Journal #7 5/02
The news has been discussing this week the sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. Tara Reade, a former employee of Joe Biden, came forward recently saying that Joe Biden forced himself on her 27 years ago when she was sent to deliver a duffel bag to him. Reade asserts that she “complained to multiple colleagues in the office about interactions with Biden that made her uncomfortable,” although she did not talk specifically about the assault with them. She did, however, discuss the assault incident with her mother, neighbor, and others who have corroborated her story. Biden has stated that the rumors are untrue and that he has no knowledge of anyone bringing it to his attention.
I think the Biden and Reade incident has a lot to do with our discussion of rape culture and Christine Blasey Ford. While we cannot know for sure what happened 27 years ago, it is bothersome that Biden is using the fact that the assault was not reported as evidence in his favor. As we learned in class, only 230 out of every 1000 sexual assault incidences are reported to law enforcement. I think that time and time again we hear “Well why wasn’t it reported back then?” “Why is this coming up now? It’s political” and other ignorant sayings. We need to change as a culture how we treat victims who decide to come forward, no matter how much time has passed.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/02/politics/tara-reade-allegation-joe-biden/index.html
Journal #6 4/24
This week, I chose to read an article focusing on protests during the coronavirus pandemic. Author Tim Libretti writes that those who are protesting stay-at-home orders are influenced by America’s hyper-individualist history narrated by writers like Thoreau. This concept of freedom from government intervention, Libretti explains is hyper-masculine and ignores the struggles women face in the absence of said intervention. He writes, “do women enduring abuse, terror, and violence in their homes at the hands of their partners see freedom from government intervention in these so-called private spaces as the highest form of freedom? Do they see it as freedom at all?”
This article also reminded me of a quote from Kimmel in this week’s reading on how men’s rights activists celebrate “all things masculine” and have “a near infatuation with the traditional masculine role itself.” While those protesting stay-at-home orders are purportedly protesting government intervention, I feel that they are fighting against feminist ideas of freedom as well. They are failing to acknowledge what freedom means for women in dangerous situations at this time. They feel it is their right to have complete and total freedom as a male US citizen, and in doing so, are being ignorant of government intervention may allow women undergoing abuse to feel safer and more free.
Journal #5 4/17
This Wednesday, a federal lawsuit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, a transgender college runner, to protest Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The bill was signed last month and, if enacted, will “prohibit transgender athletes from competing in sports consistent with their gender identity.” The state’s governor claims that he signed the bill so that women have the “right to participate without having to be concerned about who they’re competing with,” clearly referring only to cisgender women. Idaho is the first state in the country to outright ban transgender participation in college sports.
As a college runner myself, I understand why cisgender female athletes would not want to have female-identifying transgender athletes competing in their division. There are undeniable advantages that these competitors will have that can be frustrating to those without the same advantages, but I definitely don’t think that is reason enough to bar these athletes from competing. This article reminded me of Caster Semenya’s struggles we read about this week and the issues of fairness raised in her case. Gender is such a difficult concept to define, and I think that it is often used as an excuse to prevent people who are seen as different from invading a cisgender-dominated environment. Semenya was a strong, confident woman who did not fit the image of a typical female athlete, and misogynoir definitely played a role in the protests against her competing. Similarly, transphobia appears to be an underlying reason for this ban under the guise of “fairness.” Athletes don’t have to “be concerned about who they’re competing with,” as Little puts it, even if Hecox and other transgender athletes are included — they will still be competing against other female-identifying athletes.
Journal #4 4/10
As cases of the coronavirus grow exponentially in the US, the ventilator shortage becomes a more and more pressing issue. The biggest problem associated with this shortage is deciding who should be treated with these life-saving machines and who should be turned away. In many of the plans, “the elderly, people with terminal cancer and those with chronic conditions, on the other hand, fare poorly in many plans, as do people with disabilities.” The most common proposed solution is a utilitarian one that suggests giving ventilators to patients who have the best chance of surviving the longest. However, this would clearly disadvantage disabled Americans who may have shorter lifespans, and a shorter time lived does not mean a life is worth less.
This approach to distributing ventilators made me think of what Sunaura Taylor said: “I think that for a lot of disabled people the hatred consists a lot in … this reminding of [non-disabled people] that [their] bodies are going to age and are going to die.” I think that policies are prioritizing non-disabled bodies in this crisis not because they believe they are inherently better but because they are scared. This pandemic is reminding them now more than ever that they are not immortal, and putting themselves above the disabled allows them to pretend like they are indestructible and believe that they will beat this disease.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/07/ventilators-rationing-coronavirus-hospitals/
Journal #3 4/01
While the current pandemic has been difficult for everyone, there are clearly certain groups of people that are being impacted more than others. One such group is single mothers who depend on welfare, as is described in this BBC article. A group of single parents in the UK is suing the government as they are unable to receive welfare payments due to their migration status. Without welfare, these women are faced with an impossible choice: “whether to continue working through the outbreak, putting themselves and others in danger, or stop working and have no means of paying food, rent, or bills.”
This article reflects the problem of how single mothers of color are viewed not just in America but across the world as the UK’s welfare policy during the pandemic clearly “discriminates against women and ethnic minorities.” The inaction by the government and lack of support for these women by the general public supports the idea that these mothers are seen as “welfare queens” as described by Nadasen. In other words, struggling mothers at this time are unfairly assumed to use welfare benefits for luxuries when in reality they are dependent on welfare to support their kids, as well as others around them during the pandemic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52144820
Journal #2 3/04
This week, the Supreme Court listened to arguments in the case of June Medical Services v. Russo. The case concerns Louisiana Act 620 which would require abortion-performing doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The law is currently on hold as the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged its validity, but only one doctor is currently in compliance with it. If it were to be enacted, this physician has said he would step down, which would essentially make Louisiana the only state since Roe v. Wade without an abortion clinic.
This court case reflects why The Handmaid’s Tale is still relevant today as the situation reflects aspects of Atwood’s dystopian society. The abortion clinic itself is fighting the Louisiana act as opposed to any individual woman as “Women are concerned about their privacy. They’re concerned about the stigma. There are protestors outside clinics in Louisiana taking pictures of people who go in and out of the clinics, and in an age of social media, it would be very difficult for a woman to keep her decision private.” In other words, women are already being shamed for having abortions and would face a great deal of backlash and outrage from society if they were to fight for their rights in court. Atwood warns us of the dangers of “slut-shaming” and putting down female individuals throughout the novel and specifically in the case of Janine. Janine is shamed by the Handmaids and Aunts chanting “her fault, her fault” when she speaks of being gang raped, which is meant to disturb readers. Shaming women for abortions and publicizing their private decisions takes us one step closer to a society in which the pain inflicted on Janine is normalized. This court case will be monumental in determining the rights and privacy of women in the future.
The article discussing the court case can be found here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-abortion-lawyer-challenging-louisiana-law-center-for-reproductive-rights-2020-03-05/
Journal #1 2/19
This week, I came across an article that asked the following question: “How much can parents really control how their kids turn out?” The author goes on to explain how he began an introspective study on his own parenting after debating how giving or not giving his daughter a phone would really affect her development. He ends up discovering that modern psychology and biology studies would suggest that parenting appears to play a far more insignificant role in character shaping than one would think. Prominent researchers such as Harvard cognitive psychologist suggest that genes account for about half of one’s personality and traits.
“This notion,” according to Wolfson, “did not go over well. Some parents rejected it outright, others got legitimately angry. No one (my wife included) entirely agreed with me.” I find this reaction from the public to be interesting yet not surprising. The habits of mom-blaming originating with Freud have permeated so deep into Western culture that the notion of parenting (specifically, mothering) styles having little impact on a child seems outright crazy to many.
While Pinker and others suggest genes play a large role in shaping a person, there appears to be a consensus that just as important is “environmental effects,” though this is not the same as parenting. In other words, the culture a child develops in is crucial for determining their adult selves. This would suggest that many of the issues that children of so-called “bad mothers” in the post-war area who acted problematically did so not because of their mothers’ parenting styles but rather due to the way those around them treated them. For example, in The Imitation of Life, we are led to believe that Susie develops a romantic interest in Steve due to her mother’s bad parenting, but perhaps the way in which those around her treated her due to her mother’s absence being viewed as shameful was the root of her issues.