Author Topic: Women's Issues (Read 380291 times)

jane · « **Reply #1120 on:** January 12, 2014, 10:08:46 AM »

Women's Issues

If Art imitates Life, what does Literature show about the place of women in our society? From the Red Tent to the new movie Anna Karenina, to Malala Yousafzai in the news, has the state of women changed? What IS the state of women today, in your opinion?

Let's talk about how women are portrayed in the press, and in literature, and how accurate it is. How does advertising reflect, if it does, how women are portrayed? (Remember heels and pearls to sell refrigerators?)

How does it seem to you that women are portrayed today?

Let's talk!

National Women's History Project

jane · « **Reply #1121 on:** January 12, 2014, 10:10:47 AM »

I see that's from 2011, so apparently....gasp...could it be??? that common sense prevailed and that idea died in some committee?

Steph · « **Reply #1122 on:** January 12, 2014, 10:24:54 AM »

Extremely weird. Every single one of my posts from yesterday are gone. Am I nuts.. hallucinating?? oh well.

maryz · « **Reply #1123 on:** January 12, 2014, 10:57:22 AM »

MaryPage, I clicked on your link, and got blocked out, with a message from my Norton that it was a fake web site. Interesting.

Strange, Steph. I remember seeing some of your posts.

jane · « **Reply #1124 on:** January 12, 2014, 11:03:04 AM »

There was some sort of server glitch/error and nobody could get in to SeniorLearn. So, the server people had to reset/restore the discussions back to a "safe" time....and that was 11:00 pm the night before. So, you're not hallucinating or anything....

MaryPage · « **Reply #1125 on:** January 12, 2014, 11:50:27 AM »

I am so sorry. I was sent that website and I posted it in here. But that was ALL this morning and had nothing to do with this site having problems last night. Jane, you are swifter than I by a long ways! I did not catch the date of the proposed legislation.

JoanK · « **Reply #1126 on:** January 12, 2014, 03:22:06 PM »

That's incredible!

Steph · « **Reply #1127 on:** January 13, 2014, 09:30:58 AM »

At last we are back to normal. am caught up in the New Jersey mess.. I find it hard to believe that he did not even notice when the commotion was going on.. Hmm.

maryz · « **Reply #1128 on:** January 13, 2014, 01:50:14 PM »

I've just read an interview with Maria Shriver in the new AARP magazine. It mentions her project, The Shriver Report. It's about the status of women in the world today. Thought the folks here might like to check it out.

http://shriverreport.org/

MaryPage · « **Reply #1129 on:** January 14, 2014, 07:53:38 AM »

I saw the program with Maria Shriver and a lot of real life women on MSNBC last night. Maria is doing a Great job getting the message out there that we are a majority everywhere except in running things, and that we need to become a group together and get the power we deserve and still lack because we do not utilize a single, focused voice.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1130 on:** January 14, 2014, 08:00:10 AM »

As for the New Jersey mess, I listened to the whole Christie press conference last week, and came away admiring his stamina and seeming candor. He convinced me!

Then I listened to all the talking heads, especially the Sunday Morning crowd on each network, and have been listening to the regular news and the cable guys & gals since. It rather stuns me that the majority seem to have doubts about his not knowing, and this does not run to political party so much as to experience. A lot of these people have been in office or have worked on the staffs of office holders. They seem to have a lot of doubts, and they bring up things I never even thought about. So I am in a quandry as to whether or not to believe him.

At dinner last night, my son in law opined that the Hurricane Sandy money he spent on advertising the Jersey Shore will be an even bigger problem for Christie politically. Say What?

I just don't know. My head is swirling.

Steph · « **Reply #1131 on:** January 14, 2014, 08:50:27 AM »

Jersey is one of those states that have decidedly odd politicians.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #1132 on:** January 14, 2014, 12:51:08 PM »

He is a charming manipulator I will give him that - which goes hand in glove with those who successfully abuse power and use others to obtain power -

Look at all power grabbers from the abusive wife batterer who starts off charming the pants off her and everytime he abuses he begs forgiveness in a way that not only flatters her but sounds sincere and he knows just the buttons to push -

There are some in all walks of life who use these tactics and as Steph says old time politics was rife with those who were the best at looking good while manipulating the heck out of the public.

However, I do agree that sometimes we assume folks "should" know about something and they sincerely do not - but I agree with your family member MaryPage who sees the handwritting on the wall about the use of Fed Funds after Sandy - the issue as i see it is politics and the GOP for the last few years seem to do a good job of eating themselves. That last primary for the presidential nominee was a poster for the dysfunction in the party.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1133 on:** January 14, 2014, 01:52:45 PM »

I am honestly at sea in studying BOTH issues regarding Christie.

Re the use of funds, it would seem reasonable to me that one of the TOP PRIORITIES the business folk of the New Jersey beaches had was to get tourists to come back. On the down side, I hear repeatedly that there was a great deal of promotion in there for Christie himself, and the ads featured him and his family a lot. While, of course, those multi millions could have been spent on restoring homes and streets, etc. Infrastructure and utilities. I just don't know all the argumentation pro and con.

As for my having been convinced by Christie himself (and Barbara, you are of course right on regarding charming con criminals, male or female), I truly was. Was convinced. And then I hear all these men and women who have actually worked in governor's, senator's, congressmen's offices, and are saying it was just not possible in ANY of the places they worked for their bosses at the top not to have known! Basically, while they are giving many arguments, they are saying it does not fit the framework within which they work for him not to have known.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #1134 on:** January 14, 2014, 02:35:25 PM »

MaryPage as I understand it was not just that he and his family were featured in the film that yes, does promote tourism but in order to assure that exposure he spent far more than he had to in order to accomplish the same thing another company, who would only use their actors with a much lower price tag was ditched so that more money went into the final film that could have been used elsewhere. The additional costs may have something to do with hiring a non-union film crew since this is a big union supported area of the country.

nlhome · « **Reply #1135 on:** January 14, 2014, 06:45:11 PM »

Mr. Christie doesn't follow "the buck stops here" philosophy. He was the boss, he should have known - frankly, I believe he did know. He's too smart a man not to have known.

Steph · « **Reply #1136 on:** January 15, 2014, 08:54:43 AM »

Nice feature on Wendy Davis on Today just now.. but the Texas male pol said it best..Texas is a conservative state and she is not that popular there. A shame. She could be very good for the state.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1137 on:** January 15, 2014, 09:24:33 AM »

I totally agree, Steph. And what is more, she is not from Privilege. She pulled herself up "by the bootstraps," which should make her extremely popular in Texas. But hey, females don't count! What she has accomplished starting from nowhere and immense challenges is flat out astounding! You would think Texans, of all people, would cheer for that.

I have no wish to push a point of view or a newsgiver on you, but if you are missing Rachel Maddow at nine EST on MSNBC you are missing the breaking news on the Christie front. Sad to say, I would guess they've "got him" now. The man he says he went to the same High School with and otherwise barely knows and had not seen for ages? Two photos came up showing the two of them yakking it up in public places IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS! Also, the emails between various members of his staff are getting deeper and deeper into the doo doo, with ever more staff members becoming involved. Amazing stuff. Barbara, I thought about you a lot while listening last night. You are so right on about the skills of con men. Scary stuff! I would have sworn he was completely truthful and contrite. Smitten with betrayal.

It is really bothering me to see the pattern of mafia type political infighting held right up to my eyes. These guys are all out for themselves, and hold the taxpayers in contempt while ever wooing them! So sad. So truly, truly sad.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #1138 on:** January 15, 2014, 01:37:11 PM »

Ya I am jaded - my life was yanked out of me and I am still crawling back 28 years later after learning my husband was sexually abusing my daughter for years while she was growing up. Yep, he had all the charm and socially importance in a community so that many of my so called friends still think my daughter was lying and how business does not want to be associated with taboo problems so I was told, not asked but told to leave the Real Estate company I was associated with - so not only all the therapy for what happened, then my daughter had no idea who to believe him or me - god, talk about an atom bomb -

Then he insisted on staying in the lives of the kids and the therapy my daughter pursued was all about forgiveness - thank god he is dead after two more wives - one wife two days before he died married in the hospital - daughter and her cousin had to show up to the reception and tell all the guests - then they had all the kids present cut the wedding cake while my son had to comfort this new bride who at least had a burial plot so they were saved that - sheesh - then my son had to explain to the minister why he would not talk at the funeral - he even had this minister fooled but the minister was supportive of my son who told his sister, my daughter to go home - enough was enough. Of course I was always there to listen to them and yet, still so much pain no one ever acknowledged of how I had no idea who I was or what was real it was like floating in a fogged in swamp never even walking in the water much less on land.

Part of picking myself up piece by piece and bit by bit included reading and reading and reading about power and coercion and how power is used by soldiers when there are no superior officers directing them on and on - so yes, there are many ques to Christie being a bully - one being his weight - anyone with an addiction is hiding pain - and combining that running-away from your pain or memory or your own skin you are either a victim - or you freeze with bouts of depression or a bully - versions of fight, flight or freeze. Some folks can use their fight or bully to build, much like Johnson or even Kennedy and Reagan - all charmers - where as everything I read points to Bush II freezing and coming out from safe corners to get things done.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1139 on:** January 15, 2014, 02:07:35 PM »

Apparently lying conpeople will lie right up to and including their dying breath. And molesters and abusers turn the spotlight on the VICTIM and make people question THEM!!!

I mean, what child WANTS to acknowledge a parent, their very own closest kin, as a criminal molester? Ask any group of children of any age if they want a parent like this and if they want to tell the world!

It reminds me of nothing so much as the picture I carry in my head of asking rooms full of pregnant women who WANTS to have an abortion! Or any room full of any child bearing age women if they harbor a desire to one day have an abortion. No one wants to. No one!

Barbara, I am so very sad to know you and your precious daughter have had to suffer in this way. Keep telling your story; this culture needs desperately to WAKE UP to reality! You are the hope of future victims. It is very similar to trying to change the military culture, which has always believed in the innate right of warriors to rape women. It is, in their mindset, a PERK of the vocation, if you will!

maryz · « **Reply #1140 on:** January 15, 2014, 03:05:23 PM »

What a terrible thing, Barb! I cannot even begin to imagine what you and your children have gone through. And the ultimate blow when people don't believe something like that can happen. You have all been so strong - even to outliving him. Keep it up, gal!

Steph · « **Reply #1141 on:** January 16, 2014, 09:28:53 AM »

I agree Barb, you have been so strong and vital. I know your daughter has benefited from having a mother who cared. Con men.. Oh me, it is amazing how many people believe a charming man over any sort of truths. I have an old friend, who many years ago was presented with a nude picture of her second oldest daughter, who was maybe 11.. Taken definitely in her basement and totally by her husband. She tried to talk to him and he ran to an attorney and was trying to remove the four children from her.She picked up and ran.. Disappeared for many years. She successfully hid until her youngest was 18 and then reappeared and got a divorce.. A very brave woman.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1142 on:** January 25, 2014, 02:01:24 PM »

If you have not already read Aimee Molloy's book: HOWEVER LONG THE NIGHT, you should put it on the very top of your reading stack. Seriously.

It is about how an American girl, Molly Melching, went to Senegal in Africa for a semester of college and stayed and changed the female culture immensely and permanently.

It is a truly "WOW" book, and every female on this planet should read it.

And no, I have no connection whatsoever with the author or the heroine. Only admiration.

And lots of that!

I should warn you that when I first ordered this book, I did not pay close enough attention and I got a book by the SAME TITLE but by another author. So watch carefully!

Steph · « **Reply #1143 on:** January 26, 2014, 09:44:47 AM »

Poor Wendy Davis..She needed to be a bit more forthcoming than she was.. All politicians, male and female cannot seem to grip that you cannot fudge or omit, someone knows and will blab.

maryz · « **Reply #1144 on:** January 26, 2014, 11:32:33 AM »

And then there's the story about that poor "dead" woman in Fort Worth that the hospital insists on keeping on life support. When it's finally over, I hope the husband and the rest of her family sue the socks off the hospital. I shouldn't even get started on it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1145 on:** January 26, 2014, 11:58:11 AM »

Oh yes you should. We all should.
Unless it is your blood pressure you are worried about.

jane · « **Reply #1146 on:** January 26, 2014, 08:57:38 PM »

Finally...

Fort Worth, Texas (CNN) -- A Texas judge ordered a Fort Worth hospital to remove a pregnant and brain-dead woman from respirators and ventilators on Friday, perhaps ending a wrenching legal debate about who is alive, who is dead and how the presence of a fetus changes the equation.
Erick Munoz, husband of Marlise Munoz, broke down in tears after Judge R.H. Wallace told John Peter Smith Hospital to act on his order by 5 p.m. Monday.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/health/pregnant-brain-dead-woman-texas/

Apparently Texas has some law that the hospital says it was following.

maryz · « **Reply #1147 on:** January 26, 2014, 09:37:32 PM »

I had heard that the judge told the hospital to turn off the machines. Last I heard, the hospital hadn't decided whether to appeal the decision.

jane · « **Reply #1148 on:** January 27, 2014, 08:59:23 AM »

http://abcnews.go.com/US/t/story/texas-hospital-end-care-brain-dead-woman-22029041?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

According to this, the hospital complied, she was taken off life support, and she died. Anti-abortion foes tried to get the hospital to deliver the fetus. That didn't happen.

Steph · « **Reply #1149 on:** January 27, 2014, 09:07:51 AM »

Even the hospital admitted that the fetus was not salvageable.. too damaged.

maryz · « **Reply #1150 on:** January 27, 2014, 10:43:25 AM »

That was in our paper this morning, too. What a nightmare it's been for the poor man and the rest of her family.

jane · « **Reply #1151 on:** January 27, 2014, 11:36:54 AM »

Absolutely! There's so much talk about not wanting "gov't in our health care". But not, it seems, when some want their opinions forced on others! AAACCCKKK!

Health decisions need, in my opinion, to be made by FAMILY and medical doctors...not outsiders!

MaryPage · « **Reply #1152 on:** January 27, 2014, 08:14:33 PM »

JANE, you just made it to the list of my very favorite people.

Hey, check out this brilliant pol's comments: https://www.facebook.com/PPAKM/posts/1975912356042

Steph · « **Reply #1153 on:** January 28, 2014, 09:13:34 AM »

Yes, I truly have problems with the number of people who seem to feel that they have the right to tell others what to do with their bodies.. Amazing. How would those old men like it , if I got to decide who got Viagra and who didn't.

maryz · « **Reply #1154 on:** January 28, 2014, 11:23:46 AM »

Right, Steph. They want to have their Viagra, but don't want the women to have sex or any protection. I wonder who they want to have sex with?!

MaryPage · « **Reply #1155 on:** January 28, 2014, 01:01:06 PM »

Oh, Steph, I wish you did!

And if you can get yourself appointed to that position, may I join you as your assistant, Please!?

Note that the Very Minute Viagra and the like came into existence, our lovely congress in Washington, D.C. immediately passed legislation to make the health industry pay for it; no questions asked!

I mean, the doctors were giving away FREE SAMPLES in their appointments about other stuff medical! My dear departed husband told me this, and I never knew him to tell something untrue. And besides, he had the pills to SHOW ME what he was given. They were in a little envelope for him to try, and if he liked them, he could call and a prescription would be meted out immediately. We 'bout died laughing at the time.

But the IRONY with the birth control stuff and our "libido" is just flat out nauseating!

Steph · « **Reply #1156 on:** January 29, 2014, 09:25:01 AM »

Huckabee is another idiot.. Sigh..

MaryPage · « **Reply #1157 on:** January 29, 2014, 10:07:11 AM »

But here is the mystery, Steph: WHY are their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters ALLOWING them to say this stuff?

We women will not be validated as thinking beings belonging fully to the Human Race until we assert ourselves as such.

WHY don't we? Who are these wimpy women who stand in the background smiling wanly and letting all the crap continue to be thrown on us all?

It really riles (did you guess that?) and totally mystifies me.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1158 on:** January 29, 2014, 09:57:32 PM »

"Jimmy Carter's next book will be a defense of women's rights and an attack against those who use religion to deny equality.

Simon & Shuster announced Tuesday that the former president's "A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power" will be published March 25. The publisher says Carter will draw upon personal observations from his worldwide travels as he condemns abuses of women and girls and the alleged distortions of religious texts cited as justification.

The 89-year-old has written a wide range of books since leaving office in 1981, from memoirs and poetry to a controversial work on the Middle East, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." "

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #1159 on:** January 29, 2014, 11:36:19 PM »

Some how these Christian Right gurus have women convinced - seldom watch day time TV but snowed and iced in yesterday I was switching channels and stopped on Rachael Ray - some young cute blond and her cooking going on and on about how not like the Bible uses the word submit but she wants, and all the women applauded, to submit to her big strong husband and Rachael comes right in there talking about her husband and her submitting as she sits as the navigator and he drives but he better not drive where she is uncomfortable - I was appalled - we are talking leadership like the pyramid top down -

Over and over the experiments show with one leader over others there is always abuse of power. All these companies trying to teach teamwork and then they go home to the so called ideal marriage pyramid and then we wonder why women are second class and work for 77 cents to the dollar and have to fight to have the rights to our own body - we can get killed and maimed in war, put out major fires with the best of them, capture and shoot criminals, actually rise to the level of a CEO but at home we are to submit to the big strong leader called husband because it makes us feel all snugly girly and protected.

News:

Author Topic: Women's Issues (Read 380291 times)