The Equal Rights Amendment means a day of peace for me. A day where I won’t have to be harassed while walking to class. A day when my thoughts aren’t interupted by a man yelling at me from a car. A day where I can wear a cute skirt without fear of being catcalled all day long.
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn case has given us an opportunity to see how rape culture affects national coverage of rape. We have seen victim blaming from respected news publications using irrelevant details to discredit the accuser’s case (last time I checked, having truthful immigration papers does not make anyone more or less likely to become a survivor of sexual assault). This case is hugely important because rape culture does not exist on some far away plane, and it does not take Strauss-Kahn’s prestige to get off scot-free.
Elizabeth Warren is one of the few voices standing up for true consumer protection, and she is being prevented from having the recognition of leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she envisioned, and the power that comes with this recognition. Republicans have been working tirelessly to block recess appointments, particularly this one. Despite this opposition, the decision to appoint remains solely in the hands of President Obama.
Claiming (with no evidence and only one anonymous source) that an immigrant woman working as a hotel maid is actually a “hooker” is sexist, racist and classist, to say the least. Implicit in this accusation is that a prostitute cannot be raped, or that any claim she makes of being raped should not be taken seriously.
Is the idea in Judaism that men and women should be separate based on this ideal of “separate but equal”?