists”. And it occurred to me that the favorite right wing myth about how feminists are supposedly all overprivileged spoiled brats is an update to the Jewish American Princess stereotype. Replace Prada, Chanel, and Lexus with reproductive rights, equality in the workplace, and anti-rape activism, and you have the 21st century version of an old slur. You don’t hear the words “boutique cause” attached to feminism for just random reasons. The baffling amount of “Sex and the City” references in right wing screeds against feminism is no accident, either. […]

]]> by: gigi http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-492174 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:34:42 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-492174 It seems Ms Newmark's filtration device is in tact. She seized on three issues on the NOW website- car insurance, the morning after pill, and the math and science issue. To begin with, two of the three supposedly bogus issues have very significant implications for women. The lack of availability of the morning after pill can have genuinely tragic consequences. Personally, I would prefer to see women boycott Wal-Mart altogether given their trackrecord of underpaying and not insuring their predominately female labor force;however, since Wal-Mart has a monopoly in many rural areas, women living in those areas don't have the option of boycotting Wal-Mart. The lack of women pursuing science has far too many ramifications to detail here, but considering that jobs in the sciences tend to pay better than many other jobs (in an economy furiously outsourcing good jobs), access to such jobs for today's women is no minor matter; if 51 % of "marriage age women" are now unmarried , it is essential that these women be financially self sufficient. As for some of the other topics on NOW's web site- fair pay, universal health care, economic justice for care givers- these are issues ostentatiously absent from the allegedly family friendly right. If so many women weren't bogged down struggling to single handedly raise families on low wage, low or no benefit jobs, we might actually have the time and energy to pine for those glory days of real discrimination to which Newmark refers. It seems Ms Newmark’s filtration device is in tact. She seized on three issues on the NOW website- car insurance, the morning after pill, and the math and science issue. To begin with, two of the three supposedly bogus issues have very significant implications for women. The lack of availability of the morning after pill can have genuinely tragic consequences. Personally, I would prefer to see women boycott Wal-Mart altogether given their trackrecord of underpaying and not insuring their predominately female labor force;however, since Wal-Mart has a monopoly in many rural areas, women living in those areas don’t have the option of boycotting Wal-Mart. The lack of women pursuing science has far too many ramifications to detail here, but considering that jobs in the sciences tend to pay better than many other jobs (in an economy furiously outsourcing good jobs), access to such jobs for today’s women is no minor matter; if 51 % of “marriage age women” are now unmarried , it is essential that these women be financially self sufficient. As for some of the other topics on NOW’s web site- fair pay, universal health care, economic justice for care givers- these are issues ostentatiously absent from the allegedly family friendly right. If so many women weren’t bogged down struggling to single handedly raise families on low wage, low or no benefit jobs, we might actually have the time and energy to pine for those glory days of real discrimination to which Newmark refers.

]]> by: biggerbox http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-491046 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:07:10 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-491046 It fascinates me how, every so often, after years of tuning out liberal complaints and critiques, something will cause a Rightie to notice something heinous in the world, and complain because the left hasn't protested it. For those of us who've been paying attention, the dark side of Saudi Arabia is old news, and the recent story is the latest of many. The right wing has proven its ability to ignore all the previous ones, now we're supposed to accept criticism for not howling loud enough, or from the mouths they choose, over this one? And since she raised the question, just where was Anne Applebaum politically during the era of apartheid? It fascinates me how, every so often, after years of tuning out liberal complaints and critiques, something will cause a Rightie to notice something heinous in the world, and complain because the left hasn’t protested it.

For those of us who’ve been paying attention, the dark side of Saudi Arabia is old news, and the recent story is the latest of many. The right wing has proven its ability to ignore all the previous ones, now we’re supposed to accept criticism for not howling loud enough, or from the mouths they choose, over this one?

And since she raised the question, just where was Anne Applebaum politically during the era of apartheid?

]]> by: joanr16 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490513 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:54:48 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490513 Swami, thanks for clearing up some of my confusion. I'd say the problem is in the reporting of the story (especially if we're getting clarity from "20/20"). Unfortunately, it appears the key to the entire incident rests in the missing "rape kit" evidence. Another piece of the story that I originally heard (as reported in diaries on Daily Kos) was that the doctor who confirmed the assaults then <i>surrendered the evidence to KBR.</i> A gynecologist from the U.S. commented on one of the dKos diaries that no respectable doctor would ever, ever turn over such evidence to anyone but law enforcement-- and certainly not to an entity with ties to the alleged perpetrators. Actually, the good news is that the story <i>is</i> on page 3. The bad news is the Mitchell Report on steroid abuse is on page 1 right now. I seem to remember a Bible verse about straining at gnats while ignoring the friggin' camels. Well, it goes something like that, anyway. Swami, thanks for clearing up some of my confusion. I’d say the problem is in the reporting of the story (especially if we’re getting clarity from “20/20″).

Unfortunately, it appears the key to the entire incident rests in the missing “rape kit” evidence. Another piece of the story that I originally heard (as reported in diaries on Daily Kos) was that the doctor who confirmed the assaults then surrendered the evidence to KBR. A gynecologist from the U.S. commented on one of the dKos diaries that no respectable doctor would ever, ever turn over such evidence to anyone but law enforcement– and certainly not to an entity with ties to the alleged perpetrators.

Actually, the good news is that the story is on page 3. The bad news is the Mitchell Report on steroid abuse is on page 1 right now. I seem to remember a Bible verse about straining at gnats while ignoring the friggin’ camels. Well, it goes something like that, anyway.

]]> by: Swami http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490299 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:16:47 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490299 Joanr16.. I watched her story on 20/20 and part of the discrepancy between the trailer and the shipping container is that shipping containers were modified into living quarters that had their own toilet facilities.. much like a trailer, so it could be lingo that adds to the confusion. The story also pointed out that she lived in a barracks type setting( co-ed) prior to her supposed ordeal. She mentioned an atmosphere of laxity in her original quarters where it wasn't uncommon to view men in their underwear like what would be expected from an all male barracks setting. She was segregated for her protection to a compound containing the shipping containers( conex boxes) after her ordeal. She also claimed that someone slipped her a mickey, and she only knew of the rape through the process of deduction from physical indications the following day. Joanr16.. I watched her story on 20/20 and part of the discrepancy between the trailer and the shipping container is that shipping containers were modified into living quarters that had their own toilet facilities.. much like a trailer, so it could be lingo that adds to the confusion. The story also pointed out that she lived in a barracks type setting( co-ed) prior to her supposed ordeal. She mentioned an atmosphere of laxity in her original quarters where it wasn’t uncommon to view men in their underwear like what would be expected from an all male barracks setting.
She was segregated for her protection to a compound containing the shipping containers( conex boxes) after her ordeal. She also claimed that someone slipped her a mickey, and she only knew of the rape through the process of deduction from physical indications the following day.

]]> by: Doug Hughes http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490232 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:53:15 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-490232 http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3977702 "A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. Halliburton/KBR Employees: Company Covered Up Sex Assault and Harassment Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job. "Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told. In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp. ...." The woman was freed from the container by US Embasy guards who were dispached at the behest of the womans Congrssman from Texas, after her father was called to resuce the woman. Now I am not going to defend the barbaric treatment of women in Islamic countries. I support efforts to change the attitudes through education and modifications in the interpretation of the Koran. But there is an issue of jurisciction. We have military fighting and dying there, but that does not mean we can impose the laws of Omaha, Nebraska in Baghdad. Frankly, I am a lot more worried that Americans - civilians without the excuse of combat-induced stress - would drug imprison and gang rape a woman. And sadly, I am not even surprised that the administration has stonewalled on the 'investigation' for 2 years, even to a US Congressman who was instrumental in getting the woman freed. And the story is getting page 3 coverage. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3977702

“A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Halliburton/KBR Employees: Company Covered Up Sex Assault and Harassment

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.

“Don’t plan on working back in Iraq. There won’t be a position here, and there won’t be a position in Houston,” Jones says she was told.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp. ….”

The woman was freed from the container by US Embasy guards who were dispached at the behest of the womans Congrssman from Texas, after her father was called to resuce the woman.

Now I am not going to defend the barbaric treatment of women in Islamic countries. I support efforts to change the attitudes through education and modifications in the interpretation of the Koran. But there is an issue of jurisciction. We have military fighting and dying there, but that does not mean we can impose the laws of Omaha, Nebraska in Baghdad.

Frankly, I am a lot more worried that Americans - civilians without the excuse of combat-induced stress - would drug imprison and gang rape a woman. And sadly, I am not even surprised that the administration has stonewalled on the ‘investigation’ for 2 years, even to a US Congressman who was instrumental in getting the woman freed.

And the story is getting page 3 coverage.

]]> by: joanr16 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-489941 Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:33:32 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-489941 Like most righties, Mss. Applebaum and Newmark are stuck in the past-- in their case, approximately 1979. One dead giveaway is the Farrah-haired airheadedness of their leap from "Saudi woman is sentenced to 200 lashes for being gang-raped" to "American feminists are worthless." Put the bong away now, please. Now for some unpleasant business. I'm going to go way out on a limb and ask out loud: Is anyone besides me starting to notice some discrepancies in Jamie Leigh Jones's story? Perhaps the discrepancies are in the reporting; first I read that her attackers kept her in restraints in a shipping container after the attack, but now I'm reading that a female HR person detained her "incommunicado" in a trailer. Also I've read that she has written, or is writing, a screenplay about her ordeal, which isn't any kind of PTSD therapy I've ever heard of. I ask these questions now because I'm hoping the trusted mahablog regulars can shoot them down... as we all know, the righties will be shouting them from the rooftops. Also I ask them because one well-publicized false rape accusation causes the next ten thousand genuine rape victims to be disbelieved. Like most righties, Mss. Applebaum and Newmark are stuck in the past– in their case, approximately 1979. One dead giveaway is the Farrah-haired airheadedness of their leap from “Saudi woman is sentenced to 200 lashes for being gang-raped” to “American feminists are worthless.” Put the bong away now, please.

Now for some unpleasant business. I’m going to go way out on a limb and ask out loud: Is anyone besides me starting to notice some discrepancies in Jamie Leigh Jones’s story? Perhaps the discrepancies are in the reporting; first I read that her attackers kept her in restraints in a shipping container after the attack, but now I’m reading that a female HR person detained her “incommunicado” in a trailer. Also I’ve read that she has written, or is writing, a screenplay about her ordeal, which isn’t any kind of PTSD therapy I’ve ever heard of.

I ask these questions now because I’m hoping the trusted mahablog regulars can shoot them down… as we all know, the righties will be shouting them from the rooftops. Also I ask them because one well-publicized false rape accusation causes the next ten thousand genuine rape victims to be disbelieved.

]]> by: Elaine Vigneault http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-489930 Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:25:00 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/12/18/what-feminist-movement/#comment-489930 I love how they seem to think it's better for them to criticize us than for them to criticize Saudi Arabia themselves. I love how they seem to think it’s better for them to criticize us than for them to criticize Saudi Arabia themselves.

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