Women’s Issues, Civil Rights

Most of the content and links on this page are from a feminist blog, All In Her Head, but she does branch out into wider topics because injustices, especially today, are coming from persons and organizations with power against any target groups that seek to be heard and treated fairly.

It has taken me some time to understand what is meant by “cancel culture” and “wokeness.” This blog post explains some: https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-people-cancel-culture-forgot

“When the powerful lose out on privileges, it’s cancel culture—but when anyone is deprived of their rights, it’s just politics.who gets called ‘canceled’ has become shorthand for whose lives and happiness matters.”

“That’s what makes cancel culture so dangerous—it’s about the narrowing of who we believe is deserving of empathy and who is worth fighting for. Most of all, though, it’s a conservative tool meant to make accountability seem like an injustice and injustice seem unremarkable.”

The ‘Objective’ Truth: In a racist & sexist world, only white men are seen as impartial.

“Conservatives cheer on the harassment of everyday Americans but are horrified by a wealthy ‘public figure’ being bothered on his day off—almost as if they only care about powerful people being allowed to do and say whatever they want free from consequence.”


“How do I know that parents can ‘have it all’? That it’s actually completely feasible to work and take care of children without giving up your career goals or life ambitions? Because men do it all the time.”

From another blog of this same author: “While men may not necessarily say ‘a woman’s place is in the home,” they will say ‘she’s better at it,” or “she cares more about cleanliness.

Men’s entitlement and privilege shows up in the way they treat women and girls:

What’s In A Hug (Cuomo): “So please, do women the favor of not treating us like we haven’t spent the better part of our lives honing our perceptiveness and strengthening our intuition. We know exactly what you mean.”

“… while it’s seductive to believe that we have some measure of control over whether or not we’re attacked, the truth is that it’s only men who can stop rape.”

“So long as men enable misogyny—be it actively or passively—progress for women is doomed.”

Republicans’ Daddy Issues: Conservatives hate ‘fatherlessness’, but not enough to take care of their own kids. “… if you’ve never given your kid a bath, picked them up for school, or taken them to the dentist—it sure sounds like you’re as absent as the next guy.”

I am still careful about who I invite to my office and when. Women wear certain footwear at times in case we have to run. We watch our drinks carefully in public places. We avoid public places and crowded transit that may be risky.

“A Florida school is under fire this week for altering at least 80 female students’ yearbook photos to appear more ‘modest’. … if you’re worried that someone will get the wrong idea by their outfit—change the world, not their shirt.”

“… his inability to focus on anything else at the beach besides those girls’ bodies is actually his issue, not theirs.”

As if protecting men’s feelings is more important than speaking the truth about our lives.

My paragraph above centers on safety. Reading this piece, Against Forgiveness, reminded me of some of the injustices I have experienced, and the anger and pain I have held onto.


I found this blog from the lone post about abortion on an epidemiologist’s blog, leading me here: “Anti-choicers like to pose hypotheticals about the remarkable baby a woman could have if she just didn’t get an abortion: … None ask if that woman herself might change the world. They never consider that we could be the remarkable ones, if only given the chance.”

The Dec. 7, 2021 post is about the Supreme Court review of the abortion case(s). “Right now, the conservative agenda is almost entirely about re-establishing that hierarchy of who gets to be a person. … this has never been just about rolling back rights. It’s about codifying who counts and who doesn’t.

I listened to 1.5 of the two hours of the Supreme Court testimony on the Mississippi case. I thought the lawyers against Mississippi (to uphold Roe) did a fantastic job. There weren’t ANY holes in their arguments that a woman’s liberty is what is at stake, and the pursuit of liberty is enshrined in the Constitution. They continued to defend that viability should remain as the appropriate time through which Roe has been solidified. Although Mississippi’s 15 weeks may seem like a generous amount of time for a woman to make a choice to give birth or abort, it is arbitrary and opens the door for any other arbitrary lengths of time to be implemented in other states. Why 15 weeks and not 14 or 16? I was disheartened to hear the tone of the media afterward, as if it was a lost cause. Maybe that’s because it is and I am being naive that the arguments will hold any weight.


White privilege: “Whiteness & the Bare Minimum, Instead of asking why white people shouldn’t say the n-word, ask why they want to use it at all”


The last two articles are related to the first topic on this page, cancel culture, but I like the writing of the author above better and wanted you to read those first in case you didn’t make it to the end of this post.

Critique of Anne Applebaum’s article in the Atlantic: “…the vast majority of conversations about cancel culture, are … about maintaining power and privilege.

And another Atlantic article: How Capitalism Drives Cancel Culture: Beware splashy corporate gestures when they leave existing power structures intact. “the iron law of woke institutions: For those looking to preserve their power, it makes sense to do the minimum amount of social radicalism necessary to survive … and no economic radicalism at all. The latter is where activists need to apply their pressure.”

Edited 12/20/21

Comment on HCR Post

I felt compelled to write a response to  https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-28-2021.

In this clip https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1354923585631100933 shared also by Joyce White Vance https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1354952704083316745, congressman Matt Gaetz finishes at 1:30 with a statement that really caught my attention: “The truth is that the establishment in both political parties have teamed up to screw our fellow Americans for generations.” I am a Democrat who agrees whole-heartedly with that statement. The actions of our leadership over the last 40 years, and those coaxing the shift for 20 years prior, have led to the situation we are in. I am of the belief that something significant and speedy needs to be done to give the bottom 90% more hope and comfort. The most meaningful articles I read keep circling back to wealth and power inequality, for example, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/. The feeling of injustice is what propelled both Bernie Sanders and Trump to the forefront in 2016 and Elizabeth Warren in 2020. Warren and Sanders had plans on how to transfer wealth downward based on assets instead of tax structure with a result that would still allow the rich’s wealth to continue to grow, https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-french-economist-who-helped-invent-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax. The Dems managed to squelch those candidates early enough in the primaries, somehow miraculously this cycle to propel Biden back into the forefront. The Republicans failed to squelch Trump early enough and had to live with him. Although he ran on draining the swamp, that was a big lie and he further empowered even the good people in his party. In “Betraying Your Church—And Your Party,” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/adam-kinzinger-voting-impeachment-christian/617848/, Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 Republicans who voted for impeachment, cites “a desire to build on the administration’s policy successes.” He is taking a position for good reason, but I can’t imagine what policies anyone left-leaning would consider successes in the last administration, all continuing to bolster the wealthy and big business.

Bridging Wealth Inequality

GREAT article in The New Yorker about how we got where we are and real solutions. Simple concept: anyone with a home already pays a wealth tax, otherwise known as property tax. Warren’s tax plan proposes taxing all wealth and these economists show how it can effectively be done. It will recoup some of the wealth the middle class has lost to the ultra-wealthy since the Reagan years, yet it will not stop their wealth from continuing to grow. There is room to be even more progressive after evaluating effectiveness. Income tax is only a drop in the bucket for bridging the gap and continues to hurt lower earners.

Read my other referenced articles on ways that the wealthy have unfairly extracted wealth from the middle class (including homes) and you might agree that bridging the gap is warranted, or at least that returning some wealth to the working class is justified.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-french-economist-who-helped-invent-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax

Unfettered Capitalism

In the 10/15/17 Dem debate, Bernie Sanders commented on unfettered capitalism. Arguments can be made against socialism, but capitalism has reached a new low. Big business and greed are responsible for hollowing out the American middle class. Our social and tax policies tend to ebb and flow; one can argue that union demands, subsidies to the disadvantaged, and taxes on the wealthy may have been excessive in the 60s and 70s. The pendulum has since swung completely the other way. Not only have we been subsidizing big industry for decades, but we have bailed them out numerous times (savings and loans, auto companies, mortgages), and then they found even more creative ways to funnel the wealth upward, see links below. Mainstream Democrats are just as complicit as Republicans because most of government is bought. Progressives are the only ones speaking up for the working class. If you think too many handouts are now being proposed, consider what we haven’t gained during the decades of stagnation.

You may not be aware that government fines/remedies go into the general fund and never benefit those that are harmed. The only agency that passes reparations back to those harmed is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, defined and implemented by Elizabeth Warren. And then those in power couldn’t stomach allowing her to lead it.

Although these two reports may leave you feeling sick and depressed, I strongly encourage you to read and digest/understand/contemplate.

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/10/15/aaron_glantz_homewreckers_book_housing_crisis

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/10/15/aaron_gantz_steve_mnuchin_housing_crisis

Eugene Jarecki on Democracy Now!

Eugene Jarecki is a filmmaker from our local area.

“… the real message … look at what we’re facing. Look at the incredible problem we now have as a nation. We got here because this nation puts power and money ahead of democracy. We have been hijacked by capitalism.” At “this horrible moment in history, look at the social movements being born. Look at the poor people’s movement. Look at Time’s Up. Look at Me Too. Look at Parkland. Look at the extraordinary courage of those young people. So, that happened all across the country. We were seeing that as we went, that as this horrible chapter was forming—and, of course, it’s the most wretched thing we could imagine—but the incredible backlash is so inspiring, and we all must be engaged in that.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/6/25/the_king_director_eugene_jarecki_elvis

Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis

A good, long read (I’m only on page 8), Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis. It frustrates me to hear well-meaning politicians (Warren, Sanders, Franken) talk about everything that’s wrong, not fair, scolding people in committee hearings instead of holding them accountable and focusing on reparations. How many that got booted from their home in the mortgage crisis got it back? Elections should be put on hold when Florida has chads, hundred thousands are booted from Brooklyn registrations, and foreign tampering is discovered. Monies keep pouring into Trump hotels and no-one is doing anything about the emoluments clause. Why are politicians not fighting more for the jobs that these supposed tax cuts are supposed to create? (Because tax cuts don’t create jobs; demand creates jobs. Demand can’t be created if people don’t have money to buy stuff.) Why do we allow the American taxpayer to keep providing welfare to Walmart employees when the owners are rich beyond belief?