A Chart About "Silence" That Will Leave You Speechless....

[loyalsister]

In discussions of reproductive rights, men are quoted much more frequently than women in print and television media....

http://www.upworthy.com/a-chart-about-silence-that-will-leave-you-speechless?c=bl3

Sorry I couldn't post the chart here.

I think I would use a different word than "silence" disregard, ignorance..... others?

[kestrel91316]

1. Un-effing-believable. Yet oh so believable in a way.

[Scootaloo]

2. I think you'll find similar results with regards to racial issues

wherein whites are cited far more than people of color. Same with straight people being the go-to for GLBT issues.

The media regards the people affected by these issues to be "interested parties" and thus - supposedly - unobjective and unreliable. That's the BS claim, anyway. It's really just an excuse to keep letting straight white dudes frame the arguments.

[loyalsister]

3. I think you are right

The disability community faces the same issue. White, straight, non-disabled, Christian men have the power (political and economic- especially) and frame the arguments.

It's not even that they actively push their way into the conversation, people in the media seem to ask them first. It's as if there is a social habit of deferring to them.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. I was able to save the chart.

[freshwest]

5. Demographics may also be one of the reasons; along with austerity and religion.

That is, older women that aren't of childbearing age may not feel as passionate about this as young or middle aged women.

Austerity has shown some young people that the risk of getting pregnant is not something they want to be saddled with. I see it with young men and women who are not religious but are not well off. They see no mandate to have children.

Others with more family, or more economic opportunity feel they have a choice, but are often holding off until they are better socially and financially set up in life than in the past.

Religion has silenced a certain portion of women of all different age groups from discussing the matter, as a topic that will bring unwanted attention to their own lives and choices. The meme that abortion is ugly and wrong made many hold their tongues on an unconsicous level.

Of the three possibilities, I see the meme and the aging of the population as the more important of the three.

Just a few thoughts there. This is not the same generation that fought for Roe v. Wade and are not suffering the blatant, in your face discrimination of the past. If it gets that way again, women may speak out, but I'm not so sure as they seem to have changed.

Possibly due to years of anti-abortion propaganda in the faces of women, instead of the approval by media of women speaking out for civil rights, as there once was.

Our beliefs are more the product of the media than we wish to admit. At one time it was considered 'cool' to be for women's rights. Not it isn't so much and it's not really consciously thought out, I don't think.

[fasttense]

7. Speak for yourself

I'm an older woman not of child bearing age and I can tell you I feel as passionately in favor of woman's rights as I did when my boss was chasing me around his office desk.

When I went into the working population the word sexual harassment was not even coined.

I became a naval officer - a very non-traditional job for a woman in my day and age. And I fought for my right to have an abortion, safely, without shame. Yes, I don't have to worry about getting pregnant now, but I have daughters and granddaughters who are very concerned.

The reason men are always quoted about women's issues and not women is that they have the money and the power. They have the control, they are deciding for you.

[freshwest]

8. I answered a puzzle, didn't 'speak for you.' That is what I have observed, not what I agree with.

And now I will 'speak for myself' as you seem to think we are so different.

I too, went into non-traditional work, deliberately seeking it out. I was in engineering and construction, and dealt with discrimination and men quite well, no punches pulled.

I have never changed any positions I held as a member of NOW in the late sixties and as protestor, personally and professionally, for the rights of all women, and myself.

I have not changed my commitment to women's rights anywhere, and am most aggressive, but my post must have hit a nerve and offended you. I don't intend to argue with everyone who wants to take offense at my guess of why this seems to be a mystery.

I was thinking outloud, trying to figure out why women were not speaking up as the OP said, and yes, I know the field of play is not even, I always have. I made a comment, didn't stake out an anti-woman's rights position.

And that's the EOM of the matter, but I may delete my post above since I don't intend to have to justify my life of fighting for my rights and those of other women all day long, when I was submitting an answer to a puzzle by using the examples of people I know. I cannot force anyone to think the way that I do, or live the life I've lived.

[loyalsister]

10. The women most supportive of women's right are 60+

It is women in their 60s who fought for women's rights. They are granddaughters of women who were not born with a right to vote.
They were around before "domestic abuse" and sexual harassment were identified as problems, and before no only meant no.

There are younger women who take what they fought for for granted. But, there are others who consider themselves third wave feminists and are actively considered with women's issues expanded beyond those of the 1st and 2nd waves.

It is also notable that that chart refers to issues other than abortion. In fact, men are quoted 52% on the general topic "women's rights." Is it possible that the media is facilitating a misbelief that women's rights effects men significantly by infringing on their rights and existence?

[freshwest]

11. The media is much less in favor of equal rights, period, IMHO.

The fact they gloss over the horrific issues like defunding of PP, battered women's shelters, and don't give enough coverage to the number of suicides of gays, the unreported rapes and murders of women and children by men stopping them from escaping, is a great change from my day in the sixties. In those days, the defenders of rapists were given the short walk. Now they keep on going.

These polls I'm seeing don't reflect my views, at all. Or the people I know, but I have seen women unwilling to speak out anymore and I see less young people willing to speak out in public. The bombing of abortion clinics and stripping away of women's health care by the Tea Party is not getting a tenth of the news coverage it deserves.

I feel the media is almost all corporate owned and does reflect a heirarchial way of thinking. It was seldom 'back in the day' as Icall it, that such people as Ann Coulter could have ever been seriously considered when they claim that women should not have the right to vote. There had not been a full generation of Dittoheads listening to his misogynist filth for a score of years to influence their thinking of what is supposed to be mainstream, useful political opinion.

Since 2000, I've gotten into arguments with right wing people who want the Constitution taken back to when there were only 10 Amendments and then I they were going nowhere. Now these yoyo's are being elected to Congress.

We can't ignore that we have lost ground in this matter. I attempted to give reasons for what I consider a dangerous course for our country to travel, going back against all of our progressive roots. Our former allies in public media are not answering these regressives with the fire that we once had in response.

Many young people are you point out, are unfamiliar with our progressive history, and it seems to me that we have some young women who either tend to the right or the left, but seem to have no opinion on this. I believe the meme has silenced them.

I never thought so many states would pass these Draconian laws, and they still stand, term after term, and they are not voted out. I am amazed that the TX ultrasound law has not been struck down, in fact it's been enacted in other states, disgusting.

There has to be a reason for it. I am in no way faulting the older women, as I am one, and don't want any of this, but someone sure is pushing it, and the votes are not going our way.

For me the best thing to do is keep working to have progressive people in the legislatures and to re-elect Obama who has stood with us in healthcare. All my representatives are pro-choice and for protecting women's right to choose everywhere. But they are being out voted. We must work to reverse this trend nationally.

As to those who live in the red states where these things are being done, there has to be a reason and I tried to figure out some of them, from the anecdotes of people I know. Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Appalling, but they need one more graph.

That is the graph that shows gender of people quoted on all issues. I think it is about the same number. Women are excluded from the media's presentation of opinion in general. It is the same old same old: white guys rulez.

[loyalsister]

9. That's probably true

I think it's particularly salient when they are going around the "experts" to get to a source that has more control of the rules as opposed to personal experience and investment.