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- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
ENGLAND SWINGS, RUMMY WALKS
 It
is difficult these days to tell just where the primary war zone is. The
Iraq war just goes on and on and seems to be ignored by the administration
and its media because its attention is fixated on the immediate war of
election politics.
Far from being gentlemen combatants squaring off with honest rules of engagement like the Queensbury Rules in boxing, this war is fraught through and through with the typical religious values that are so predominant in world history -- "do it unto others before they do it unto you." These values permit, even encourage, eye gouging, lying and excessive emissions of testosterone. The Repugs are in their usual grove of promoting fear and smearing mud on their opponents. The Dems once again are slow to understand they are in a fight for their life and that anything goes. Now begins the Repug convention and it will feature Bush on a pedestal high above the crowd in the round. He is aiming for the image, we suspect, of son of god. This image will appeal to the Fundies. Others of us will hope for a different image to manifest along the lines of God throwing a thunderbolt at the pretender. Yes politics is war and it will get rougher and rougher as November nears. Many things stand out in these battles but one is especially discouraging to endure during this week of August 26 when we commemorate women's huge step toward equality. That is the derogatory epithets used which are spit out by politicians to disparage their male adversary by assigning female attributes because a woman is about as vile as one can get. Listen for them. Here are some of their favorites.
Listen to how the media giggles and delights in repeating these words and others on their list of slanderous female appellations. Why do men disparage their adversaries this way? The answer is in the war climate we live in. For examples, since there are no top tier women really involved in the political war, we turn to those that have been "newsworthy" in the continuing Iraq war. And what stands out as models of the way of women in war? The government's false portrayal of Private Jessica Lynch as "a damsel in distress" comes to mind. Never mind that it was fabrication, it served their interests to show the weakness of women troops. Their lies also falsely showed Iraqi hospital workers to be cruel and vindictive when they really did everything possible to help Private Lynch. We know that there are many women troops and that they are doing their duty along side the men in their units but they are seldom if ever mentioned. But, remember Abu Ghraib? These women have captured the attention of the media. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended by the Pentagon in May, has denied knowing about any mistreatment prisoners until photographs surfaced at the end of April. How the press rushed to blame her yet it turned out she was ordered to stay away and not allowed to do her job of supervising interrogations. Once that was known, the press lost interest. But it responded with alacrity as it lustfully printed the torture pictures from Abu Ghurayb. It pretended to be shocked and astounded, demanding the court-martial of Pfc. Lynndie England. She was photographed smiling and giving the thumbs-up sign in the presence of naked, hooded detainees as well as in several other suggestive poses. She was their main focus although there were others [males] present in the pictures. We forgot! There is a top tier women involved in the political war. Her job was to stay informed on terrorism. She didn't, and shares responsibility with Bush for the havoc of 9/11. Condi Rice, National Security Advisor still has her job while the women of Iraq face trial and demotion. No, Lynndie England won't actually swing. She'll not be hung but will serve time in the stockade for following orders. And despite his many miss-steps as Secretary of Defense, Rummy will walk free until Kerry boots his ass out of office and hopefully into a detention cell in GitMo. Meanwhile we can always rely on stories like this one to smack us in the gut with knowledge of how little women have progressed in their war against inequality. http://www.local6.com/news/3682551/detail.html 2004-035 Copyright 2004 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@sover.net. |
