Three Things That Cheered Me Up (and one that didn't)
Three Things That Cheered Me Up (and One That Didn’t)
Thing One. Three years ago Gabe Roth bought a handful of URLS. Gabe, who’s the executive director of the non-partisan group Fix The Court, thought it looked like several judgeships were in play. And Fix The Court, in its mission to bring more transparency to the court system, wanted the opportunity to exploit any issues triggered by the changing of the guard. We know how that turned out: despite several accusations of sexual assault, Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court. For life. I’ve had to hold my breath every time Clarence “Pubic Hair” Thomas came on camera. Now I have to add Brett “Boofer” Kavanaugh to the list. Luckily Roth had purchased BrettKavanaugh.com – and BrettKavanaugh.net and BrettKavanaugh.org – and he posted this on those sites:
The websites list links to several resources for anyone seeking support and help including the National Sexual Violence Resource Center; End Rape on Campus, and RAINN, the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network.
Thing Two. Anything by Randy Rainbow but this in particular - his hilarious take-down of Kavanaugh to the tune of “Camelot.”
Thing Three. If you haven’t heard of Tarana Burke, she’s the remarkable activist who launched the “MeToo” movement a decade ago. She recently did a podcast for the ACLU with Alyssa Milano – another survivor’s advocate – that is not only inspiring but just so damned evolved. Tarana keeps it real – she admits she still has days when she can’t get out of bed – but her sense of purpose, her patience, and her faith that change is coming will fire you up.
And One That Didn’t. Washington Post, you do a lot of good. But this article you published, “Beyond ‘no means no’: What most parents aren’t teaching their sons about sexual consent” misses the point and does a lot of damage as a result.
The core question, according to WAPO is “How can a mother or father prevent their teenage son from someday being accused of sexual assault?” Because “what if she wakes up and decides that it wasn’t consensual?” (emphasis mine.) In other words, since we can’t keep these unreliable girls from deciding to ruin our sons’ lives, how do we protect our sons? This makes my blood boil on a lot of levels but lets start with this. Sexual Assault is no different than any other felony - false reports make up only 5% of complaints. So, Mom and Dad, chances are that Junior did something - in fact 95% of the time, it’s safe to say Junior did something. So, instead of warning him about unreliable girls, how about you say, ‘Son? Until you can treat a young woman like a human being and come to an agreement about what you want to do sexually, DON’T TOUCH HER!’ I mean seriously, WAPO, you’re not doing young men any favors here. Most of them are lovely people. By implying that they’re incapable of having honest conversations with potential partners - and that young women are the enemy - you’re just making the problem worse.
Till next month, love you. Pass it on.