A View from A Broad

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So let me get this straight...
So...if you're a religious person, what you do when you don't get your way is to kick your heels and scream till you get it? And then you whine and bitch and say anything at all that will get you your way?

You know, that sounds like the way Tedious Girl would have temper tantrums when she was told she couldn't have her way. It's bad in a twenty-seven-year-old woman. It's pretty unforgiveable when it's a bunch of old white guys. And I know what I do when I see somebody having a temper tantrum, whether it's Bill Frist---is he a scary-looking fuck or what?----or a troll: it automatically kills any chance they have of getting what they want.

Especially in this, where they're making unforgiveable threats and demands. "We want our religious nutjob judges confirmed! You anti-people-of-faith assholes! We want our rights to stomp all over you! ~~You just hate us because we have penises!~~"

Don't anybody talk to me about how politics is a dirty business. This isn't merely dirty; this is disgusting. It's like child porn. It's indecent. It's worse than indecent: it's like child porn posing as medical literature, something deceitful and disgusting that hurts people, posing as help. I can't recall ever having been this disgusted.

If you support these people, then you support this tactic. If it doesn't matter to you, it should. What's the worst thing of all? Aside from the tantrum, aside from the threats, it's the faux concerned attitude of it all. They'd love it if we bought it that it was for our own good. They want to gut the Constitution and dismantle the wall between Church and State.

This is dishonorable. This has to stop.

Statistics, damned statistics
Over the weekend I stumbled over a commenter at Alas, who claimed that women snickered at him when he declared that men and women, statistically speaking, were equal victims of violence. When I confronted him over that, he cited a bunch of material, none of which he linked to, and all of which had deceptively impressive titles. I dismissed the Alan Dershowitz article out of hand because he's written unreliably on the subject before. He cited three or four Strauss/Gelles articles, and a couple pieces by a writer named Armin Brott, in the Wapost. Strauss and Gelles were the writers who wrote the study The Violent Home, which MRAs like to cite because it says that fifty percent of the violence in marrriage is directed at men, etc., etc., Problem is, they also said that women were seven times as likely to be defending themselves against that violent man.

This is interesting, because it's not enough when some MRA cites a report. You have to ask the source and the date. Given that Gelles and Strauss have disavowed any useage of their material to 'prove' the fifty/fifty interpretation--and have done so numerous times publicly----I dimissed those pieces as well. Already read them and read the follow up that took MRAs to task. Did this guy think I was stupid?

The pieces by Armin Brott were fairly typical. It used unsourced anecdotes, and the article itself---which was published in 1994-----was expanded and published in Penthouse the very same magazine that published Warren Farrell's endorsement of incest in 1987. It referred to a 'recent justice study' which depicted the same fifty/fifty split.

Unfortunately for my debating partner, that piece featured an awful coincidence.

But some attempts are being made to help abused men. Last week, in St. Paul, Minn., George Gilliland Sr., director of the Domestic Rights Coalition, opened the first shelter for battered men in the United States. Gilliland, who says his wife hit him with a board with a nail in it, missing his eye by a fraction of an inch, attributes part of the delay to efforts by battered women's groups and other women's organizations to block the project.

In San Luis Obispo, Calif., David Gross is organizing the Allen Wells Memorial Fund for Battered Husbands. Wells was a battered man who could find no help and committed suicide after losing his children to his wife in a custody battle.

It's the 'lost custody' bit that makes me suspicious, along with the fact that there's no cites and this writer only appears interested in accepting uncritically everything he gets told by men. Too many abusive men use threats of suicide to try and make the wife feel bad and too many abusers aren't content to merely kill themselves, either. Often they feel the need to kill the kids so the wife has to suffer. "Look what you made me do!" is what they often say. Funny, the wife with all that power can't make him stop beating her or be a good husband. I guess she can't 'make' him do much at all, then.

See the location in the other cited paragraph? Yes, that's right. St. Paul. Where I live right now. This guy formed the battered men's house, despite---at the time---being the subject of no less than five restraining orders himself, taken out by a variety of people, including his kids and his wife. He has a documented history of wife-and child-beating. Funny how that little fact didn't make it into the article, isn't it? The claim that women's organizations blocked it leaves out the rather crucial information that perhaps a batterer is not the best person to handle battery victims.

Amp goes on to make a very good ponit. The 1989 study that MRAs love to study does indeed show higher rates of homicide for women than for men. What it also shows is that these homicides were committed in urban areas, amongst the black population, and that there were more inclusive--and more recent studies---which studied a wider sample of the population and found much lower rates of female offenders. What they also found was something interesting: As shelters for women become more common, the rate of homicide directed at abusive men goes down. That fact was avaiable to this writer, too. Why didn't he cite it? The study also notes that murder rate for white girlfriends is higher than that for white wives? Why? Maybe because the girlfriend has more ability to flee than the wife does. It's significant, too, that the study cites 'no-fault' divorce as restributing power from the partner who wants to remain in the marriage to the partner who wnats to leave.

The next time you see an MRA or an FRA cite a study, check the fine print to make sure they're not citing a study from the late Eighties. There's more recent research available. Tell them about it. Watch them fume. It's fun.

Dear America:
Dear America:

This is to inform you that the much-dreaded Liberal Feminist Conspiracy has taken over. Not that you wouldn't have noticed, because there will be some changes made around here.

The ERA will at long last be passed.

Clothing sizes will now be: small boned, small, normal, and not that there's anything wrong with that.

Birth control will be free. Pharmacists who refuse to distribute birth control will be fired and laughed at, plus then we get to tell them that our values prevent them from harming other people without consequences. Consequences to be determined later, when I'm drunk.

Abstinence only will become: when you're ready and when he or she is cute enough that you really want to see him/her naked.

Casual day, every day.

Flex time. On site daycare. Day care workers will be paid starting salaries of 50K per annum, and get tax deductions for continuing education.

Foot ball players will get hourly salaries.

Abortion will be legal, but given that condoms will be free and discussed, the abortion rate will go down.

Tax breaks will be given for people who adopt.

Male figure skaters will either start wearing more revealing outfits or everybody will dress the same---like an athlete already.

Ann Coulter will finally have to answer my questions, which I will draw up later while drunk.

Gay marriage will be legitimized. You'd think that the marriage industry would be delighted--stupid buggers. Gay adoption will be legalized everywhere, too.

Cops will be issued tranquilizer guns along with pistols.

The Democratic party will go back to being the party of the little woman, while the Republicans will go back to being States' Rights and non-interference in private lives. The religious nutjobs will have their own party called: the Religious Nutjobs Party.

In every courthouse in the country, they will display plaques that display not the Ten Commandments, but the U.S. Constitution. Just as a hint, you know.

If we have to consider the Wonderbra, the guys need to try out the Wonderjock for a while, too.

Rape will be classified as a hate crime. Unless the offender really understands what he did that was so awful, he won't be released. None of that, "I'm sorry if you feel that way" crap, either.

Prisons will come with mandatory therapy, for the people who actually can be rehabilitated. Employers will get tax breaks for hiring ex cons.

We will spend more money on schools because we'll need to spend less money on prison.

Teachers' salaries will start out at 100K per year.

People who adopt pets from shelters will get big huge tax breaks.

Half of Congress, the police force, the military, and the judiciary will be female, of various political mixes.

Welfare will enable women to raise their children in a healthy manner in nice neighborhoods while they get real job training and education.

Men who beat their wives will be arrested on the first try. When women get attacked, a 'reasonable woman standard' will be employed to weigh her options, especially if she defended herself. A large difference in body size will lead to an enhanced sentence for the attacker.

"Boys will be Boys" will never again work as an excuse.

Boys will get raised more like girls and girls will get raised more like boys. Whichever parent wants to stay home with the kid will be able to do so, and will get tax deductions.

I get to interrogate Rush Limbaugh and violate the Geneve Convention.

Full frontal male nudity in films will be just as common as female nudity. FAir is fair.

Anybody who uses the word 'feminazi' will be sentenced to tour Auschwitz. At their own expense.

Just for the hell of it, if you use the word 'he' as the default, now you'll have to use the word 'she' and see how included your ass feels.

Same thing with womankind.

Just for the hell of it, we get to change the standards so that they're set by women for women. Instead of valueing and measuring upper body strength, we'll focus on the lower body.

Mother's Day will be a paid holiday off. Okay, so will Father's day, but you better be doing half the housework. Without being reminded.

And another version
This is another version, shorter but more like that letter model I saw.

Dear America:

Hi, this is the Secret Feminist Conspiracy that you secretly believes rules everything. Well, seeing as how we're everywhere and control everything---yet somehow do not have enough power to give Ann Coulter a cholesterol IV----we've injected tranquilizers into the water supply instead. Now that everyone is feeling really mellow we've decided to take over because we've just seen too damned many movies with Harvey Keitel naked, and that is just a crime against humanity.

Effective immediately:

1. Knock it off with the freaky religious stuff. From now on, you all can only call yourself Godly if you work with the poor, help people out and STFU about who other people are fucking ----especially if you're jealous it's not you. Yes, we can tell.

2. ~~Somebody needs to clone Gerard Butler.~~ Sigh. Can we have sexy guys in the movies with romance and stuff? Lots of kissing would be nice. This principle also works in real life. Also? More lesbian and gay movies that don't feature them as special interest groups. It's just nice. I'm sick of movies about the Cute White Universe. How about old, fat, gay and witty? I want an Oscar Wilde channel! We need a Witty Gay Guy History Channel. Fuck this Lifetime shit.

3. If you get to call us 'hairy-legged' we get to call you 'hairy-backed' and 'hairy-palmed.' Think about how your coworkers will snigger at that, Wolfboy.

4. Men need to go back to wearing interesting clothes. Come on, you know you want to. Tight pants and boots. Think Lord Byron. In return, we'll think about something similar. Everybody wins this way. Also, think about longer hair.

5. It wouldn't hurt you to do a few situps. We do 'em, let's talk.

6. Boys should take Homec. Girls should take shop. Then they switch.

7. How about pertty clothes for women who aren't stick insects? Everybody wants to buy them, the economy will soar, and everybody will be happy.

8. "Eat a sandwich" will be the new catchphrase. Mary Kate and Ashley, I'm looking at you.

9. Ann Coulter will get the job she deserves: working in the collection department for the federal budget, badgering money out of Ken Lay and all the rest. Want a war? Put it on layway like the rest of us poor bastards.

10. Porn will feature actual plots and romantic tension. Or sexiness, whatever. Also? Ralph Fiennes should do some. There will also be really good costumes.

11. We're going to tax homophobes and sexists. Sure, you can say whatever you want. However, you still need to pay a tax.

12. From now on, if you debate, you must have a reasonable facsimile of a cite. If you call somebody a 'feminazi' therefore, you must provide photos of the resultant death camps.

13. Use the word 'she' instead of 'he' all the time. See how that feels. Also? Try using the word 'enclosure' instead of 'penetration' and see how that rocks your world. Try 'womankind' instead of mankind. Cope. God knows, we have.

14. Loud car stereos will be outlawed and offenders will get their stereo confiscated. Then they will have to bag up all the leaves in my yard as punishment.

15. Abstinence only will become the fate of repressive twits.

16. Divorce will become easier to do. Marriage will be harder to do and will require classes. Britney? Let me introduce you to Ted and Al, who've been together seventeen years. Please take notes.

17. For a few years, you get to deal with having 520 female members of Congress deciding your fate and see how you like it.

18. School teachers will get combat pay.

19. Nice guys will no longer be able to self-identify. There will be standardized tests.

20. Movies with violence in them will get severe ratings. Movies with sex in them that's not sexist or harmful get mature ratings that might give kids the right idea.

21. Could we have some movies about heroic females for a change? And could they have flaws, opinions, and bad habits? Also, could they be non-white, non-anorexic, and non-mother? Think any of those Sixties anti-hero movies with women.

22. Pet adoption will be federally-subsidized. There will be tax breaks for spaying and neutering feral animals.

23. Birth control with be federally-subsidized. So will pads and tampons.

21. Sexism will be punished by having the offender videotaped---after a long hot bath--trying to pull on Lite Support Pantyhose with Lycra that's a size too small.

22. Creative sentencing will be the rule, not the exception.

23. For a couple of years, women will be able to do whatever non-criminal things men have always gotten away with.

24. Then we'll have a big huge slumber party to discuss it.

25. Everyone will hug.

26. Except for me, because I'm not a hugger.