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WHO STOLE THE GENDERGAP?
Definition:
A gendergap is the difference that women make when they vote and/or act
with their self-respect instead of complacency.
Surely you've heard of it. It happens all over the world. In America it was responsible for getting candidates elected who were sympathetic to women's civil rights. Now the polls show it has vanished.
Well with all the great stuff we have left, thanks to the Woman's Movement, we'll probably not miss it all that much. We have come so far so fast in this equality thing, they tell us, that we are now able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Let's sample some of that fruit.
Fruit #1: "... all men AND WOMEN are created equal."
YEAH! Then why are men still permitted to age but women are not? Why is it that we all seem to buy into the edict that "one should never ask a WOMAN her age?" Come to think of it, why are women, in general, so embarrassed or so ashamed to give their true age? It's 1999, damnit!
Since most women outlive most men they must have learned something from life. Some cultures, such as Native Americans, do honor older women but in most societies, wrinkles are a badge of honor for a male, a failure of magnitude for a female. Where did the perception come from that old men are wise and experienced but old women are derelicts and stupid?
Thanks to our Movement, we now have some OLDER women to look up to who have made their mark on the world -- Attorney General, Janice Reno, and Secretary of State, Madeline Allbright, for example. Note how these women and others are pictured and described by a media (that assaults our senses daily in one form or another) and compare it with how comparable males are treated.
Cartoonists can and do depict all their subjects in a humbling fashion, but recently one political cartoonist drew Reno and made fun of her tremors. We have never seen a male's physical illness demonstrated in this fashion.
Sure, men are criticized too, but not to the same extent. One can compare the present treatment of these women to those of males such as Hitler or other nasties, but not to the rank and file male politician or cabinet officer.
This is backlash because these two women daily demonstrate their equality. And this backlash is vicious and bites all of us in the ass. WHERE IS OUR OUTRAGE? Come to think of it, WHERE IS OUR SHAME? We encourage women to break the barriers for all of us and then we hang them out to dry.
Recently, our letters and phone calls of protest made General Mills sit up and salute. Now some of the women on the World Champion Soccer Team will be on Wheaties boxes. Did we do this only because they are young and vibrant? Are the accomplishments of older women of no import to us?
Fruit #2: Sexual liberation! TA DA!
A girl or woman who thinks she has gained sexual equality is in for trouble. In her book, Slut! Growing Up Female With A Bad Reputation , Leora Tanenbaum reminds us that a girl "playing the field" may be called a slut, ho, skank or any of a dozen other nasty words, but her old boyfriend will go onto the next girl without the slightest criticism.
She writes, "Some of the rules have changed, but the playing field is startlingly similar to that of the 1950s," so an adventurous girl may easily overstep the bounds and get labeled ho has never once gone "all the way."
Teenagers: An American History by Grace Palladino makes the point that, "Twenty years ago, there was a distinction between good girls and bad girls. Now I think all girls are susceptible. You can be the straightest girl in school, play an instrument in the band and go home and still be called a bad girl."
It is STILL the boys that get the bragging rights and everyone holds women more accountable for their behavior than men.
Nan Stien, Senior Research Scientist at Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, points out that "the kids are just mimicking the adults," and tells parents to speak up when they hear their children trashing girls or women in casual conversation.
Tanenbaum insists that the responsibility for changing attitudes and behavior should be on adults - parents, teach- ers siblings. "If you're standing in line at the grocery store and see some woman in a spandex holding up the line, don't say, `That bimbo!'
"Don't talk about Clinton having a weakness and Monica Lewinsky being a tramp. If she is a tramp, he is a tramp, and if he has a weakness, she has a weakness."
Is it significant that this double standard persists? You bet it is. Tanenbaum's case studies show that a reputation acquired in adolescence can damage a young woman's self-esteem for years, no matter how smart or talented she is. She can be targeted for rape and sexual harassment. She may eschew her sexuality or become promiscuous.
Double standard or double cross? Whatever. It is bitter fruit and IT IS ALL OURS.
Fruit #3: Politics.
We got it together.
We showed our power by electing women into public office and claiming
our right to freedom of choice. But, we've fallen back to rest on
our laurels when we should 
have
noticed that our former allies,
Labor and Blacks, have ceased to align with a major political party as
completely as they did in the past. Now they are organizing to run
their OWN candidates -- and taking their wimmin folk with them.
Interesting, isn't it that Blacks and Labor are the two groups that have a NATIONAL HOLIDAY -- and we still don't?
Nobody stole the gendergap. Women traded it in for the cushy comfort of conformity. And as if that weren't enough, we've laid our civil rights and our bodies on a governmental auction block, to boot.
Twanda@ConnRiver.net IMPORTANT NOTE
1999-038
Copyright 1999 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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Note from Twanda:
The New Silent Holy War
(TJWalker.Com) -- New York City -- September 14 -- A silent Holy War is being fought in the House Judiciary Committee today and it is getting all the attention of an appropriations bill allocating an extra $5 for a "Just Say No" bumper sticker. The House is considering something called the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act."
Sounds noble, doesn't it? Pass the apple pie?
This bill would alter the Federal criminal code by giving new "rights" to fetuses in the event of harm coming their way. If a woman is so much as five minutes pregnant, any one or anything that harms her could now be charged with attacking or killing two people instead of one.
Of course, proponents of the bill are shocked, absolutely shocked, that anyone would construe their "tough on crime" measure as a way of eventually outlawing abortion. In fact, they've even covered their tracks to the point of spelling out legislatively that this bill would not cover abortions. But make no mistake about it, declaring human "rights" to fetuses has long been the number one objective of those who wish to make all abortion a hanging offense.
A slippery slope? Nonsense, this is a greased pathway to the gas chamber for any raped, abused, or independent woman who would rather have a child on her own schedule than according to the dictates of a theocracy...
To read the rest of this column go to http://www.tjwalker.com/9-14-99.htm
Sept 14 To learn what you can do to fight this bill, please watch TJTV at http://www.tjwalker.com/tv.ram