A Shawl

Do people wear shawls any more?  I don’t know.  But I’m making one for Mag and I’m so excited about it.  Plus, I figure, if anyone could pull it off, it’s her.

Probably More Proof of My Dangerous Hypocrisy

I swear, a girl could get a big head from all the folks practically hyperbole-ing themselves to death in order to denounce her.  Honestly, folks, I put my skirt on one leg at a time, just like you.  I sit next to a farty dog and cats that don’t respect that a person likes to shit without an audience just like you.  And, like you, I only eat aborted fetuses in a Satanic feminist ritual once or twice a month at most.  I don’t want to overdo things.

And yet, it seems like January has been the month of folks deciding that I have gone too far and they cannot tolerate it any more.  Was I off my game in December?  I don’t think so.  But weirder still, doesn’t this feel like it’s become a blog of my yard and my crocheting?  Isn’t a girl-blog full of gardening discussions and ponderings about yarn just about as traditional as you can get in this modern age?  I swear, the more I’m convinced I’ve become a boring ordinary blogger, the more outraged some quarters get.

Imagine if this became a mommy blog.  I’d probably be denounced from the floor of the Legislature as a subversive element.

Shall we consider Blue Collar Muse’s post?

“Her premise is had Lynn entrusted herself to Feminism this would have been less likely to have happened or maybe never occurred at all.”

No.  That is not my premise in the least.  First, there is no “entrusting oneself to Feminism.”  That’s not how it works.  Feminism is not, despite some folks’ wishing, an organized political or social or philosophical movement.  It is the belief that women are human beings and that we are, shamefully, not always treated as such.

From there, there are all kinds of different opinions about what the implications of that belief are.  Is it possible for men and women to have different spheres of influence as long as the woman’s sphere is as influential?  Should rules be changed to include more women in things?  Etc. etc. etc.  And all women, feminists and non, have opinions on those things.

Being a feminist is not some magical protection from the ills of the world.

Being a feminist would not have shielded Lynn from what happened.

But, I believe, being a feminist would have allowed Lynn to smell out the bullshit of this whole thing a whole lot sooner.  The only thing I think Lynn has done wrong in this situation is to feel bad about it, like she has any reason to keep it hidden or to be ashamed that Williams is a jackass.  I believe that feminism might have helped her see that she has no reason to hide what happened or to be ashamed of it.

I mean, she’s already benefited from the hard work of feminists–sitting there with her college degree and her fancy legislating job–things she would not have if not for feminism.  Why not go whole hog in the benefiting department?  Not only can you have fun stuff like a job and a bank account and the ability to read and go to college, courtesy of feminists, you can have the knowledge that it’s not your job to smooth things over for jackasses.  It is the job of the jackass to fix his own damn problems.

But my point in this post is simple.  And it is simply this.  What Lynn is going through is not new or unusual or likely to end in the near future.  It has everything to do with people seeing and understanding that women are autonomous beings who are, first, for ourselves, not first for your pleasure.  She is not alone in what she’s going through.  She’s not the first woman to feel the way that she does.  And, most importantly, if she would stop being an enemy to women who want our autonomy, she would find many, many allies ready to come down hard on the Williams.

But talk about hypocrisy.  Lynn thinks she has the right to decide for me what I should and shouldn’t do with my body.  Even though she clearly, clearly thinks–and rightly so–that it sucks ass when a legislator thinks your body is put for there for his pleasure and that your feelings and wishes aren’t that important.

I’d like for her to draw the line between those two things.  And, frankly, I am pissed that she doesn’t.

But let us go on to the other point of contention

This leads Aunt B to treat her, not as a woman and an ally, but as a political foe in need of skewering. Given most of those currently demonizing Lynn are also Liberals and Democrats and given Aunt B doesn’t condemn them preferring instead to join in the fun, it seems clear her politics trump her principles.  Turning female victims into villains seems to be OK sometimes, especially if the woman is Republican and the attacker is another woman.

to which I can only offer a hearty “Fuck you.”  I invite Blue Collar Muse to look around the lefty Tennessee blogosphere and see who has condemned the Democrats about this incident and who’s been mealy-mouthed about how, oh, well, but look when this is coming out, isn’t it expedient and oh well, um, but it’s he-said-she-said and gee, that does stink, but it’s politically expedient so what can you do.

I have been as loud and clear on my anger at the Democrats and at Williams as I know how to be.

But I can hold two thoughts in my head at the same time.  One of them is “Dirty shame on you, Democrats.” and the other is “Lynn, if you don’t like it when it’s done to you, don’t turn around and do it to others.”