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Pillars of PowerWhose supporting patriarchy? from GenderGappers |
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GenderGappers |
It's a man's world and he has secured it upon four, strong pillars. They have supported how he shaped the past, how he is shaping the present and how he will shape the future. First Pillar: Control of Information: What we hear and see via the media is what we come to believe. The Political Party that owns the media controls it. It is certainly no accident that Dubya, oozing charm from every pore, has dominated all the media with little or no critical appraisal. Nor is it accidental that Clinton's actions are put in the worst possible light by exaggerated claims. For example, he is accused of "cleaning out all the furniture in the White House". Meanwhile, none of the press notices that "W" appears only for short announcements and takes only selected questions on selected topics. This isn‚t just the usual honeymoon, it's a cop out by a media in collusion with Cheney and the White House staff to make a silk purse out of an asshole. Clinton is assailed both for the pardons he made and the ones the media think he should have made. For eight years, the Repugnants investigated everything they could think of to topple him from the Presidency and now that he is finally out, they are still investigating him. We can expect this to intensify as the GOPpers continue their campaign to gain a larger majority in Congress in two years. The media is also berating Al Gore as he goes about his new role teaching graduate courses. Meanwhile, we hear little from our Democratic Congressional Members, in fact, nearly every voice of opposition is stilled, except for that found at Web sites. While the media is telling us that opposition to Dubya's presidency has nearly vanished, we know that it really is gaining ground and flourishing via the many internet sites that link together to spread the word. http://www.thenation.com/special/2001electoralreform.mhtml We are watching and listening to a huge media blitz to demonize everyone and everything in the Democratic Party. The tone of this blitz is mostly low, soothing and seductive. Their polls say that this is the way to reach women and influence them. That's also why Dubya is all cloying, sweet and lovey-dovey. Is this the same creep who took such delight in mocking a woman who pleaded to him for her life just months ago? Is this the candidate in one of the presidential debates that took such joy in carrying out the death penalty when he was governor of Texas? Yes, it is the same person.
Second Pillar: Political/Governing: maintaining the status quo - male domination. Women are the majority gender in our country but not in our government. They are certainly allowed to be political, but they are cruelly under-represented and they have very little clout. They are not able to raise the huge amounts needed for campaigns because of society's suspicion and low expectations of women's abilities - unhappily, many women concur, so both genders tend NOT to support women candidates. How did this come about? By conditioning and training for generations. How she dresses, what she wants and how she acts is pre-determined by years of a culture that has conditioned many women into remaining little girls in their tiny dresses, silly hair styles, painted faces and hairless bodies than men desire. Then, having attained the goal the culture demands of her, she accepts as normal that the culture describes her as vain and self absorbed, and calls her a slut and a whore. We also may be suspicious of women candidates or critical of them because of what the media has told us about what a woman should look like and what a woman should aspire to. Our thinking and feeling regarding the abilities of women are carefully orchestrated by the information we have received throughout our life. Look at how our society excoriates strong, independent women who go into politics. Look at how women themselves are leading the disapproval and criticism. In her time, Eleanor Roosevelt fought the constant condemnation of her own gender and powerful men directed and financed it just as they do today. For more examples of how strong women were buried in the past see: http://www.gendergappers/1997-010.htm During the last 8 years we have seen the media assail now Senator Hillary Clinton. The independent council was not able to prove any of the many charges lodged by the GOPsters against the First Lady. Today, they are still assaulting her in the media. The latest criticism of Hillary is that she is not glamorous! Neither Hillary nor Janet Reno has gotten the support of women that they are entitled to. They both courageously assailed the barriers thrown up against women's right to autonomy. The male supported 'feminista‚ leads the charge against them and against all women who dare to define themselves and especially those that would aspire to political leadership. [Hillary], she wrote, "began her Senate committee work looking like a bug-eyed, droopy derelict flushed out of a train tunnel." -- Camille Paglia http://www.salon.com/people/col/pagl/2001/02/07/inaug/print.html It wasn't so long ago that voting was denied for idiots, imbeciles, aliens, the insane and women. This was a standing law in Texas until 1918. Which one of the above best describes us now?
Third Pillar: Religion/Spiritual: Edgar Cayce lived and died in the last Century. He was a devout Christian and was concerned when his trance states revealed to him some things that were definitely anti-Biblical. One such revelation concerned a tribe called the Essens - the tribe that Jesus came from. Cayce saw women in high positions in the religious hierarchy of that tribe. Of course the churches roundly condemned him for such heresy. Recently, archeologists uncovered some burial grounds of the Essens. Burials of that time sharply differentiated the remains of the important and powerful, buried with their signs of high office, from the common masses. They found women‚s remains buried with the symbols of a high priest, showing that these women were given the preferential treatment and position in the religion that Bible writers and transcribers only assigned to men. Just how reliable is the Biblical written record of that time that has delineated the low place of womankind? Was it intentional that religions developed in the interest of the male establishing him as "godlike" by assigning a male god, a male son as the hierarchy of his church? Was it intentional that the church itself was given the female gender? It would seem so. Woman, defined by man‚s religion, is designated the servant of man and as such, his property -- which is the basis for governmental control of women, THE BASIS FOR DENYING AUTOMOMY. Through the ages she has been the mainstay and the keeper in many of the world's religions. In modern times, she is the one that goes to church and trains the children while he watches the ball game. She is the one who holds the rummage and bake sales to support church functions. None the less, she is also the one who is entirely overlooked in the power structure of theocracy. That's bad enough, but what's worse is that she is complicit in the societal downplaying of her worth and abilities. Forever content to be doormats, many women are eager to bring down anyone of their gender who dares to try to escape the constricts (sic) of the four pillars. Fourth Pillar: WOMEN: A child soon learns that he will grow up to become a man but that she never can. Why is this important? It is vitally important because it robs her of her self-worth and confidence right at the start of her life. She will always be playing catch-up, always knowing that she never can, while he accepts his elevated [over women] position in society as normal.
Think it's great that a woman, Condoleezza Rice is NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR? Think again. Acting President Cheney is already taking over control of at least one of the NSA's most important positions, that of Chair of the Principals committee. There are constant examples all over the TV, radio, movies and the Internet that reinforce this gender specific programming. Recently we heard this during a „TV news‰ program: A panel of 3 males and 1 female were discussing what the proposed tax cut would mean "to the average JOE". One panelist said: "Take a guy that earns say 40 thousand, no, wait. Most guys‚ wives work, so say he makes 60 or 70 thousand." Surely we should expect anyone in this day and age to declare that if Joe's wife worked, the family income would be 60 -70 thousand? Actually, we shouldn't. Not when men control information. However, we should realize, when we constantly hear things of this sort that the majority opinion is that men still do own their wives, her income and her body. Clearly that is why women's reproductive functions are STILL under the control of the government. The paper today contained the news that two women had died. One was an accomplished writer of thirteen books, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The headline and the first paragraph identified her as "the wife of Charles A. Lindbergh," driving home the point once again that a woman's significance was NOT in what she accomplished. The other woman was Dale Evans, a singer-actress. The opening paragraph announced that she teamed with her husband Roy Rogers and wrote their trademark song, "Happy Trails To You". Of course his horse, Trigger, got top billing over a woman. We know that women are still severely limited in roles and scope in movies. After six years of attracting hundreds of thousands of fans in every country in the world, Xena-Warrior Princes has gotten the ax from its USA screening network. This show filled every requirement for a TV program in America: sex, violence and tons of fans. However, it was sending the wrong message to girls and boys and women and men. Xena! A woman superhero who just got stronger and more independent. Xena! A woman superhero who defied, and gave serious whupass to, men's gods is not the message we are supposed to see and hear. There was danger that if the TV Movie, Xena, continued, "Her courage WOULD change the world."
Twanda@gendergappers.org http://www.twanda.org
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