No time to do a real post about this right now, but be sure to check out this chat at the WaPo with Charlotte Allen in which she defends her “bitchez is dumb” op-ed piece.
A taste:
Knoxville, Tenn.: So, um, after skimming your previous responses, apparently you were somewhat serious in the overall point you were making about women’s dumbness. Then my question is this — how can you think this would be funny, when you’re basically regurgitating all the old arguments for women’s inferiority, with very little humorous spin at all? If someone were to write a piece like this about Afridan Americans, do you think they should consider it funny? Even something like this about men — arguably the least repressed group of human beings throughout history — would be in poor taste at best. So what made you think people would take the disparagement of women’s intelligence lightly?
Charlotte Allen: People are always writing pieces just like mine about men. It’s called feminist humor. As for African-Americans, for heaven’s sake! Women aren’t a historically oppressed minority; they’re half the population or more! What–are we women always supposed to portray ourselves as victims of patriarchy? That’s absurd in 2008 when we have every conceivable opportunity.
See, this is why I retired from blogging. I can’t keep up with the new post-modern satire.
I don’t think we do have every possibly opportunity when we can be insulted and degraded in the media with no consequence for the attacker.
But, but! Homer Simpson!
What we end up with is that we have every oppurtunity to be unsulted and drgraded by the media with no consequence for the attacker. Somehow I don’t think that that was the set of oppurtunities that were fought for throughout history.
Ha! Women have every conceivable opportunity? What bubble does she live in? I might just have to take up residency, it sounds like a great dream!
Besides, even if women do have every opportunity now it doesn’t mean they weren’t historically oppressed. Marriage rape wasn’t illegal in every state until 1993, just to name one thing.
So Pomfret defended himself by saying it was tongue-in-cheek, and Allen just threw him under the bus by essentially saying, “that wasn’t satire; bitchez iz dumb!!” He should learn his lesson that wingnuts will use him and burn him. But he won’t.
Also, want to bet that Charlotte Allen is absolutely sure that no woman she knows has been raped? Of course she doesn’t. I can’t imagine a woman telling Charlotte Allen what it’s like being a woman in this world.
Anna – I think there are STILL a few states that have marital rape exceptions on the books. Not that they would stand if challenged, but I think they’re still there.
(be back, going to check)
I’m back with good news and bad news. I was wrong – raping your spouse is a crime all over the U.S. Bad news – some states still diferrentiate between raping your spouse and raping someone you’re not married to and give WAY lower sentences for spousal rape.
Women aren’t a historically oppressed minority; they’re half the population or more!
Oy. The nitpicking idiocy of these people. “Oppressed” is the operative word, not “minority.”
And rightly so, as these things aren’t quite in the same league. Also, how exactly does one prove ‘spousal rape’, anyway? Unless someone got the whole thing on tape, there’s plenty of room for reasonable doubt, and therefore no case.
Why not?
Paraponera, raping one’s spouse isn’t in the same league as raping a stranger. It’s much worse. Raping a stranger is a horrible personal violation that most men cannot even imagine. Raping one’s spouse is that, plus a violation of the deepest and most intimate relationship of trust. Spousal rape should be a six point upward adjustment in a sentencing-guideline system.
But you were arguing the other way. Which makes you a bad person.
Oh, and Paraponera, why am I guessing that, when there are pictures of a woman’s black eyes and broken nose, you’d be the one juror to argue vociferously that the defendant’s “she fell and hit her face on the table” defense was plausible?
Please kill yourself. For the good of humanity.
HEY. Too far. Remember that you are talking to a person.
I’m not in any way defending what Paraponera said but it’s possible to counter that without incitement to suicide.
This whole Q & A session with her was frustrating- we already know she’s sexist and we can guess how she’s going to answer most of these questions (although she did come up with what she appeared to think were superbly clever zingers). If we wanted more info on her, we’d go to the IWF site.
What I would have preferred is a Q & A with the editors who chose to run her piece.
Parapnera – so you think that if a crime is hard to prove, the police and attorneys should just not bother? hard to prove is a perfectly valid answer to why conviction rates are lower for some crimes, but that’s it.
Dear lord!
Reading her responses to people made my eyes water! I almost want to laugh at the fact that she was playing a “dumb” woman in order to deflect answering questions regarding her article calling women dumb.
OMG! I just realized she’s trying to be Maureen Dowd!
Paraponera, rape is horrible enough. But rape by someone you trust? Not only someone you trust, but someone you’ve intertwined your life with and are closer to than anybody else? Someone you can’t avoid by barracading the door and standing on guard with mace, but someone who lives in your house and will be sharing your bed unless you pack a bag and leave your home forever (do you have anywhere to go)? I couldn’t imagine anything more horrible than being raped by my husband. It’s horrible that it took so long for that to be illegal, and it’s horrible that many states still think it’s a lesser crime. Just one more reminder that the patriarchy doesn’t want us to be independent human beings.
The horrible thing about this is that she is one of those people who believe that they actually benefit from a patriarchy, because she tries as hard as she can to distance herself from feminism while still reaping its rewards. She will never, ever take any report that disagrees with her worldview seriously because she wants so badly to believe she is just one of the boys.
my favorite part is: “It’s called feminist humor”! No. No, that article was neither feminist nor humorous. Thanks for playing.
Really? Oh for the sake of the 12 gods…On what planet? B/c I sure as fuck would rather live and raise my daughter there!
Oy w/ the poodles already!
JaneDoe, she wasn’t claiming her piece was feminist humor, she was claiming that feminist humor = tearing down men or calling men idiots. See, in Charlotte Land, feminism has nothing to do with equality or combatting her stupid self-loathing arguments, it’s about hurting the menz feelings.
You know, it’s another shade of the “why are black people allowed to say honkey?” defense.
eh, on pap’s comment….well he/she does have a point as far as prosecution of spousal rape. I am in the same boat as far as wondering how exactly do you prove it beyond the reasonable doubt standard. I dont care to compare spousal rape and stranger rape the way he/she did but I just dont understand how you could ever convict in that kind of case. Of course the cops should pursue it but, for example, if when my wife comes home today I demand sex or oral sex from her and threaten her with physical harm if she does not comply, how the heck can she prove that? If I was single and brought a woman home from a party and did the same thing, again how do you prove that beyond a reasonable doubt? I have no criminal history nor have I evere done anything like that (other than consensual bdsm) so what is the woman’s recourse?Something being wrong and proving guilt in court are so very different no? Sorry for going OT but I just dont get it (legally).
Oh boy, best response of the entire Q&A:
Washington:”They Scream, They Swoon. How Dumb Can Blacks Get?” “They Scream, They Swoon. How Dumb Can Men Get?” “They Scream, They Swoon. How Dumb Can Latinos Get?” Ha ha! Very funny. I’m laughing my head off. Inside. Get a clue.
Charlotte Allen: Is this a compliment or an insult?
My brain just broke into a thousand pieces.
Another gem:
And when did women get the vote–1921? 1923? Rape was a capital crime under Roman law. You know–the Romans, 2,000 years ago.
Well that solved that, then!!
Then she praised the “macho men” fighting in Iraq, and I stopped reading.
Oh I see. Thanks NicoleG. Still, a very odd…
You know, it’s really hard to be a feminist when there are certain women you want to be obviously oppressed by men.
But then again, she was probably one of those girls in high school wearing a short too skirt because it got her attention from the boys. An attention is power, so who gives a shit if you don’t have equal rights? Teehee!
James – WE KNOW spousal rape is harder to prove. That’s why conviction rates for spousal rape are low. No one here has argued for a lowering of the standard of proof. We just said that it should be treated like a real crime. Which is what it is.