Republican Rape

Advertisement

Heroic women are all around us

I’m thinking, perhaps history’s greatest writer of dialogue for women, who gave them voice with the greatest dignity, was a man. William Shakespeare.

Read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a silly Rom-Com with magic faeries and a man with the head of an ass — a literal ass. Not exactly highbrow. But right off the bat, we see a young woman who must marry a man she loves not, forsaking him she loves, because the custom of the day and the law itself makes her chattel. Her only alternative is death, or consignment to solitude for life. Her frail body has no power to resist, her status moves no one, she has no protector, not even her father. But she has the will, the heart, to declare that so shall she live, so shall she die, she will not give herself up to the yoke of an unwanted master.

Or how about that same young woman, when promising to meet in secret her true love, swearing “by all the vows that men have ever broke, in number more than women ever spoke.” True dat.

Masculinity

A recent advertisement by Gillette argues for men to be better, the best we can be, in part by shedding the ugliness of toxic masculinity. It has sparked some controversy. The main objection I’ve heard is from men who reject the premise. Masculinity isn’t toxic, so fuck you!

How strong should the biceps be to cradle a man’s ego? Because nothing is more fragile when dropped back down to earth. The mass alone accounts for 80% of the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Shady Politicians

I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions that Republican party politicians are much more likely than Democrats to deny man-made global warming and/or its danger. But I have hoped for some time that the Republican party would shed their extremist stupid wing and move back toward the center. I’d like to have a genuine choice when I vote, but I haven’t felt that way for quite a while.