Everyone -- every man and woman who believes in the equality of individuals -- should read
this article.
This confirms much of what I have been thinking lately: there is a lot of hate directed at women because there will always be people (both male and their attendant subservient females) who don't like to lose their unearned power...
In Virginia, we have the legislature quite prepared to consider
legislation that violates women and violates their freedom of choice.
In the Catholic church we have men (purportedly celibate men, although they do seem to fall down on that A LOT) working for an institution that pays no taxes, and doesn't employ women in positions of power,
advising government on reproductive health and contraception. WTF?? An institution that isn't managed by reproductive adults of either gender thinks they have the right to tell others when and how to have kids and how to make sure they can't afford contraception?
In Egypt and other parts of the world we have men and women (both Christian and Muslim) making sure girls -- just kids -- are mutilated in horrendous ways so they have no sexual satisfaction and probably live in pain for the rest of their lives --- because men want it that way. Got to stop their whoring, you see. Even in enlightened Malaysia, babies are lightly nicked in subservience to this ancient pagan belief. Here's a
totally bizarre bit of doublespeak (read the second paragraph on the decision) from Malaysian religious authorities on this. And
here's a more intimate version, which just manages to show how ludicrous and utterly pointless the procedure is in Malaysia -- which is a lot better than it being cruel torture as in so many places. Ironically enough, depending on who you talk to, both the tiny nick and the huge mutilation are touted as being religiously obligatory. I'm just glad God decided Malaysian women didn't need the mutilation, just the nick.
In my street we have the ranting man at the mosque yelling through loudspeakers to the world the address he is giving to a group of women. The topic? How they should consider the merits of being multiple wives to a patriarch (so he can preen his prowess as an alpha male, and probably rake in their incomes as well.) Yuk.
There are too many men trying to return us to past subservience. Beware of them and their dubious religious reasonings. (come to think of it, they are probably the same men who refuse to read a book written by a woman...)
