Reply #84: I have no idea how other women who agree with my characterization [View All]

[Morgana LaFey]

would respond to those women.

There is very little in this world that applies to all women or all men, or even all humans. So each woman's response to something like this -- or indeed anything at all -- is going to be a little different. And yet there are commonalities and things that are going to apply to a good many women, or even a majority of women.

I don't think a majority of women -- even very strong and resilient and even physically commanding women -- are going to be completely against my characterization. I think most women would understand what I'm saying, at some level, in varying degrees. But if they do, I think they're wrong AND uncharitable and lacking in insight and compassion about the rest of their sisters. They may not be wrong for themselves and some of the others -- that's for them to decide -- but their attitudes are cruel and uncomprehending to many women.

I found your anecdote extraordinarily powerful. Thank you for sharing that insight. You see, it WORKS for men-as-patriarchy's-beneficiaries (and therefore usually supporters) for women to be subtly and continuously terrorized about the threat of physical violence against them.

And many women just don't think of it that way. I've always been a fairly "strong" woman, and never thought of myself as a victim or even potential victim much, but that doesn't mean that I've never been frightened or overly concerned at various times in my life -- and not because of a real threat or a specific threat.

What I'm saying is, it took me a lot of thinking to come to the realization: why should *I* have to live my life being careful and cautious about my physical well-being in situations few if any men EVER have to be careful about. That IS the very definition of 2nd Class Citizen: when your activities have to be unequal and less than those of the real citizens. If I am made to feel that I risk rape or other violent assaults in situtions where men do not, THAT is 2nd Class Citizenship.

Lotta women don't see that, have never thought about it that way. We've just been acculturated to put up with it, that's "just the way things are." Well, there are a lot of things today that are DIFFERENT from the old sexist ways that once upon a time were "just the way things are," and now we need to add a few more, such as the violence against women. But it'll take men who are willing to confront their comrades for that to happen. Women will never be able to change that on our own.

There's a thread right now on the probable rape of a young female troop in Iraq. In it (several posts down, IIRC), there's a remark from an officer that shows what happens to uppity women, and the important place violence against women still plays in our culture. Here's the thread:

The Army Says It Was Suicide, Her Father Thinks She Might Have Been Raped & Murdered
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x802359#803935