4 reasons America is afraid of women with friends

[decocker 7,198]

It’s not true that conservatives don’t like single women. They love single women and, of course, mothers – if they are vulnerable, dependent, and ashamed, and if they know their place in the “natural” order. If they are, in other words, isolated and dependent. The role of female friendship is even more important when you consider that single women, single mothers in particular, are often surrounded by other women who support them. What conservatives cannot confront head on is that Davis is a single mother and visibly not isolated by that fact. And she’s a public figure. Now, to make matters even worse, it is clear that she’s produced daughters who are like her. Last night, Dru and Amber Davis publicly wrote letters refuting claims made in the most recent spate of “bad mother” attacks on their mother. Is there no end to the Davis women’s shamelessness?

Our brains are bombarded from birth by images and stories of male fraternity and solidarity. Whether it’s school hallways plastered with photos of past presidents, legions of elves and dwarves making their way through Middle Earth, every major animated film made by Pixar, or sports teams that represent their cities, most of our images of collective effort and fellow-feeling are male.

From the time our children can listen to stories, watch movies or pick up a tablet or turn on a radio we ply them with stories that suppress representations of women as friends, as united, and as supportive of one another’s efforts or as heroic. There are some exceptions, of course, but there is no getting around the avalanche of facts attesting to the marginalization of images of female friendship.

What’s the benefit of telling children than powerful women can’t work together (despite the obvious untruth of this), that women don’t help one another (when they clearly do) and that they are destined to be dependent and peripheral (when they are so clearly struggling not to be)?

The clearest and simplest explanation is that it perpetuates institutionalized male domination of families, politics, media and the economy. I know, people laugh at expressions like “institutionalized male dominance” because of the alleged “boy crisis.” I laugh, too, when I hear “male dominated” used as a descriptor, because, what, pray tell, isn’t male dominated? Work? The female domination of teaching, administrative work and the care industries remains unchanged in 40 years. These are undercompensated and, for most men, considered, even still, “women’s work.” Religion? Puhleez [LINK?]. Politics? Get back to me when all-female congressional panels decide if men over 35 should or should not procreate. The End of Men, The Richer Sex, The Dead Patriarchy and the Boy Crisis will get my full attention when their effects translate into parity in politics and gender, the end to lifetime wealth and wage gaps, the equalizing of confidence and ambition across socioecononomic, racial and gender groups and an end to the relentless realities of domestic violence and sexual assault, from which children and women remain the most likely to suffer.

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/29/4_reasons_americas_afraid_of_women_with_friends/

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I guess the war on women is taking a whole new meaning.

[decocker 7,198]

I guess the war on women is taking a whole new meaning.

and you know what happens whenever america declares war on..uh poverty, drugs, etc.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

and you know what happens whenever america declares war on..uh poverty, drugs, etc.

Yep. But maybe we can turn this around