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What Women Want was a
pretty awful 2000 film starring Mel Gibson as a man who can read the minds of women. Because only by reading their minds can men possibly understand what women want. It's a pretty insulting premise for a movie when you think about it.
I can't speak for all women because a) I don't know them all and b) even if I did, I seriously doubt that we would all agree on much of anything since the group "women" represents roughly half of the world's population, in all of its wonderful diversity.
So, speaking only for myself, this week I want Missouri legislators to recognize that Sharia law has no place in American democracy, not even in the Missouri General Assembly. Interns should not be required to don hijabs to protect politicians from their own overwhelming lust that apparently renders them helpless before a young woman, or man, in ordinary business attire. The sense of entitlement that allows these politicians to behave inappropriately toward interns has little to do with the behavior or appearance of the interns, but much to do with their own lack of adult control, as expressed here (via Chris Reeves):
“The culture of Jefferson City is very anything goes,” said former state Sen. John Lamping, a St. Louis County Republican who left office in 2014. “We’re in town three days a week, and we don’t work particularly late very often. So the mentality is, ‘Wow, this is so much fun. We’re doing crazier stuff than we did in college. But now we have power, prestige and money.’”
Grow up. Keep your hands and your inappropriate behavior to yourselves and restrict your catcalling to public streets among strangers like all of the other juvenile males out there.
Want to know more of what this woman wants? Keep reading.
Speaking of juvenile males, I want Donald Trump to just shut the fuck up. I get that he finds women of intelligence and good looks to be personally threatening to his wobbly male ego, but he really should not be displaying that on national television. It makes him look even smaller than his 140 character attacks.
On the night after he had given the go-ahead for the raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, President Obama was able to stand up on a stage and discuss the difficult decisions that Donald Trump had been faced with:
Forget it, Donald. Those shoes are way too big for you to fill.
I want all of the lone wolf terrorists, who are like totally unaffiliated with the forced birther movement, to stop trying to kill women and the doctors who treat them. I get that Scott Roeder, the murderer of Dr. Tiller, had nothing to do with the forced birthers movement—except, of course, for the fact that he was carrying the phone number of another Operation Rescue terrorist in his car at the time he murdered Dr. Tiller in a church. And I am sure we will soon hear that the 19-year-old who last Tuesday tried to bomb the late doctor's clinic, the South Wind Women's Center, also had no ties to any organized forced birther terrorist organization and was simply a lone wolf.
Aren't they always?
I want Woodford County High School in Kentucky to re-think its decade-old dress code that forbids high school girls from exposing their shoulders, collarbones, and knees. This documentary by Maggie Sunseri features the students discussing the dress code:
It includes this well-placed finger pointing at the men who design the attire women have to purchase:
"Well, considering that most of the clothes for women are made by men it's really low cut. So if you have a dress code that makes you cover up your collarbone, it's extremely hard to find clothes that actually do that."
Practicalities aside, teaching high school boys that girls in appealing attire are "asking for it" only perpetuates the fallacies that lead to the entitlement attitudes of The Donald or of politicians. Or of far too many otherwise rational men.
I want the Pentagon to get its head out of its ass and stop making statements that are blatant lies like this one, referring to two women who are set to graduate from the Army's elite Ranger School:
"This course has proven that every Soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential," Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh said in a statement.
Since the Army isn't yet allowing these two women to join the 75th Ranger Regiment, they are clearly not being allowed to achieve their full potential. Only the male members of their class are being allowed that opportunity.
Why is it important? Because advancement in our military requires ticket punching. The more holes you get punched in your ticket, the better your chances of promotion. As long as women are denied access to those fields that provide the most holes punched (and Ranger service carries a few holes), they are being denied the opportunity to advance in their careers.
What I don't want is another single day when all of these stories have appeared at Daily Kos, or anywhere else. Especially not when they were published on the 95th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Almost a hundred years later, we still have the right to vote. In most states. At least in those states that don't require us to provide evidence of a valid reason why the name we wish to vote under is not the same one as appeared on our birth certificates. According to the
League of Women Voters:
Voter photo ID laws are particularly costly and burdensome for women in part because roughly 90 percent of women change their legal name upon marriage or divorce. According to the Brennan Center, 11 percent of eligible voters do not have a government-issued photo ID, and only 48 percent of voting-age women have a birth certificate that accurately reflects their current name.
Remember back in the day when the League of Women Voters sponsored the Presidential debates? They did, back when they were debates that allowed tough questions designed to show the voters what the candidates actually believed. After the debate cycles of 1976, 1980, and 1984, the political parties decided that they would take control. So, on October 3, 1988, the League announced
in a press release:
"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter," League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.
"It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions," Neuman said. "The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
Since those good old days presidential debates have become ever more farcical. Remember Fox's presentation of not one, but two long-form political commercials for the network's chosen candidates? I miss the League of Women Voters' debates.
Back to a woman's right to vote, the cartoon below was published by Puck in 1915, and lampoons those opposed to the 19th Amendment. For readers whose screens are not large enough to see the labels:
"I did not raise my girl to be a voter" is a parody from Puck of the anti-World War I protest song, "I Did Not Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier," with the context altered to women's suffrage. A conductor labeled "political boss" leads a lone female soloist surrounded by a male chorus with various labels including "procurer", "child labor employer", and "sweat shop owner". Arguments in favor of granting women the right to vote included the contention that female voters would support laws that reduced prostitution, labor abuses, and other social evils.
And they were probably right, as the latest
Gallup poll reveals that 63 percent of women approve of labor unions, compared with only 52 percent of men. Meanwhile, 41 percent of women would like to see unions have more influence, versus only 33 percent of men who wish for the same thing.
The political bosses of today, who are money men like the Koch brothers, probably regret that women ever did get the right to vote and so continue to support attempts to restrict our ability to become full and equal members of society. On days like Tuesday, it feels very much as though they may be succeeding.