And they said rape culture wasn't real

I’m posting this, mostly, for myself, as this forum all but died. Remembering all The battles about rape, sexual harassment, rape culture, language, patriarchy at DU. The belittling, the minimizing, the disingenuous arguments, the bullshit. Every once in a while at DU, I’ll even see a bitter soul take a pot shot at “benevolent sexism” because nice guys or something. I got my first hide out of this group reposting a blogger who said instead of all women having to walk around in a state of fear of rape, it was just as logical for all men to be treated as walking around in a state of pre-rape. I still read Dworkin.

Interesting though, how the old van guard of second wave feminists, some of them, lost their way at as the results of their battles bore fruit in succeeding generations of women, reaping the benefits of Feminism. And Feminism itself found its newest rebirth at the crossroads of intersectionality. Interesting, and in retrospect completely logical, how the the most powerful feminist voices now are African American women, as well as other women of color. Trans women are also emerging as a powerful voice for women’s rights.

And here we are at another crossroads. As bigoted white men, and bigoted, complacent, white women voted for Trump, it broke something in people of goodwill and compassion and progressive thought. I think what broke was the desire to go along to get along when one has a privileged life. IF one understands what privilege is and what it isn’t. There’s still far to much pushback in the age of Trump. It comes from feeling that enough dollars saves one from bigotry


Weinstein and Cosby shows us that beauty, talent and wealth is not enough to protect women. The sheer horror of Trump shows us that seeing thing such as the unutterable pain at the southern border will affect us in such a way we can no longer ignore it. Or at least I can’t. I hurt every day, and every day I am angry. I welcome this. It doesn’t “damage” me. I am no passive soul searching for zen and comfort.

94% of Black women who voted voted for Hillary Clinton. There has been a number of attempts to minimize that remarkable statistic, the lastest being to simply ignore it. What did black women know that white women didn’t? If you ask them, they will tell you. It’s not for me to say. Me? I listened to their voices whenever I could. Still do. Often, I do it in silence, because white women, so many of us were so stunningly wrong in our political choices, there are very few I want to hear from. There are, of course, a few I do. As there are very few white men I want to hear from right now. (Plain, simple reporting aside)

Practically this means I watch no TV pundits at all, get my news on-line after I vet facts, from sources with proven diversity that isn’t tokenism. I pay little attention to memes unless they make me laugh. There is still tons of bullshit. Mostly from the right, who have appeared to have lost their damn minds for real, but the left is not immune from bullshit. Some of it I even like, as I lost any desire to “play fair” As someone recently said this isn’t middle school.

Because people have died, are dying, will die. And they will suffer before they do. I’m a nurse. I see a lot of suffering, enough death. When it’s preventable, that’s when I get angry as well.