Mary Sisney's Blog - Posts Tagged "access-hollywood-tapes"
Real Women: The #METOO Moment Versus The Women's Movement
When my once and possibly future mean-tweet target, humorist Lizz Winstead, argued on Joy Reid's show that women can take care of their reproductive organs without men's help or interference, I sweet-tweeted her. But I didn't just tweet "Amen" or "Right On." I used the opportunity to take a shot at the #METOO whiners. I told Ms. Lizz that women are either bad-ass bitches who can take care of their own bodies and rule the world or they're weak, whiny wenches who need special laws to protect their bodies from scary men. We can't be both. I realized later that I was drawing a distinction between the two types of women breaking their silence during this backlash to the election of a pussy-grabbing, racist maniac. The bad-ass bitches are in the Women's Movement. They're the "nasty," "persistent" women who voted for Hillary and when Trump won, took to the streets and to the Internet to organize the resistance. The weak, whiny wenches may or may not have voted for Hillary (Susan Sarandon didn't, for instance), but they're now whining about sexual harassment and assault by powerful men with whom they probably flirted to advance their careers.
There are three other major differences between the two types of women and the movements to which they belong. 1) The Women's Movement is a grassroots movement started by women who were not celebrities while the #METOO movement is media-created and led by such celebrities as Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, the black dress wearing stars at the Golden Globes, and the white rose carrying musicians at the Grammys. 2) The #METOO moment focuses on sex while the Women's Movement focuses on more important issues. 3) The Women's Movement is like the civil rights, gay rights, and earlier women's rights movements that have helped our country move forward toward a more perfect union even when we take one step back for every two steps forward. #METOO is not a movement but a moment like the McCarthy or Salem witch hunt moments that brought shame to our country.
The women's march on the day after Trump's inauguration was not organized by celebrities, although many of them participated, and was not heavily promoted by the media. Some unknown but obviously extraordinary women started planning the march, inspiring millions to join them. At the time, I had fewer than ninety Facebook friends, yet I had friends (high school and graduate school classmates, former students, my stepfather's niece) marching in L.A., San Diego, Atlanta, Rhode Island, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Three of my Facebook friends marched with their adult daughters. The youngest marcher from my group (not counting the daughters) was twenty-nine, and the oldest was sixty-nine. The media expressed shock and awe at the size of the crowds not only in American cities but around the world. They were probably shocked because they had little to do with what happened on January 21, 2017. However, they had everything to do with the #METOO moment. The clearly narcissistic Rose McGowan is now taking credit (as she sells her book and television show) for NBC's involvement, but there was a coordinated effort by the media to focus on this topic at this time. Before publishing the rejected by NBC Ronan Farrow story about Weinstein, NEW YORKER profiled so-called civil rights lawyer (actually women who have had sex with celebrity, especially black, men lawyer) Gloria Allred. The NEW YORK TIMES joined the NEW YORKER in going after Weinstein, and then MSNBC and CNN took the ball and ran with it. What racism? What mass murders? Let's talk about sex.
Of course, the #METOO moment is about sex. It's not about equal pay for equal work. It's not about voting for women's candidates or for more women running for elective office. It's not even about the women's right to choose. These issues are the top priorities of the bad-ass bitches in the Women's Movement. The women in the #METOO moment are whining about sexual behavior that ranges from actual rape to dirty jokes. If Al Franken pretends to grope a comedian's boobs while she's sleeping (which probably didn't happen), then his behavior is as "horrible" and "appalling" as Harvey Weinstein's masturbating in front of a woman or using his large frame to overpower or intimidate a young actress into having sex with him. My differing responses to the Arquette sisters, two talented actresses, reflect how I view the movements that they represent. When she picked up her Best Supporting Actress Oscar a couple of years ago, Patricia used her moment in the spotlight to argue for equal pay for actresses. I loved that moment, especially when the camera cut to my birth year mate, the "overrated" Meryl Streep, and showed her pointing to Patricia as if to say, "Right on, Bitch!" I thought that Patricia might never work again, but I was really impressed with her courage. When her once more famous sister Rosanna (there was even a song named for her) appeared this year at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, representing the Weinstein victims, and stood holding her chest, looking overcome with emotion, my (out loud) reaction was, "Sit down, Bitch. You're not Rosa Parks. I've seen your movies. You didn't play nuns."
Patricia and the women who focus on equal pay, a woman's right to choose, and her right to hold elective office, including President, have more in common with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King than do the whiners in the #METOO moment, who have more in common with Joseph McCarthy, the witch-hunters in Salem, and the KKK who used to lynch black people. The Women's Movement is based on facts and led by bad-ass bitches who don't have to bully people with whom they disagree or demonize men whom they accuse of rape and sexual assault. Rose McGowan calls Weinstein the monster. Try to find evidence of civil rights leaders name-calling. Rosa Parks went to jail and had death threats. Some civil rights leaders actually died. I have yet to hear a #METOO whiner say that she didn't want to complain about the man who harassed her because she feared he would lose his job or because he was a beloved figure, a role model who had contributed to our culture. Instead they claim that they were frightened because these men were so powerful and might ruin their careers or their lives. In other words, they were selfish cowards. I can't imagine Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King taking millions of dollars in hush money to keep quiet about racism. They risked their lives, not just their livelihoods, to fight injustice. Their movement, like the Women's Movement, was also based on reality and truths, not false narratives. Black people were denied their equal rights. We were going in back doors, riding in the back of the buses, we couldn't stay in hotels and motels in the South, we couldn't eat in most restaurants, and in many states we couldn't vote. Among the false narratives promoted during this #METOO moment is that women who have been sexually abused have not been heard. Ask Emmett Till if women have not been heard. Oh, that's right; he's dead, tortured and murdered when he was fourteen because a woman was heard. Well, then, ask those white privileged Duke students if the black stripper who accused them of rape was heard. And ask Stanford student Brock Turner if the privileged, drunk white woman hiding behind the fake name Emily Doe was heard when he fingered her while he was also drunk. Ask the publishers of ROLLING STONE if they heard the lying anonymous woman who complained about sexual assault at the University of Virginia. Women have always been heard, and occasionally they have lied. These anonymous women who are ruining the careers of men like Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, and Harold Ford without due process should be exposed. We should know as much about them as we know about the activists in the BlackLivesMatter movement. They should take some heat as anyone who is trying to create change, to start a revolution, must do. Only a weak, whiny wench would hide her identity while destroying other people's reputations. Only weak, whiny wenches would take the hush money and then later talk, pretending to be victims. Only weak, whiny wenches would bully anyone who doesn't agree with everything they're saying and doing while pretending that they are the ones being silenced and bullied. Bad-ass bitches use their real names, engage in real debates, and win.
There are many reasons why Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college in 2016, but two of them were the misogyny caused by the seventies feminist movement and the belief by some men and women that women are too weak to be President. The post-seventies misogynists, the ones who bought the nutcracker Hillary, screamed "lock her up," and loved the image of her being hit by an errant Trump golf ball were mostly responding to the fringe element of that seventies movement, the women who called men pigs and seemed to hate all men. But there were probably more men and women who voted for the weak, mentally ill Trump because they believed that no woman, not even the clearly tough, competent, and composed Hillary, could handle the job of President. The media response to the pussy-grabbing tape and Hillary's fainting spell in 2016 helped confirm this belief.
The Women's Movement can help us to elect a female President but only if this #METOO moment ends quickly. The weak whiners' message that women need special protection from horny men and their demonization of men, leading to more misogyny, will make it harder for us to break through that final glass ceiling. I said in an earlier post (11/26/17) that I was with the male victims of the #METOO witch hunt, perhaps even (UGH!) Weinstein, but I'm even more with the powerful women of the Women's Movement--the bad-ass bitches. I'm with them.
There are three other major differences between the two types of women and the movements to which they belong. 1) The Women's Movement is a grassroots movement started by women who were not celebrities while the #METOO movement is media-created and led by such celebrities as Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, the black dress wearing stars at the Golden Globes, and the white rose carrying musicians at the Grammys. 2) The #METOO moment focuses on sex while the Women's Movement focuses on more important issues. 3) The Women's Movement is like the civil rights, gay rights, and earlier women's rights movements that have helped our country move forward toward a more perfect union even when we take one step back for every two steps forward. #METOO is not a movement but a moment like the McCarthy or Salem witch hunt moments that brought shame to our country.
The women's march on the day after Trump's inauguration was not organized by celebrities, although many of them participated, and was not heavily promoted by the media. Some unknown but obviously extraordinary women started planning the march, inspiring millions to join them. At the time, I had fewer than ninety Facebook friends, yet I had friends (high school and graduate school classmates, former students, my stepfather's niece) marching in L.A., San Diego, Atlanta, Rhode Island, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Three of my Facebook friends marched with their adult daughters. The youngest marcher from my group (not counting the daughters) was twenty-nine, and the oldest was sixty-nine. The media expressed shock and awe at the size of the crowds not only in American cities but around the world. They were probably shocked because they had little to do with what happened on January 21, 2017. However, they had everything to do with the #METOO moment. The clearly narcissistic Rose McGowan is now taking credit (as she sells her book and television show) for NBC's involvement, but there was a coordinated effort by the media to focus on this topic at this time. Before publishing the rejected by NBC Ronan Farrow story about Weinstein, NEW YORKER profiled so-called civil rights lawyer (actually women who have had sex with celebrity, especially black, men lawyer) Gloria Allred. The NEW YORK TIMES joined the NEW YORKER in going after Weinstein, and then MSNBC and CNN took the ball and ran with it. What racism? What mass murders? Let's talk about sex.
Of course, the #METOO moment is about sex. It's not about equal pay for equal work. It's not about voting for women's candidates or for more women running for elective office. It's not even about the women's right to choose. These issues are the top priorities of the bad-ass bitches in the Women's Movement. The women in the #METOO moment are whining about sexual behavior that ranges from actual rape to dirty jokes. If Al Franken pretends to grope a comedian's boobs while she's sleeping (which probably didn't happen), then his behavior is as "horrible" and "appalling" as Harvey Weinstein's masturbating in front of a woman or using his large frame to overpower or intimidate a young actress into having sex with him. My differing responses to the Arquette sisters, two talented actresses, reflect how I view the movements that they represent. When she picked up her Best Supporting Actress Oscar a couple of years ago, Patricia used her moment in the spotlight to argue for equal pay for actresses. I loved that moment, especially when the camera cut to my birth year mate, the "overrated" Meryl Streep, and showed her pointing to Patricia as if to say, "Right on, Bitch!" I thought that Patricia might never work again, but I was really impressed with her courage. When her once more famous sister Rosanna (there was even a song named for her) appeared this year at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, representing the Weinstein victims, and stood holding her chest, looking overcome with emotion, my (out loud) reaction was, "Sit down, Bitch. You're not Rosa Parks. I've seen your movies. You didn't play nuns."
Patricia and the women who focus on equal pay, a woman's right to choose, and her right to hold elective office, including President, have more in common with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King than do the whiners in the #METOO moment, who have more in common with Joseph McCarthy, the witch-hunters in Salem, and the KKK who used to lynch black people. The Women's Movement is based on facts and led by bad-ass bitches who don't have to bully people with whom they disagree or demonize men whom they accuse of rape and sexual assault. Rose McGowan calls Weinstein the monster. Try to find evidence of civil rights leaders name-calling. Rosa Parks went to jail and had death threats. Some civil rights leaders actually died. I have yet to hear a #METOO whiner say that she didn't want to complain about the man who harassed her because she feared he would lose his job or because he was a beloved figure, a role model who had contributed to our culture. Instead they claim that they were frightened because these men were so powerful and might ruin their careers or their lives. In other words, they were selfish cowards. I can't imagine Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King taking millions of dollars in hush money to keep quiet about racism. They risked their lives, not just their livelihoods, to fight injustice. Their movement, like the Women's Movement, was also based on reality and truths, not false narratives. Black people were denied their equal rights. We were going in back doors, riding in the back of the buses, we couldn't stay in hotels and motels in the South, we couldn't eat in most restaurants, and in many states we couldn't vote. Among the false narratives promoted during this #METOO moment is that women who have been sexually abused have not been heard. Ask Emmett Till if women have not been heard. Oh, that's right; he's dead, tortured and murdered when he was fourteen because a woman was heard. Well, then, ask those white privileged Duke students if the black stripper who accused them of rape was heard. And ask Stanford student Brock Turner if the privileged, drunk white woman hiding behind the fake name Emily Doe was heard when he fingered her while he was also drunk. Ask the publishers of ROLLING STONE if they heard the lying anonymous woman who complained about sexual assault at the University of Virginia. Women have always been heard, and occasionally they have lied. These anonymous women who are ruining the careers of men like Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, and Harold Ford without due process should be exposed. We should know as much about them as we know about the activists in the BlackLivesMatter movement. They should take some heat as anyone who is trying to create change, to start a revolution, must do. Only a weak, whiny wench would hide her identity while destroying other people's reputations. Only weak, whiny wenches would take the hush money and then later talk, pretending to be victims. Only weak, whiny wenches would bully anyone who doesn't agree with everything they're saying and doing while pretending that they are the ones being silenced and bullied. Bad-ass bitches use their real names, engage in real debates, and win.
There are many reasons why Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college in 2016, but two of them were the misogyny caused by the seventies feminist movement and the belief by some men and women that women are too weak to be President. The post-seventies misogynists, the ones who bought the nutcracker Hillary, screamed "lock her up," and loved the image of her being hit by an errant Trump golf ball were mostly responding to the fringe element of that seventies movement, the women who called men pigs and seemed to hate all men. But there were probably more men and women who voted for the weak, mentally ill Trump because they believed that no woman, not even the clearly tough, competent, and composed Hillary, could handle the job of President. The media response to the pussy-grabbing tape and Hillary's fainting spell in 2016 helped confirm this belief.
The Women's Movement can help us to elect a female President but only if this #METOO moment ends quickly. The weak whiners' message that women need special protection from horny men and their demonization of men, leading to more misogyny, will make it harder for us to break through that final glass ceiling. I said in an earlier post (11/26/17) that I was with the male victims of the #METOO witch hunt, perhaps even (UGH!) Weinstein, but I'm even more with the powerful women of the Women's Movement--the bad-ass bitches. I'm with them.
