Even though I’m still capable of
passions—in this case, deep and overwhelming despair—
Sorry for the soapboxing but those
of us who live by moral codes, who have what we believe is a decent sense of
right and wrong, took it on the chin pretty hard last week. Yes, this is yet
another opinion piece about Donald Trump. No, I won’t try to encompass the
scope of the danger the world now faces with this man (and the frightening
torch-carriers that support him) in here. It’s too big. Racism, sexism, the
rise of blatant ignorance, the attack on the media, the attack on truth—it
overwhelms me. But it’s not new with Trump, it’s just gone from being the sad
thing we don’t talk about enough to the horrifying thing that put such a man in
power.
They’re all bad, these topics, and
anyone saying they’re isolated to the United States is living a very deluded
existence. But that seems to be catching lately.
All of these horrors exist north
of the 49th, and Trump’s election is just giving them entitlement to
go from seething to screaming. Just like the folks we’ve seen interviewed at
Trump rallies going “He tells it like it is and, uh, tells it like it is.” Yes
he does. And just what it is will
define a generation of pigs.
Enough preamble, had to choose one
subject to decry. This one’s on sexism.
Look at the news in Southern
Alberta and you won’t have to bump around long before you encounter three
examples:
1)
The
PC Leadership race, in which the only two female hopefuls pulled out after what
Sandra Jansen described as attacks on her character and her sex—specifically in
regards to LGBQT rights. Favoured to win, Jason Kenney could only
say it’s the way things work at leadership conventions and rallies. If two women
drop out of the race because of bullying does this former federal politician “man”
up and say he will root out the problem? No, because that’s not the way his
party works, especially if it wants to appeal to the extreme right Wild Rose
voters. Let’s not forget that this is the party that’s responsible for the
Allison Redford smear and Rachel Notley memes. The support base—and I’d argue much
of the party’s brass—have just never cottoned to women in authority
2)
Red Deer MLA Barb Miller suffers trolling when
fake Facebook and Twitter accounts are created and then inflammatory comments
posted. This is nothing new, but the backlash against these comments from
people who believed the ruse were embarrassing, even for online comment boards,
which have replaced reality TV as the place humanity shows itself at its most
deplorable. These trolls couldn’t resist jabs at Miller’s gender, because one
thing Albertans seem to hate more than a socialist or liberal is a female socialist or liberal. What’s
next? Native or Muslim?
3)
Calgary
city councilor Dianne Colley-Urquhart meets privately with female members of
Calgary’s police force to hear about the constant sexual harassment they have
received. An ugly topic that keeps coming up regarding our police force and
military. We can handle letting women die for us, but they better be ready to
be called “honey” and grabbed by the, well, I’m sorry—couldn’t quite say it.
These three examples are just the ones in the
news today. Rachel Notley is daily
degraded in
some way
online and it is rare that her gender is not attributed even indirectly to her
fitness to lead. And I’m saying that politely. These are just the politicians,
this is just Alberta. The disease is far more pervasive than that.
Here’s the worse news: Alberta is
really just a sexist province in what is still a fairly sexist country in a
world where sexism (along with the other moral crimes outlined above) just got
a loud and traumatizing endorsement. The Women’s Liberation movement just took
a fifty year backwards step and those that defend the decision can only thump
their tubs and say “Hillary bad.” I am not her biggest fan, but far too many of
those who voted against her are from the same establishments and social classes
as those fanning the sexist flames here in Alberta, and her gender was all the
justification they needed to vote for a man with the hormones of a 14 year old,
the vocabulary of an 8 year old, and the values of an ape.
So, fellas, we have some work
ahead of us. Those of us who are men and who say we are not sexist and try
through our actions to not be sexist have done so too quietly. As a friend of
mine said, speaking to me in her utter despair for women everywhere, we as men
can no longer approach this with just a “do-no-harm” attitude. We can’t simply try
not to marginalize and persecute women because they are marginalized and persecuted. Ship sailed. We need to be
proactive than that. We as men have to strike out against it, have to attack
the sexist agenda of any men who support Trump-thinking (oxymoron if there ever
was one) and see no wrong in the three cases I listed above, or in the millions
like them.
In every way we need to get
louder. Feminism is being undermined by a form of chauvinism that’s seeing young
men adopt the outlooks of their grandfathers on their worst days. Spend twenty
minutes in a club on a Saturday and tell me I’m wrong. Attend any board meeting
or staff meeting and listen for ten minutes before a woman’s sex—even if it’s
intended as a compliment—becomes the key to her identity. The very tem “nasty
woman” that Trump used for Hillary shows this: an adjective and a gender pronoun,
all you need to know about her fitness to lead.
Men need to be feminist, and we
need to do it quick, to be just as loud in the face of the dinosaurs as they
are with us, yet without stooping to the outright garbage these “locker-room”
jokers will. Sadly, we can no longer side with women, bravely call ourselves
feminist, and risk the jibes of other men and call it enough. This calls for
action, not standing aside atop the moral high ground. This needs to be
confronted head on.
It’s not just about not being
sexist. It’s about being brazenly and loudly feminist--though I have to admit we can't call ourselves feminists, we can only be called that by women who see solidarity from our actions. But if the idea of being called a feminist makes you squirmy, guys, it just shows how far we smug Canadians had grown
before the Americans voted themselves and us back to the Stone Age.
Sources:
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