 |
 |
 |
WOMEN SCORNED
Despite the rancorous remarks of fem-iconoclast Paglia, we say that when women, moms or not, express themselves THEY ARE PEOPLE THAT OUR POLITICIANS SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO. ["The Million Mom March: What a crock! National policy shouldn't be set by packs of weeping white women led by Rosie O'Donnell."]
http://www.salon.com/people/col/pagl/2000/05/17/cpmillionmom
Paglia
really shows a diminished frontal lobe capacity by proclaiming that SHE
GETS TURNED ON when she views the Republican presidential candidate,
"literally swaggering, hands dangling like a gunslinger..."
Her description is right on the mark. However, it is more descriptive of a GORILLA than a gunslinger which is O.K. since it appears she measures presidential material by its "animal vitality".
She also demonstrates that she is on the same page as most of the media's reporters when she describes the Democratic presidential candidate as "effete, pretentious, mealy-mouthed candy man on the licorice umbilical from feminazi Big Mamas." Notice how she includes all of us BIG, STRONG, COMPETENT WOMEN in her condemnation of Al Gore.
Like all the hate radio callers and many of the hosts, she blames the whole MMomM happening on Hillary Clinton. "...the gun-control protest organized ...by the sister-in-law of Hillary Clinton's longtime lawyer pal and hatchet woman, surly Susan Thomases..." But mark how she leaves out the Internet and all of us Web-dwelling-women who are finally finding a way to communicate and bond so that we may muster a force large enough to be NOTICED BY THE MEDIA.
From one side of her mouth she claims that everyone should believe that the sister-in-law of a lawyer friend of Hillary Clinton can direct THE MINDS of over a million women in the United States to demand more stringent gun control. Out of the other side, she applauds the RIGHTNESS of polls showing that most women, like her, judge a man fit to be president who swaggers apelike with dangling arms.
Her opinion of our gender (which includes her) is pretty dismal. Sort of reminded us of the novels by John Norman about the planet Gor, "where men are men and women are slaves" (his novels are making a comeback as part of the ongoing anti-woman backlash. Excerpts from Julia Gracen's review in Salon Magazine 5/18/00.
"In Gor's violent, low-tech society, men are Men and women are slaves. This, the novels say -- and say and say and say again -- is the proper and rightful state of things because it is in consistent with the true evolved nature of the sexes. "
"A major theme running through the Gor novels, and often echoed in Gor fandom, is that the free women secretly long to be owned by dominant and powerful men. "Slavery, of course, is the surest path by means of which a woman can discover her femininity," the author observes in Magicians of Gor. "The paradox of the (slave) collar is the freedom which a woman experiences in at last finding herself, and becoming herself."
Well make no mistake
about it, we women ARE slaves wearing a collar if we do not use our minds
and make our voices heard. Sure, there
will be criticism and much of it will be harsh, but that should not mean
that we renounce our political goals, break off our Internet 
contacts
and turn off our computers.
What it does mean is that when we form a critical mass, as did the MMomM last week in Washington, D.C. and in cities all over the country, we are noticed. Politicians and media pundits may scorn us, but THEY ARE PAYING ATTENTION.
Especially the National Rifle Association (NRA). Shaking his rifle at us from the T.V. screen, NRA's big gun demeaned and belittled the Mother's March. The overall message from the convention was: NRA matters; women do not.
We were also informed that if Bush is elected president, "the NRA will be working out of the Oval Office." Oh, oh! Was that a Freudian slip, with that "gunslinger" bit, Paglia?
Sisters and supportive brothers of America! If it is true that, "Hell has no fury like a woman scorned," NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE IT SO.
2000-021
Copyright 2000 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@gendergappers.org.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
|
|
|