Sunday, February 19, 2012

From Celebrities To Candidates, Attitudes Towards Women Appalling

Damn those women. They should learn how to take a beating and keep their mouths shut.

Let's look at a short list that sums up a huge problem. Most recently, as I highlighted earlier on Zandar Versus The Stupid, Hugh Hefner showed zero concern for the Playmate his son was accused of beating up this week. TMZ said he allegedly kicked her in the stomach, punched her and refused to allow her to leave the premises (what those silly police people call false imprisonment). Instead, Hugh gave his trademark rich man smirk and said they would patch it up if they wanted. So now we know, among the wealthy cigar-chomping brandy sipping set, it's still acceptable to hit a woman, and use physical strength or brute force if they wish.

Now we have Terrance Howard saying he can't get work because his wife just won't shut up about his hitting her, chipping her tooth with his wedding ring, and going so far as to threaten to throw her off a balcony. Silly woman, she should just take her smack and go away, right? Though he denies it (of course) there is that pesky first episode with his first wife Lori McCommas to give weight to her story. For those who don't remember, he told her to "not disrespect him by hanging up the phone or he would come hurt her." She promptly hung up and called 911, afraid for her safety. She was right to be scared, while on the phone he beat her door down and punched her in the face twice. I guess that will teach her to disobey a direct order, right?

Hang up a phone. Try to walk out on an abusive asshole who is physically harming you. Decide who you will date and how you will live. These are the "crimes" for which women have been beaten, threatened, and terrorized. Keep in mind, something else had to have happened for McCommas to feel so certain Terrance Howard would follow through with his threat to hurt her. What might have happened if she hadn't already been on the phone with law enforcement? According to Howard and a whole lot of men who think like him, her "disrespect" was grounds to do whatever they wanted. There was no understanding that women are people, deserving of rights and choices. We are too often regarded as errant children, who should just do what we're told and take what we're given.

It's hard to feel sympathy for Howard's acting career. It's hard to take Hugh Hefner seriously as a lover of women when most of us recognize he's an overcompensating old fart with a living Barbie collection. If he truly empowered women, they would be better for having known him, instead they have nicer clothes and more jewelry, which is not necessarily doing them any favors. Rumors have circled for years that to remain in Hef's good graces his women are expected to smile, remain obedient and refrain from asking too many questions.

We still have the GOP unanimous vote to keep businesses from paying women fairly because of the possible hardship on the businesses. They weren't concerned about the hardship on the women, of course. As Zandar pointed out Saturday, they are taking as many steps as possible to make sure single moms have no choice but to get pregnant, then carry the baby, then have no aid to help raise the child. Z rightfully pointed out that the GOP women have remained silent, showing that they might have questions but aren't willing to commit career suicide. I'd like to piggyback on that and point out that there has been absolutely no mention of child support enforcement or other steps to help the women that they plan to use as breeding stock.  Apparently, if the woman is slutty enough to get knocked up she deserves to suffer.  The guy who participated in it was just a case of boys will be boys.  Yeah, that sounds about right.

Can it possibly be that we have taken so many steps back that women are able to be treated like property, beaten on a whim and denied basic medical choices to satisfy the men in charge? Have we taken that many steps backwards, or was women's rights an illusion all along? It seems to me that once we reached a threshold, we were pushed back down at all costs.

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