Dispatch #96 White Lesbian Age 70 Considers The Less-than-Human Status of Women

July 26th 2022  

551 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

544 Days Until the 2024 Presidential Primaries Begin 

I have been considering how to out-rage since the Supremes aka White-Christian-Nationalist-Extremist-Catholic-Judges decided the time had come to remind women about their place and primary purpose in the patriarchy.  

That is, (1) to embody the subservient less-than-human position in the gender-binary-patriarchal-hierarchy, and (2) to function as the means of production for human (male) and less-than-human (female) beings   

I am not entirely surprised by the rapid reframing of public discourse language designed to obfuscate the meaning of the Supremes’ decision.  Using their “post-Roe world” byline, mainstream media are hiding -- literally papering over – the grim consequences: that women’s human rights are thoroughly denigrated, that women have no right to control their bodies, that women have no right to decide when to have children. 

The Supremes are supporting, no actually celebrating the Misogyny that enables and nourishes the War on Women.  Misogyny is the disabling, demeaning and destructive enforcer of our gender binary hierarchy that allocates power and defines who is less-than-human.  

Potential challenges to the gender binary hierarchy are dealt with the requisite degree of ruthlessness appropriate to the challenge.  Privileged women who have the means to manage the “post-Roe world” are nonetheless terrorized by the potential for deadly consequences should they lose their footing on the patriarchy hierarchy.

The language of public discourse matters. Women’s Human Rights must be the Language. We must reject the lazy/easy obfuscating short-hand, e.g., “post-Roe world” or “anti-abortion activists” or “pro-abortion advocates” or “pro-life demonstrators.” 

Careless language results in this July 16^th New York Times opinion by Kathleen Kingsbury titled “The New York Times Is Reimagining Sunday Review” wherein Kingsbury describes renamed Sunday Opinion’s goal to “create a platform for ideas and conversation, where people from all backgrounds can see themselves meaningfully represented while encountering opinions that may complicate their thinking.” The NYT recently “gathered 10 pro-abortion Americans and 12 anti-abortion Americans” to talk about pregnancy, abortion and overturning Roe.  WTF!!  Really, WTF.

I suppose we can look forward to discussions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery Americans, or between pro-civil rights and anti-civil rights Americans, or between anti-voting rights and pro-voting rights Americans, or between anti-democracy and pro-democracy Americans. 

We are in the “women-are-less-than-human world” and in the “women’s-primary-purpose-is-to-produce-human-beings world.”   Either one supports women’s human rights or one opposes women’s human rights. It IS that simple.

The mainstream media has finally begun to name White Supremacy, White Nationalist Terrorism, Violent Right-Wing Extremism, White Christian Nationalism.

The Patriarchy, and its Misogynist/Gendered Oppression, Violence and Terrorism, provides the essential foundation for these emerging autocratic, religious extremism, and fascistic movements.  

Once a society has accepted/accommodated that 50% of the population are to be treated as less-than-human, it is so much easier to see/believe that humans who don’t share your beliefs or don’t look like you are also less than human...and to be treated accordingly.