Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ok, this is taking the "It's that bitch Palin's fault!" and

"Palin is a symbol of anti-Feminism!" to a whole new level of idiocy.
Here's where it started:
Two years ago in June, Bridget Kevane, a professor of Latin American and Latino literature at Montana State University, drove her three kids and two of their friends -- two 12-year-old girls, and three younger kids, age 8, 7 and 3 -- to a mall near their home in Bozeman. She put the 12-year-olds in charge, and told them not to leave the younger kids alone. She ordered that the 3-year-old remain in her stroller. She told them to call her on their cell phone if they needed her.

And then she drove home for some rest.

About an hour later, she was summoned back to the mall by the police, who charged her with endangering the welfare of her children
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Got that? Idiocy, Part I. Idiocy Part II:
The issue I want to take up today, however, is not that of tricky choices, or over- or under-involved parenting, questions that have already been discussed with much gusto elsewhere. What really sent my head spinning after reading Kevane's story was the degree to which it drove home the fact that our country's resentment, and even hatred, of well-educated, apparently affluent women is spiraling out of control.
Dumbass leaves kids at the mall so she can 'rest'. Dumbass is charged for this stupidity. But- of course- it wasn't actually a dangerous thing to dump the kids at the mall, oh no; she was charged because 'this country resents and hates well-educated, affluent women'. Yeah. Uh huh.

I now give you Idiocy Part III:
This simmering resentment is common and pervasive in our culture right now. The idea that women with a "major education" think they're better than everyone else, have a great sense of entitlement, feel they deserve special treatment, and are too out of touch with the lives of "normal" women to have a legitimate point of view, is a 21st-century version of the long-held belief that education makes women uppity and leads them to forget their rightful place. It's precisely the kind of thinking that has fueled Sarah Palin's unlikely -- and continued -- ability to pass herself off as the consummately "real" American woman. (And it is what has made it possible for her supporters to discredit other women's criticism of her as elitist cat fighting.)
I would submit that academic idiocy like this is what fuels people thinking that far too many 'well-educated' people are a bunch of elitist morons who happen to have a degree.

There's a bit more "You should be ashamed for not virtually worshipping women like this bitch who dumped her kids at the mall!"(my way of putting it), then we get this:
This is why Palin -- in her down-home aw-shucks posturing -- is the 21st-century face of the backlash against women's progress. This is why Kevane could be threatened and humiliated in front of her kids, menaced with jail time and ultimately railroaded into cutting a deal with the prosecution, once she realized she'd never be popular enough with local jurors to have a shot at making a successful not-guilty plea in court. (Paradox of paradoxes, as part of her deferred prosecution agreement, she was sentenced to even more education: in the form of a parenting class.)

The hatred of women -- in all its archaic, phantasmagoric forms -- is still alive and well in our society, and when directed at well-educated women, it's socially acceptable, too. Think of this for a second the next time you're inexplicably moved to put an "elite" woman in her place
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First, Warner, Kevane was 'threatened and humilitiated', i.e. arrested, FOR DUMPING HER KIDS AT THE MALL, YOU EFFING JACKASS! The oldest was 12, the youngest was 3, and the left them and said "Call me if you have a problem." This 'well-educated' woman is a fool, and so are you for excusing her for her actions. She 'cut a deal', I'm guessing, because she didn't want to try to explain this stupidity to a jury, but you have to see it otherwise because facing the fact that she screwed up bigtime just isn't acceptable to you. Oh, and she obviously needs the parenting class, or a first-class kick in the ass for what she did.

Second, 'backlash against women's progress'? Are you freakin' insane? Here's a women who basically did what feminazis like you said was possible: wife, mother, and successful; went to school board to mayor's office to the governor of the damned state, and 'well-educated' vicious fools like you attacked her in every way possible for succeeding while not being of the 'Approved By NOW' type of woman while she did it. She didn't abort a baby what would be handicapped, she didn't excuse or apologize for her beliefs, and you couldn't stand it. And you're still blaming her for, or making her a symbol of, your problems. And isn't it interesting that most of the trash thrown at her hasn't been from those nasty 'anti-woman, anti-intellectual' people, but by fools like you?

You have just proven that the problem isn't education or woman-hating by the masses(as you probably like to refer to people); it's jerks like you. And the well-educated idiot who dumped her kids for the day.

2 comments:

Don said...

Just so we're clear, her position is that if I drove my 12-year old twin boys to the mall, left them with money and a cell phone and their two-year-old brother in a stroller, and went home to take a nap, I wouldn't have been arrested for neglecting my children . . . because I'm a man?

I especially had to re-read the part where she lists all the careful precautions Mommy Dearest took (ohh, she told the 12-year-old to do the right thing! That always works on 12-year-olds!) to try to make it seem like it was so unreasonable to investigate. What do people expect, anyway, for parents to supervise and care for their toddlers?

Firehand said...

Ah, but this was the 12-year-old-in-charge who's the offspring of a well-educated feminist WOMAN; that automatically gets her points for superiority.

Or something.