Happy V-Day once again! Time flies. Per the usual, I’d recommend a viewing of the Vagina Monologues – find one in your area and go if you’ve never been!
For the 15th anniversary of V-Day, check out the One Billion Rising campaign to end violence against women.
Okay this shit is getting really fucking ridiculous. I keep having these waves of anger about politics that make me forget we are talking about rape for a minute.
I really don’t usually listen to the “regular” news, like the ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN sorta news. Mostly I just read the paper. But I fascinated by the politicking in the Todd Akin rape conversation. I went so far as to listen to Hannity interview him.
So yeah, all those major republicans from Romney to Ashcroft to asked him to get out of the race. It’s fascinating that he is hella set on running, saying that the people voted for him and they want him, so he’s going to stick to it and run. If he loses, republicans may not have control of the senate. Which is exactly why they want to distance themselves. They don’t actually believe anything different, they just need to win that seat so they have control.
But the thing is, it’s kind of brilliant that he said it. It’s like one of those brief glimpses into the true psyche of someone who thinks we still live in the 1950’s. It doesn’t matter that he’s since apologized and said that he was in fact medically incorrect when he said a legitimate rape wouldn’t produce a baby. He slipped and said something that people actually think. I kind of love when that happens. Better we know now than when he already was in office. Terrifying, but fascinating. And now all those dudes who totally secretly agree with him, at least in some way are having to denounce what he said.
But just yesterday, the Republican party drafted a platform that includes anti-abortion legislation so strict that exceptions would not be made in the case of rape or incest.
So yeah, the republicans have to distance themselves from him because there has been such a backlash regarding what he said. You know it’s real bad when even Rush Limbaugh says it’s stupid. But it’s all about the politics of it. They just want that seat. They don’t care a hoot about actually protecting a mother who would have the trauma of carrying a baby born out of a rape. A baby is a baby is a baby, and they think that baby should just get born.
To make you feel a little less horrible about the hoopla this week, there is feminist obabma and a beautiful song on how to know it’s legit rape. Okay and here is a clip of true emotion from Biden earlier this year on rape.
Just like when Obama said “rape is rape” and I felt it was real and good to hear, I really like what Biden says here.
I don’t care that he’s a dude and he’s “in charge” or any of that shit. He actually gets that you can’t just go around saying there are levels of rape. One rape isn’t worse or more rape than another rape. It’s just all around fucked up. Hopefully this will help us understand that.
Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri seems wicked hella smart having talked to “doctors” who let him know the real truth – that if a rape is “legitimate” the female body will get all fancy and will “shut that whole thing down.” Now it would be lovely if your body would just reject the sperm of a rapist, but that’s sadly not based in anything medical whatsoever.
Then he goes on to say if “maybe that didn’t work, or something” the woman should still not be allowed to have an abortion, because the rapist should be punished, not the child.
Medical nonsense aside, is this man serious? Does he get to decide what a “legitimate” rape is?!
It’s actually kind of chilling.
I’m sure if he had the biological ability to have a child and got raped, he’d totally keep that baby, if his body magically decided that rape was legit, of course.
Fucking sick.
I was glad to see this video this morning – a happy little PSA about not abusing the ladies in your life.
Of course it’s sad we need to be reminded, but it’s also important that politics tackles these matters on every level. The sad truth is that we need these PSA’s. Silence about abuse is the worst weapon.
I just finished reading Sister of Silence, a brutal memoir about a young girl who marries her rapist when she gets pregnant at a young age. The thing that really struck me about the book is how she didn’t even realize she was in an abusive situation until she heard someone else tell her story and think to herself “that’s just what happened to me.”
Speaking up, telling your story, Take Back the Night, PSA’s about violence against women – these can be the moments when women realize that their situation is not okay and try to get out of it.
But it’s even extra awesome that this little video is all men and they are talking to men. I am so fucking done telling women not to get abused. Time to tell men not to abuse them.
Okay. So, Why did it take this long for Jerry Sandusky’s Second Mile charity to be shut down? He has been accused of finding kids to abuse via this very charity. How hard is it to shut that shit down, oh, I don’t know, immediately!?
I mean. This was November. And there were 40 counts of sex abuse against young boys. 40. 40! The entire situation is so abhorrent and appalling. There is no excuse for grown ass men to be covering up for this fucking behavior. We simply have to make this shit beyond unacceptable.
Rightfully, it’s apparently closing since people won’t give them donations any more. So at least the people have a generally better conscience than we may have thought.