by Jack
“An unidentified female student was sitting outside the Chico State University library listening to music when two men she did not know approached her at about 5:20 a.m., according to an email announcement from the University Police Department. First thought it’s 5:20 in the morning what in #$% is she doing alone on a deserted campus at this hour? What an idiot. So, one of the men reportedly began walking with the woman. This is allegedly a black guy she’s never met before, now he’s suddenly walking with her, putting the moves on her and she can’t get rid of him. It’s too late to run and she’s alone. Then he jumps her near the Physical Sciences Building. This guy reportedly attempted to sexually assault her, but she was lucky this time and she got away. But, imagine if he had a knife to her throat or a gun to head, that pepper spray wouldn’t have done her much good and we might have had a real bad outcome.
The only smart thing she did during this whole episode was grabbing the pepper spray from her purse and spraying it on the man’s face.
What do you want to bet this is one young female who won’t be taking walks alone in the dark again. But, there’s plenty more that will…
The would be rapist is described as a 20-year-old black man, tall and thin build with a tattoo under his eye.
Now this is an even better candidate for a Darwin…”Alleged drunken driver, two passengers injured after attempting to beat train; large amount of marijuana found on scene.” According to the story the three occupants were banged up pretty good, but excaped death by a measure of around 3 feet. if the train had hit a little closer to the cab these three morons would be taking a permanent dirt nap.
Re : “The would be rapist is described as a 20-year-old black man, tall and thin build with a tattoo under his eye.”
Now you are tattoo profiling. 😉
Steve and Libby, I actually was blaming the victim, not for being attacked, but for being dumb. She was doing something highly inappropriate and contrary to her safety. Oh, I’m not saying she doing anything illegal and I am certainly not challenging her morals…now that WOULD be wrong!!!! There was a time when people often felt that if a woman was raped she was asking for it and it relfected on her morals. She was guilty till proven otherwise and that’s absolutely unfair and loathsome. That period of ignorance ushered in the moder liberal notion that you don’t blame the victim of sexual assault no matter what. So now it gone completely the other way and that’s no fair either.
Law enforcement has an obligation to decern certain conditions that led up to the rape and that’s a whole other issue and it should not be confused with “blaming the victim.” Even we citizens have a right to investigate this and make what we can from it for the public good.
The conditions in this case has a young female alone in the early morning hours on a deserted campus listening to music, presumably with earphones… well, most people would say she was being oblivious to real world dangers; dangers that happen regularly in our society when victims leave themselves wide open. And she did leave herself unecessarily exposed…shouldn’t that much be open to criticism so we might learn from it? How can we learn if we say she didn’t do anything wrong? That’s a far cry from what prompted this original “don’t blame the victim” kind of thing where people questioned the morals of the victim.
It goes without saying, this would-be rapist is somebody who needs to be locked up for a very long time! I’m livid that such a scumbag lives among us! I would prefer he be castrated and then locked up for a very long time! This is uncivilized behavior and he is one sicko animal who needs to go. So, if you are into weighing who I hold responsible here, it should be fairly obvious. But, that doesn’t mean we should not take stock of the facts so we might avoid a repeat of this sort of attack.
Unfortunately a few friends have both bought into the new political correctness that says nobody DARE suggest the victim did anything remotely wrong and there’s nothing to be learned by her actions. I respectfully disagree. To not say she was being negligent is to be in denial of the facts. Denial doesn’t help anyone correct their behavior and possibly save a life in the future.
We don’t need to encourage young ladies to think they have a right to walk alone in the dark and be in perfect safety! There’s too many that do that and worse already.
We don’t live in a safe world and we never have. It’s why our police are constantly telling girls don’t walk alone at night if you can avoid it! Their not being chauvenists, they are being realists. Get someone to accompany you from point A to B. This will help keep you out of trouble. The University has a rape prevention program that provides for escorts for female students and campus cops will do it too, if they have the time. But, they don’t get a lot of requests between 4-5 a.m. and for obvious reasons, men and women just normally go out during those times. The campus at that hour is virtually deserted and that makes for good hunting for the predators among us. This is the time when they are looking to do a mugging, robbery, rape or steal something. I know…I’ve worked years of graveyard as a cop!
The victim here made a very bad mistake in judgement when she was out at 5 am. And as an experienced (retired) police officer I felt inclined to point it out and to do it bluntly for the impact it might have for her own good and the good of others in the future.
I don’t want to belabor this too long, but just how many muggings, beatings, stabbings, shootings, rapes and attempted rapes, does it take before people wise up? How many victims must make the same old mistakes and than call the cops to clean up the mess after the harm has been done? Cops get downright depressed after doing the cleanup year after year.
We should all take certain minimal precautions to insure our own personal safety… because we should know the cops can’t be everywhere all the time. Not doing that, not taking precautions and then almost getting raped makes me very disappointed with people. It happens far too often. It’s like all our (police) efforts to educate potential victims means nothing, in one ear and out the other! That’s my heartfelt frustration speaking…allow me that will you? Because until you’ve walked in my shoes and seen what I’ve seen, you can’t imagine how these crimes upset me. So, I’m telling it exactly the way it needs to be said in order to protect women from being raped and murdered. To heck with political correctness – lives are at risk and people need to know.
You really are quite the blamer of victims, aren’t you? What the “F” do you mean she shouldn’t have been on the street? At anytime, anytime at all!
Damn … that attitude does pi** me off. Like rapists in the road at 5 a.m. is the right and proper order of things and we ladies should accommodate ourselves to it?
Scr** you … seriously, scr** you.
And I don’t even care if this exhibition of temper gets me booted. How’s that for polarization?
Libby your feminist fantasy reality angers me.
How stupid id it to pretend you can live in a risk-less world because you are a woman, you want it that way, and the entire world should get in line?
How ignorant is it to not take responsibility for ones own safety? But the woman made herself a victim and the feminist attitude hasn’t made it easy for her to clearly know that.
The attacker is slime and deserves all the condemnation we can pile on him for the act. But here too, the feminists haven’t made it easy for young men to be responsible either. Men are born of women, raised by women, quite often taught by women and in the last 40 to 50 years they have been told in ways both subtle and specific that they are unimportant brutish slime. They have been rejected as unnecessary for anything but a f-buddy to be used at her decision only. Then these same women expect them not to resort to acting like animals!
There was a time when rape was fairly rare in our society…our prisons were not as filled either. Creating an atmosphere where women reject the male as insignificant has a lot to do with the condition in which this woman found herself.
You rejected the “proper order” by rejecting and displacing men and now you’re upset…how extraordinary that you can’t see the mess you have made!
She took responsiblity. She nailed him with the pepper spray, and I hope she kicked him a good one too.
“There was a time when rape was fairly rare in our society ….”
Oh, please. Talk about a fantasy existence.
Jack, Tina,
With all due respect I have to agree with Libby, we should not blame the victim here and, in a civilized society, young women should not have to fear walking across a college campus in the early morning.
What Libby does not understand in all of this is that this is what happens in a liberal society. Chico is a city run by liberals, in a state run by liberals, in a country with a liberal president. This is what happens.
The city of Chico blew their budget on frivolous spending and can’t afford a proper police force. Add to that their extreme tolerance of those who exhibit bad behavior and this was bound to happen.
California used to be a strong anti-crime state until the second coming of Jerry Brown. His early release plan, also known as AB 109, is filling our streets with more and more criminals who should be behind bars.
Finally you have President Obama. Heavens be thanked that this girl didn’t shoot her assailant, or that he didn’t trip when she pepper sprayed him and break his neck. Our leftist president, along with the press, would have tried to make this guy into yet another Trayvon Martin victim figure. Libby would have helped them too.
We should not blame the young woman, she should have the right to walk our streets in safety. But she should have known better than to think she’d be safe in a liberal mecca like Chico, where criminals and miscreants defile downtown on a daily basis. Had this ended badly, there would be no candlelight vigil for her either, at least not from the left.
Steve with all due respect it was not my intention to blame the girl for the attack. I doubt that it was Jacks intention either. There is nothing strange about questioning her sensibilities in being there, alone, at that hour.
The sad fact is that the young women was apparently not aware that the streets are not safe. She should be. She should also be conscious of how she dresses and behaves for her own safety.
Unfortunately our culture sends all the wrong messages to young women and men. Anyone attempting to change that culture is shouted down and dismissed as irrelevant. And many on the left, an adolescent bunch, still need to be cool at aged 65-70…their behavior doesn’t provide adult roll models. Thus we have Bill Clinton getting BJ’s in the WH with a woman very near his daughters age and Barack Obama praising and giving an official stage to rappers who use foul language and refer to women with, shall we say, unfortunate terms.
I think on reflection that we are on the same page.
“Our leftist president, along with the press, would have tried to make this guy into yet another Trayvon Martin victim figure.”
Oh, what drivel. We account for circumstances. It’s you lot who operate by rote. And it is really, really shabby, I have to say, to try and draw a comparison between some slimy would-be rapist and Trayvon. Very shabby indeed.
Tina: “There was a time when rape was fairly rare in our society…”
As Libby said, this is idiotic.
Jack, I accept that you feel sincerely about this.
I think I’m beginning to see the root of the disagreement and it’s an ironical one. It’s actually conservatives who seem to believe that a safe and secure existence is possible, or even desirable.
It isn’t. You’re out in the world, you take your chances. And for you to suggest that women shouldn’t be out in the world, whenever, wherever, even for their own protection is, um … um, paternalistic, and, um, repressive, and we ain’t standing for it.
We’ll go where we like, and do as we please, and persons who transgress upon our personal space will be peppered and kicked and then sent to prison. This is, positively, a messier form of existence, but we prefer it, and will continue to insist upon it.
“Jack, I accept that you feel sincerely about this.” Libby, that makes me want to give you a big hug (and a kiss..can I say that?). Because thats the nicest thing you have every said to me!”
Libby…. If women are willing to take the risks to go where they please and do what they want in the persuit of freedom, then that is a choice they should be free to make. I agree and I can admire such spirit. However, I also feel that all of us ought to be smart about where we go and what we do within the context of real world threats and common sense. Too many young girls are not making a forceful statement about their independance and standing up for women’s rights when they walk alone on rough streets late at night, more likely they are just showing their own lack of experience and knowledge.
Maybe we should start castrating rapist and the number will dwindle
Libby and Chris it is not idiotic. People were able to walk the streets of Chico and other small cities around the country at any hour without fear of stabbings, rapes, robbery, or assaults. Children played outside freely after dark in the summer. Kids were not snatched from outside much less their beds. Families left their doors unlocked unless they went away on a long trip. Kids road their bikes and left them lying on the ground while they went off to do something without having them stolen.
And yes…there was a time when young women had a lot less to fear on the streets at any hour.
Those feminist studies classes have distorted history and reality.
And Libby it is absurd to think we have suggested women should not go out. We suggested that being aware and taking precautions in today’s world would be wise. Your prejudiced fantasy about conservatives is, once again, preventing you from understanding the point.
Chico has had how many stabbings this year? the streets are not safe…get it?
No, Tina, sadly … you hanker after a world that never was.
Or maybe, you hanker after that world wherein women were raped by husbands, brothers, friends of husbands, friends of brothers, but shamed out of reporting it … Jesus H. … is that what you miss?
Jack,
You have me totally wrong here. I don’t buy into political correctness and I agree the girl made a mistake. What bothers me, as a conservative, as a taxpayer, as a father, as a service member, is that there is any place in my country where it is unsafe to go. It bothers me greatly that people like Libby accept that there are places in our homeland where it’s not safe to walk at night and just accept that as the status quo. We are the greatest nation in the world and we should not tolerate monsters on our streets, but we do. That was my point. Even though I believe this, I don’t make the mistake of walking the streets of Oakland (or now Chico) by myself late at night. The streets are not safe, but only because we tolerate this condition and we let it get that way.
That young lady should ABSOLUTELY have the right to walk across campus at 5am, and she shouldn’t have to feel afraid. But the reality is that she isn’t safe because there are too many liberals who tolerate crimes against young women and all the rest of us.
The good news is that this is an eye opener for young people visiting Chico. They say everyone’s a liberal until you get mugged. Odds are good that this young lady used to vote Democrat, and odds are also good she’ll take a second look at that decision. So will all of her friends. People don’t like being victimized and they remember this sort of thing on election day.
As for police giving the girl a stern lecture, I think that’s great. Most law enforcement people I know encourage people to defend themselves and not get into stupid situations. I was looking at you more as a writer making comments, not the cop. My bad.
Steve, thanks for clarification, my appolgies if I misread what you were trying to say. We agree and I’m glad we do!
Everyone has a duty to take reasonable steps to provide for their own safety, just as we taxpayers have a duty to make sure peoples homes, streets, parks, etc., are reasonably safe. In our free society it is a delicate balance between freedom verses security. We can have both, but we can have too much of either. It’s always been that way throughout history
How about a little common sense?
Would that same woman leave her car downtown with the windows down and the keys hanging from the rearview mirror? Or leave her house doors and windows open while she was away for a weeks vacation?
Of course not, not if she was of sound mind. Just a little common sense should have told her she shouldn’t have put herself in a position that someone could have hurt or even killed her. Period.
It once again boils down to being responsible for ones own actions. If your car gets stolen after you failed to lock it and left the keys in it the insurance company is not going to cover the loss and the same goes for the home that was robbed while it was left open and unsecured.
So, if you feel you have the right to walk alone in an area where previous attacks and rapes have occurred, be my guest. Just accept the fact that a majority of us reading about your rape the next day will wonder what the hell you were doing there at that time and alone in the first place.
Exactly Peggy….you are right on. Your examples were perfect, people must taken responsibility for their own safety.
Tina, while it may be true that rape by strangers was less common back in [unspecified decade you’re nostalgic for], rape by people close to the victim is and always has been more common than stranger rape. I would argue it likely used to be more common, though it wasn’t considered rape then; our ideas of the importance of consent are more advanced today then they were back in the day when marital rape was legal. Since rapes back then were hardly ever reported, for reasons Jack specified above, it’s hard to make a real comparison between the rape rate today and the rape rate in nineteen-mumbledy-three.
“And Libby it is absurd to think we have suggested women should not go out. We suggested that being aware and taking precautions in today’s world would be wise.”
But she did take precautions. She took pepper spray, and it seems to have worked.
I see a lot of criticism about her decision to be alone outside the library at 5:20 AM. Is the library open at that time? My campus library certainly isn’t. Maybe she doesn’t have a ride and that was the only time she could get a ride to school. I’ve had to arrive on campus pretty early back when I had to rely on family members for rides. I never felt unsafe, but then, as a man, I am not constantly warned to avoid walking alone. Maybe this girl thought about going somewhere enclosed, but then thought that she should be able to sit down outside the library at her own college campus without feeling like she was doing something wrong. Maybe she was tired of the mixed messages telling her to feel unsafe. While I’m not saying the rape prevention strategies Jack laid out aren’t helpful, they have the problem of reinforcing the idea that it is the potential victim’s responsibility to prevent rape. Why don’t we teach our boys as much about how to prevent rape as we teach girls? After all, statistics show that stranger rape is less common than rape by someone the victim knows. Instilling the importance of consent and boundaries early on might do a lot more good than telling girls not to walk alone.
Jack: “There was a time when people often felt that if a woman was raped she was asking for it and it relfected on her morals.”
Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday! Oh, wait. It was yesterday:
“The Steubenville rape case attracted national attention last year because of how extraordinary — and terrible — that story was: A young girl was victimized first by her teenaged rapists, and then by the town itself, which engaged in the worst kind of victim-blaming and rushed to the defense of her attackers, who were athletes for the town’s pride and glory, the high school football team.
But in the months since that case first came to light, national attention has turned to more and more cases like Steubenville’s. Just this weekend, another, eerily similar story emerged — this time in the town of Maryville, Missouri.
The Kansas City Star published on Sunday their remarkable, seven-month investigation into an eerily similar story that unfolded last year in the small, northwestern Missouri town of Maryville. In this case, though, the rape victim never got to see her horror story go to trial — and the family’s terror hasn’t ended; they’ve even had their house burned down.
Fourteen-year-old Daisy and her 13-year-old friend were both high school freshman in January 2012, when they were invited to a house party by a senior star of the Maryville football team. Once there, the older girl was given a large glass filled with alcohol and urged by a room full of some of the school’s most popular athletes to drink it. She did, and they handed her a second glass.
The following morning, Daisy’s mother discovered her daughter, alone on her front lawn in sub-freezing temperatures, weeping. She helped Daisy into the bathtub after finding her outside, where she noticed reddish, irritated areas around her daughter’s genitalia and buttocks.
Daisy’s mom also found the 13-year-old friend was upstairs in Daisy’s room, also “confused.” Both girls were taken to a hospital. On Daisy’s body, a doctor found small vaginal tears emblematic of someone who has just had sex. The 13-year-old, who remembered the night’s events, told investigators she was forced to have sex, despite saying “no” over and over again.
Eyewitnesses who spoke with the Star, including Daisy’s 13-year-old friend, recall seeing Daisy being carried — crying — by some of the older boys out of the house into a car.
It didn’t take long for police to round up Barnett and other partiers for questioning. Barnett, a 17-year-old defensive end for the Maryville High School football team, admitted to having sex with Daisy but said it was consensual. Jordan Zech, a teammate and standout wrestler for Maryville, admitted to recording some of the encounter on another friend’s iPhone.
Within days, both were arrested in the case. Barnett was facing a felony sexual assault charge and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. Zech was also charged, for sexual exploitation of a minor.
But like Steubenville before it, the town of Maryville revolted against the facts in the case.
Days after the incident became public knowledge, students at the high school began attacking Daisy and her family. On social media, fellow Maryville students began threatening Daisy, tweeting that she would “get whats comin.” Daisy’s older brother Charlie, who was himself an athlete for Maryville, was booed by his own classmates during a wrestling meet. Her mother, a veterinarian, was fired from her job two weeks after the incident without so much as an explanation, only later learning that her boss feared that her presence “was putting stress” on her other employees.
Meanwhile, members of the community rallied behind Barnett and the other perpetrators. In March, just over two months after the alleged rape took place, the most serious charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a minor were dropped without an explanation.
Daisy’s family moved away to avoid the threats and harassment they faced since her story first came to light. But the trouble didn’t end. Six months ago, their old house burned down mysteriously.
If the story sounds at all familiar, it’s because it almost mirrors the case in Steubenville, Ohio. Like Steubenville, the perpetrators were members of the high school’s immensely successful football team. Like Steubenville, the town of Maryville rallied behind the alleged rapists and ostracized the victim. And like Steubenville, the events in Maryville are quickly becoming a national story.
In some ways, though, the Maryville case is actually worse. Barnett, aside from being a celebrated athlete, also happens to be the grandson of a prominent Missouri state senator. Less than a week before the charges against Barnett and Zech were dropped, Daisy’s mother got a phone call from a friend who warned that ” favors were being called in and that the charges would be dropped.”
The Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice, who was responsible for the case against Barnett and Zech, also has political ties to Rex Barnett, the grandfather of Matt Barnett. When the mother of the victim sought an explanation from Rice as to why he dropped the charges against both boys, he ignored her phone calls. The Star finally tracked down Rice months later and asked the same question, and — in his office, where a picture of Rex Barnett hangs — he told the paper simply that it was due to a lack of evidence. He went on to dismiss the events of that night as the act of “incorrigible teenagers.””
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/14/2777431/maryville-missouri-rape/
Chris and Libby I was addressing this attempted rape in the context of being/feeling safe on our streets. It may not fit Chris;s reality since he isn’t that old. It may not fit Libby’s since she apparently grew up in a big city setting. It iss definitely true that in the fifties and sixties women were safer on the street, even at night, in most small towns across the country. It is also true that too young men today are not being taught to respect women or protect them. The message in pop culture is that women are open to just about anything and deserving of lowered status…ho’s, B*$#hes, and baby momma’s! Young men are absolved of all responsibility.
In this atmosphere this young woman was not safe at that hour, even with her pepper spray, although I agree, at least she thought to have it.
It’s easier for you two to dismiss me than it is for you to address this, major failing of the feminist movement and society in general. The new woman is not getting the job done at home despite her insistence that she can do it all. She takes the position too often that her husband, if she even has one, is a dunce and makes sure the kids know it. Men are characterized in ads and in TV shows to reflect this feminist created idea. This is not a good way to encourage tomorrows males to respect themselves or have respect for women.
I agree that we can’t blame the victim, but come on, my kids SHOULD be able to walk around downtown without fear of being mugged but lets face it, downtown isn’t safe anymore. Our kids SHOULD be able to play at Children’s Playground but we all know that is a bad idea.
Chico is letting the scum take over.
Princess, it’s a safe bet that most Chicoans feel like you, that the scum have taken over. It goes back to our City Council and years of poor fiscal management. The people we have been electing seem incapable of making right decisions, be it building a fire house for $2 million to support a new subdivision – then forcing a halt to said subdivision and causing the city to be sued…and losing, to the ways to remove transients from our downtown. You’ve got a police chief who echoes the touchy feely council. He says he will not use the law to lean on the homeless that are breaking any number of laws, it might impinge on their rights! So the laws hands are tied – no can help – so sorry. Which translates to they have the right to sleep on the sidewalk. They have the right to block our way and demand spare change! They have the right to pee and crap in our doorways! They have the right to camp in Bidwell Park or at least until the voters make such a ruckus they are forced to do something. So he feels it would be unfair apply the law… to dsicriminate against them… and apparently the council feels the same way, save for two with their heads on right.
Tina: “It iss definitely true that in the fifties and sixties women were safer on the street, even at night, in most small towns across the country. It is also true that too young men today are not being taught to respect women or protect them. The message in pop culture is that women are open to just about anything and deserving of lowered status…ho’s, B*$#hes, and baby momma’s! Young men are absolved of all responsibility.”
I can’t disagree with any of this.
What I disagreed with was the statement that “there was a time when rape was fairly rare in our society…” I understand that you’re thinking of stranger rape when you say this, and I think that’s also what most people think of when they think of the word “rape.” But I think that’s kind of a problem, and a dangerous framing, because the reality is that rape by someone the victim knows is far more common.
“In this atmosphere this young woman was not safe at that hour, even with her pepper spray, although I agree, at least she thought to have it.”
Glad we can agree on that. I’m not saying that the girl was making the best decision here, I’m just saying I can understand why she made it, and I think maybe the rush to judgment is unwarranted.
“It’s easier for you two to dismiss me than it is for you to address this, major failing of the feminist movement and society in general. The new woman is not getting the job done at home despite her insistence that she can do it all. She takes the position too often that her husband, if she even has one, is a dunce and makes sure the kids know it. Men are characterized in ads and in TV shows to reflect this feminist created idea. This is not a good way to encourage tomorrows males to respect themselves or have respect for women.”
Now on this we have to disagree. Yes, male characters are often portrayed as dunces who can’t take care of the kids. I’m actually having my seniors discuss this issue for a unit they’re doing on gender roles in society (they’re reading Macbeth, and I’m trying to interest them by relating themes to the modern day). We’ve talked about characters like Homer Simpson and the characters Seth Rogen usually plays, and I’ve had them talk about if these stereotypes are fair to men.
I don’t give them my opinion on who is responsible for this (or anything for that matter), but I really don’t think it can be pinned on feminists. The idea that it is a woman’s job to take care of the house and kids goes back centuries. The idea that men are somehow lessened or feminized by performing such domestic duties goes back just as far. So of course we see men as manlier if they refuse to engage in such duties. These are patriarchal ideas, not feminist ones. Judd Apatow’s movies are extremely stereotypical and demeaning of men, but I would never call him a feminist. He’s demeaning of women as well. The two usually go hand in hand in my experience, because they are both based on the view that men and women are somehow opposites.
The worst insults toward men I’ve heard have come mostly from religious conservatives, not feminists. It’s them that tend to believe men and women have fundamental differences that make men less empathetic, less suited to domestic duties, and less immediately responsible for the caretaking of children. Yes, we hear from conservatives that men serve a crucial role as father whenever they need to condemn gay couples and single mothers. But they never put their money where their mouth is. Where are the arguments for guaranteed paternity leave? Why do these same people get up in arms about women trying to “have it all” by juggling a career and a family, but would never say the same thing about a man doing both?
Certainly some radical feminists have gone the “man-hating” route, but they are hardly well-represented in mainstream feminism today. Tina, can you name a single prominent feminist that is active today? I know some sexist statements have been attributed to Gloria Steinam, but that was a generation ago. It seems to me that people who criticize feminists generally aren’t very familiar with any modern feminists.
Chris: “But I think that’s kind of a problem, and a dangerous framing, because the reality is that rape by someone the victim knows is far more common.”
Far more common now or in the fifties? I would hazard that both may be much worse now considering the number of divorces and serial husbands some women have now.
But I was really just thinking in terms of unsafe streets.
“These are patriarchal ideas, not feminist ones.”
Oh my. They are not patriarchal except that women have made a case against their idea of what patriarchy is in order to assert themselves. (Real patriarchy is man serving his family)
Had you been there in the early seventies you might have noticed how men reacted to these angry, aggressive females. Most men I knew at the time were mostly flummoxed and trying to figure out what to do in every situation. Everything that was “normal” to them, everything their mothers had taught them about how to treat women, was being turned upside down. The fact is the men did not force women into the roll of mother any more than women made men go out and bring home the bacon. It is just the way it was, mostly because men are stronger physically and do not bear the children. Women could have done something about going out into the world any time they wanted to without all the vitriol and anger. I deeply resent the way the sixties feminists decided to make their way into the work force. As I told you, my Grandmother was a single mom and she owned her own business. She didn’t do anything but go out and learn a trade and then take a risk. He won’t let me is a victim mentality. men who act like that don’t get very far either. I also abhor the second place status that many women give men today. Libby jokes about that all the time and somehow I don’t think she, or Hillary Clinton, or any other aggressive women are kidding.
I don’t have a problem with women working outside the home or asserting themselves. I think all couples should work out their personal lives between themselves in terms of who does what in the home.
I do have a problem with a culture that has reduced men as insignificant in the home or as just someone to do all the work while she plays with her gal pals. I’ve seen this a lot.
I have a problem with schools that are taking competition out sports and have eliminated “winning” in sports contests. They have removed the game of and dodge ball and other contact sports in grammar schools. This is not the doing of men unless they have been feminized…intimidated into giving all the power to her.
Most boys need the discipline, exercise and challenge that sports affords them. Girls like to play sports but they don’t physically need the energy release that boys need. They need it to do better in class. They need it to develop into a man. (Not all boys are the same; I am speaking in generalities)
Now we medicate boys and constantly rag on them to sit down and be still. We do little to make education fit their needs. I’ve read studies about boys being treated badly in class by teachers that are hostile toward the boys and coddle and promote the girls.
I have a problem with a culture that glorifies women as sex objects. That was one of the things that bothered the feminists of my era and here we are today with our granddaughters objectified and with roll models acting like complete sluts on TV and in the movies.
Where are the roll models that show men and women as people with strong values, character, and responsibility…adults? We don’t have much of anything in the culture that suggests its important to grow up.
And how can a society expect anyone to be safe on our streets when we place so little value on human babies? We abort them, we shove them off to daycare and babysitters, we don’t bother to commit to a solid relationship with their biological fathers and we subject them to a series of live in temporary dads who never quite measure up.
Libby jokes about the irrelevance of men. She expresses contempt for them when she brags about how the world will work when women are finally in charge. Too many women today are narcissistic and demanding with little interest in being responsible adults. Those who are trying to do it all and be responsible are worn out, cranky and resentful.
I’m saying there is a crisis in our country. Young men are not learning to become good men and the feminist movement has played a roll in creating the crisis. Although I can see how it might sound like it my intention is not just to place blame. This isn’t about blame. It is about being willing to see the crisis exists and honestly address the things in ourselelves and our society that is creating the crisis.
Women are not safe because we are raising lost men, thugs, and creeps…we have to do better and we won’t if we shrug and do nothing.
“Women are not safe because we are raising lost men, thugs, and creeps…we have to do better and we won’t if we shrug and do nothing.”
Indeed. There is no rite of passage, no vindication. At the 27:45 mark in this video, Marine Corps General Krulak gets it right…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKj7lb-MYB4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKj7lb-MYB4
Oops. Pasted the link twice. That’s what I get for doing this past my bedtime.