Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Purge

So I know this isn't my best self but I feel like I need to get some of this out of my system.  There is a lot of things that have been getting to me so if I write them out then I might be able to let them go.  So here is a list of things that have annoyed me this spring.

1. Trump supporters.  I am not sure where to begin.  There are Trump supporters who are simply happy to support someone who shares their worst views of the world, one focus group all agreed that Trump's main policies are unworkable and some unconstitutional but they are still going to vote for him.  There is one guy that argues that you are sexist if you call Trump sexist because you think women shouldn't be coddled, ignoring what he actual says and his history.  Then there are a special kind supporter who recently has watched the failure of their candidate to understand the delegate system crying about their rights.  Primaries are private organization's way of finding their candidate.  The party decides and has a system.  Here is the deal, you have no legal right to have a voice.  Especially like many Trump supporters (and Trump himself) who haven't been part of the party very long.  It wasn't that long ago that we didn't even use primaries so the whining is silly.  All in all these people who are acting like they are cheering on at a WWE event and not choosing the leader of the Western World are just dangerous to the values we all stand for and that is scary and annoying.

2. The Media.  I am stunned and shocked at just how much the role of the media has been in the rise of Trump.  In part because he is good television.  Morning shows have always been vacuous and thus play the game but some, like Morning Joe, have cultivated a sense of seriousness in the past.  Now they are worse than a FM morning radio show in a random midwest town who wish they had the intellectual discourse of Bob and Tom.  In fact, I have turned at times to right wing radio to get real discussion, and Bill Kristol is a voice reason.  I keep asking myself if I had followed a rabbit recently.

3.  Anti-LGBT laws and the supporters.  Let me start out by saying that gender is a social construct.  It is, we aren't born with gender we are born with sex,  Throughout history cultures have had more than the two genders that we associate with biological sex in our current western culture.  In fact people who didn't conform to the gender of their biological sex were consider extra spiritual and holy in many of those cultures.  But today if you are male you should present a gender identity in a fairly narrow focus.  Ambiguity is seen as disquieting.  So much more so by those who chose to transition so that their biology matches their gender identity.  Over the course of the last few decades the LGBT community has made great strides to claim their civil rights and their place in the tapestry of our culture. They have always been here, just too often hidden.  So it is not unusual today to encounter a transsexual person in everyday life.  And guess what they too have to use the bathroom. Some on the right have decided that to make laws forcing those people who have made the decision to go through with transitioning to use the bathroom of the sex on their birth certificate.  This in not only insane it is hateful discrimination. Yes hateful.  I could go into details about this but I can just ask, what is the state's interest in banning transgender people from using public restrooms that match their current gender and in many cases morphology?  Seriously.  The argument made by morons like Louie Gohmert who said that he would dress as a woman to get into a woman's bathroom shows the perverse nature of the right wing lunatics, a sentiment I have heard too often from preachers up to an including a guy who ran from  President.  What the hell is in these people's heads.
The bottom line is that we live with people who present their gender differently from us, they should not be made into pariahs because some on the right feel icky about it.  BTW chances are pretty good that you have used a restroom with someone who is transgender at some point in time and you certainly have been in the same bathroom and perhaps shower with someone who is gay if you ever went to school gym class.  Get over it and mind your own business.

4.  Men's Rights Activists  I have fought for men's rights most of my adult life.  I believe that gender equity is something that liberates us all.  Many times with Noah people would say "I see you are babysitting".  No you can't babysit your own kids it is called parenting.  I work most of my career in a female dominated arena and I have spent countless hours fighting for men in caring professions to not be seen as predators.  I have changed the way men are treated in early childhood settings and I have been vocal about men getting custody rights.  So I am pained when the first club out of a Men's rights advocate's bag is misogyny.  I see it all the time.  It is disgusting.  Equity means equity and while I have encountered a few women who spend most of their energy putting down straight men, they are not nearly the norm. Clearly there are women who have come to an anti-man stance.  There is also an anti-competency voice in mass media, particularly advertising, when it comes to men.  (How do I clean the dishes?  better get a woman).  Those are issues men's rights group can get behind.  But trying to make date rape legal?  Call women who want to control their own sexuality whores?  That is simply hate.

5.  The Role of Fathers in Advertising  As a follow up to what is above, there is a growing trend of commercials where men either attempt to or actually spy on their daughters on dates.  One Kevin Hart commercial comes to mind where he follows his daughter with her boyfriend to the point he frightens him.  This is an old tome but one that says a lot about our culture.  We don't want to discuss sexuality with our teens so use scare tactics to avoid the issue.  What if we taught boys and girls at an early age how to act appropriately with each other and how to express desire without having to make that desire so negative.  This could be a whole post in and of itself but it reduces the girls in these ads to simple weak minded victims and boys into sex-crazed predators.  Neither is healthy for our culture.

Okay enough negativity.  Maybe I will write something funny next.  I don't know but it is good to purge every now and then.

No comments:

It is All a Conspiracy

 Sometimes an event could have a giant impact on the world we live in, but not have a similar cause.  A disgruntled man takes aim from a six...