I've voted every year since I was 18. I literally would've been Alex P Keaton and voted with fake ID when I was younger if I could've pulled it off. So over the years I've known plenty of people that have no real interest in the political system and never wanted or tried to vote. Pretty much every one of them from 30 something to 80 something voted this election. What I have found out about most of them--they are dumbasses. They know nothing about the political process. They could care less if the choices of their elected officials are what what they want them to be. Which is funny as hell when you consider that they wanted a change--elected officials that are listening. Some dumb bitch told me on friend's social media post that she "trusted" the new President to choose wisely so she had no idea what choices he's made. Hilarious. Considering she only voted because she was told by others that she should be tired of not being listened to and politicians not doing what we "wanted" them to do. How the hell do you trust them to do what you want? You just trust they will?? After voting because they didn't do what they promised and you're still not paying attention?? Newsflash: That is how they keep doing whatever they want. Because people like this idiot just "trust" them after they are elected. I was blown away. Welcome to the world where half plus don't pay attention. It's hilarious. They point fingers at each other. It's their neighbor's fault. It's their Dem neighbor's fault. It's their GOP neighbor's fault. It's they voted conservative politics and everyone else is evil. It's they voted liberal politics and everyone else is evil. Idiots.
So the women's march....We are not equal. It isn't democrat. In fact, women that voted for Trump actually marched too. Yep, look it up. It isn't republican. It isn't liberal politics. It isn't conservative politics. It isn't politics at all. They want women to believe it is. They want everyone to believe it is. They wanted in the 70s for women to believe that the only women that wanted "equal" were dykes. In the 80s, we, mostly GenX, bought this bullshit because we were told to. But GenX women were raped at rates of 3 out of 4--75%. We almost all knew our assailant. Millenials are raped at a rate of 3 out of 5. We are not equal. That's not equal. We would love to pretend we are. It's not even close. And, before you pat yourself on the back because of some shitty meme you saw telling you what men who rape complete strangers are looking for...Guess what? Rape by an unknown assailant is still less than 12%. Women do not normally get raped by people we don't know. Your daughters, your granddaughters get raped by someone they know at 3 out of 5. You have 5 granddaughters? Odds are 3, yes 3, will be raped before they are 25. You can bitch about how the most recent attempt at bringing women's rights to the forefront is about a man. No. It's about defending our daughters, our granddaughters and other women.
Oh, yes, the women's march. It was only the next try in the last 50 years. The women's march has been done over and over and over. Look up the Million Man march. You'll see all kinds of photos and articles for the black version of the million man march. The original, look up 1920s Million Man March. You'll find hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of when the KKK marched on Washington. Bet many didn't even know that there were 2 Million Man marches. Yet, women have marched on Washington in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the first 10 years of the new millennium AND this past weekend. Do a search. Good luck finding any information on those other ones. This is probably the only one that you'll find any information about. So, the current President said some really nasty things about women during the election. The women that planned the march, well, they decided to take advantage of the media coverage. Can you blame them? We've been lucky to get local coverage--national? Pish posh. But this time, we got national and a lot of it, and if that brings a lot of the inequities and issues with women's rights to the attention of people who have literally spent decades ignoring it, then that's a good thing.
When Nancy Reagan attempted to speak out against rape, allowing women to choose how our bodies were treated, and pushing for laws to make date rape a felony, the women, the Baby Boomer women, that could have made a difference were too busy with their "freed" sexuality to give a shit about their daughters or granddaughters. There were still blue book laws that said their husbands could rape them legally even if separated. They didn't want to talk about rape. And when you did, it was always the woman's fault for being raped. Baby Boomer women had a chance to change it, but it was the Nancy Reagan generation, the Silent Generation women that made the last real changes. When they left the political scene, the changes stopped. The last blue book law allowing a man to rape his wife was eliminated in 1991. Shortly before the end of the last Silent Generation Presidency--Bush Sr.
The estimate is that 95-97% of all Baby Boomer women were raped. GenX estimates are at 75%. And our children, your grandchildren, granddaughters, they estimate 3 out of 5--60%. I don't know how anyone could find that acceptable. I find it nauseating. How is it okay that 60% of women under the age of 25 (because that's what they always base these stats on) will or have been raped? Oh right. I forgot. That victim is the perpetrator logic. We asked for it. They asked for it. You asked for it. Maybe the Baby Boomers did, but I promise GenX didn't and neither are the Millennials or subsequent generations. If a woman reported rape in the 80s and 90s, they were guaranteed to be ostracized. Guaranteed to be blamed. And worse, since 88% of all rapes are by someone we know, the rape victims were often portrayed as liars that wanted it but cried wolf after because this or that or whatever--some lame brain idiotic thing meant to make the victim into a villain--as if being raped wasn't bad enough. We, women, men, all of us, have failed miserably and many women are still making excuses that put other women in their places like some twisted version of Munchhausen syndrome. But if you are a grandmother of Millennials, think about this one: If you have 5 granddaughters, current statistics say 3 of them will be raped. Are you ready to stop playing Aunt Toms and start defending other women for the sake of your granddaughters?
Oh I know. Many of them argue it's not the same anymore. Rapists go to prison. No, they don't. 97% of all men arrested for rape never spend a single day in jail. That's right NINETY SEVEN PERCENT. 994 out of 1000 charged rapists never will see the inside of a jail cell. Let that sink in. Hell, just last year, a star college tennis player or track or whatever, raped a girl he saw at a party by drugging her and following her. Two other men caught him, held him until police arrived, testified at this jerk's trial, and he got 6 months. Even more heinous, reduced to 3 months for good behavior. GOOD BEHAVIOR? What message do you think this kind of crap sends to young women? Hell, any women?
How does this stuff still happen? The Aunt Toms. You know those women that ask what she was wearing. Ask why was she even at that party. What kind of student was she? What kind of family does she have? Just love that one. Like if she came from a poor family she might be asking for it more than a rich girl would. How come she was alone? Insinuating that being alone somehow is offering herself up. What kind of sexual partners has she had? Is she promiscuous? Ugh, NO is still NO no matter what she did in her past. The Aunt Toms actually will victimize the victim even more than the rapist did.
So the Aunt Toms this week wanted to make the newest women's march, all of it--the only ever to receive full national coverage from the media into some vested interest in Trump. But even women who voted for Trump, wearing their Trump hats, joined the march. Yes, fact. There were even pictures of them in the national media. The march was about women. Our rights. The things we are still denied by our own country. We no longer can be legally raped by our husbands, and we probably have a better chance of getting an abusive rapist husband convicted than we would an acquaintance or complete stranger. How sad is that? We only have a 3% chance of being given justice by our justice system. Think about that. Your daughters, your granddaughters, your friends, your loved ones--only a 3% chance of getting a conviction and justice.
This version of responding to rape: you asked for it, you wanted it, you wished, you were in the wrong place, you should've, you could've, you, you. you. It devalues another woman; it devalues all of us. This women's march, while we don't have to agree with everything some of them said or did, the facts stand. Domestic violence is still huge. Rape is still huge. The inequities in salaries are still huge. Sexual harassment is still huge. We are out of the industrialized nations on this planet number one per capita for rape. Let that sink in. Number one. We devalue our women as much and in some casees more than many extremist religious countries do.
The women that marched and many of us that didn't no longer view rape this way. The victim of rape did nothing wrong. It doesn't matter what you were wearing. We don't care if you have slept around. You have the right to say no. The #womensmarchonwashington was about all women having the right to be who you are without the fear of being treated as less. We are not meat. We have the right to equality under the law. Only 3% conviction rates or six months in a correctional facility is NOT equality under the law. We have the right to say no and the right to be believed. The Baby Boomer grandmothers would die metaphorically if they knew their granddaughters were raped. Many of them would probably die if they knew their daughters were--and the statistics are 3 out of 4 of their daughters were. What this march was about??? We stand beside you. We would fight for you and we would not back down. We are united as women to end rape. We are united to end the inequity in the law that allows almost all rapists to walk free. Here's the biggest change of all. Many men, especially those that have little girls, are just as committed to ending this now that they know the facts. Make no mistake, Aunt Toms need to leave well enough alone. You have been the problem. We are no longer okay accepting that rape is a norm for the majority of women.
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