Musings in a Gendered World

So this post is rather late, but still, I think, worth putting up. I have been staying quiet on the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six others, and I’ve done this for one main reasons: other people are far better at articulating my thoughts than I am. Not because I’m a super awesome Psi Corps member but because my views are based on (what I see as, anyway) common sense.

So, without further ado, my thoughts, generally described by others, with some elaboration from me:

( Mental Illness: Scapegoats are fun! )

( The Rhetoric: Is it really that bad? Yes. Does the Left do it too? Nope. )

( The Rhetoric: Actually, no, we do not live in a vacuum. )

---

Words matter. What we say to one another and what high-profile figures say to millions who are afraid, who look to them to fix this country, matter. Saying this isn't politicizing a tragedy--it's pointing out how the tragedy was already politicized. And when you keep telling someone who is frightened and desperate that a particular figure is dangerous, that a particular figure is a “target,” that a particular figure is part of a movement ruining this country, don’t be surprised when someone somewhere takes you seriously.

That’s not reading between the lines. That’s doing what you’re told and encouraged to do, and it’s doing that with a gun.


Note: I’d like to say something about the lack of real gun control here in the States, and in Arizona especially, but I honestly don’t know enough about the topic to even link to something meaningful. Let’s just leave it at: if there had been a more appropriate screening process for gun ownership, or at the very least more regulation on which types of guns civilians can own, thirteen people probably wouldn't be injured and six people probably wouldn’t be dead.

How We Twist Victims’ Words - The Misogynistic Left

So I know lots of people have been posting about this lately, but in case anyone has missed anything, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is currently under investigation for rape, sexual coercion, and sexual molestation in Sweden. Most likely because of political pressure from the United States, this case is being pursued a lot more fervently than most other rape cases (which honestly says more about how little our societies care about rape cases, rather than how this one should be subject to the same lax treatment). There are even human rights issues with how he's been treated by the legal system.

In other words, it's a clusterfuck. But it's also not what I'm going to be talking about.

What's more disturbing to me, from a progressive standpoint, from a feminist standpoint, and from a woman's standpoint, is how these allegations have been treated.

Now, I'm not talking about those who call these women "honeytraps" or this whole thing a "front." I'm not even talking about those who spread the "sex by surprise" or unprotected sex/broken condom misinformation. (Ironically enough, we've crossed the political spectrum here, with Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, and Glenn Beck all taking part in the immediately-disbelieving-rape-victims narrative at one time or another, though Michael Moore especially has since, thankfully, changed his tune).

I'm talking about people who, for the sake of argument, take these allegations as true, and then deny they constitute any crime whatsoever. I don't mean random people off the street, or even Those Guys, over there on the Right. I mean Leftists. Liberals. I mean small progressive networks like Young Turks. I mean self-identified feminists like Naomi Wolf. According to these sources, because these cases of rape and sexual assault weren't as extreme as others, they’re not rape. Or, even worse, that what’s being described is simply not a crime or is even consensual sex.

Let's run through the actual allegations, shall we? And, just for the sake of argument, let's take them as true. Let's see what they actually say.

( Trigger warning for sexual assault )