I noticed this a few days ago and it strikes me with renewed force today when I saw that a Coach has refused to attend the NCAA in Indiana because he "has a gay son." Its heartwarming, and very important, for all of us, for all LGBTQ people and their families and friends that these dramatic gestures by Business, Industry, Academia, and Democratic Politicians are pushing Indiana to reconsider this horrible law. Consider my heart warmed and my cockles too. But at the same time Indiana has been pursuing draconian punishments against women for being women--and specifically in the last few days has sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison for having a miscarriage. Where is the outrage? Where are the boycotts? Where are the concerned citizens, sports figures (what, they don't have daughters and wives?), business people, academics refusing to attend events or suggesting that the women who work with them are at risk of these crazy laws if they travel to Indiana? That Indiana's discrimination against women is so profound that pregnancies--one third of which will end naturally in a miscarriage--can be redefined as murder.
Am I wrong in thinking that the fact that there aren't many women in positions of power--not many women Captains of Industry, not many women who are Governors, not many women who independently decide the rules for their companies is an issue here? That we've reached a tipping point, socially, in which straight men and important men recognize that gay rights are here to stay but women's rights still mean basically nothing to them? There is no mobilization around women's rights that has reached this level of power and significance. I wish things were different.
I agree. Women are always members of a special interest group, not full fledged humans
ReplyDeleteMe too.
ReplyDeleteThe availability of gay marriage is expanding almost as fast as the availability of abortion is contracting; public opinion on homosexuality is changing rapidly, but opinions on women's issues are relatively stable. Maybe Clinton's election next year will change that, although with regards to race Obama's presidency seems instead to have heightened the contradictions.
G. W. Bush certainly united the country: eventually everyone agreed he was a loser. A more divisive president is preferable.
The disparity of outrage bothered me too, as soon as the verdict for this poor woman was announced. It also surprised me. The controversy of a miscarriage prosecuted as a murder. Successfully! Let alone at all, is not even considered a controversy now. That the consensus in this country of what is fair has shifted so radically and silently is frightening. I can't go as far as saying you're wrong to find cause in the lack of women in power, political or otherwise. Carly Fiorina comes to mind as an influential woman among many in power at the moment who would be singularly unhelpful in kicking this outrage back into the sphere of legitimate controversy where it belongs. Her silence is not at all surprising. The silence of other powerful women too many to list here, who know better, is truly astounding. Miscarriage is now a crime in this country, punishable by prison.
ReplyDelete