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Over to you, boys. Do the right thing.
It’s four o’clock in the morning. Sleep eludes me. I can’t stop thinking about her, the intelligent middle-aged woman who sat where 27 years ago Dr. Anita Hill sat facing some of the same men – white, powerful, aging men. One of them, Orrin Hatch, stands out in my memory, in the ways he belittled Dr. Hill’s story of sexual assault as “too contrived,” and accused her of enjoying the publicity.” Now 84 years old, he told reporters yesterday that he found Dr. Ford “attractive, a good witness,” clarifying that by “attractive,” he meant “she’s pleasing.” Pleasing. He just doesn’t get it. What he gets is reducing a woman to her…
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Kavanaugh, Cosby, Weinstein – Counting on us to be Quiet
Today 81 year old Bill Cosby is waiting to learn his fate, facing up to 30 years behind bars for three counts of aggravated indecent assault against the woman whose allegations led to the criminal case against him. He continues to deny her allegations and those of the scores of women who came forward against him. Remorseless, he maintains to this day that the sexual contact was consensual. Of course he does. Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court grows even more troubling, with new allegations of sexual misconduct that he vehemently denies. Of course he does. There are some Republicans defending him. It’s embarrassing to hear their dismissals…
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Make Some Noise, Murphy – We’re All Ears.
In December 1988, shortly after Candice Bergen showed up as Murphy Brown on American TV, I took up permanent residence in these United States. And for the next decade, I liked knowing I could find her if I needed her on a Thursday night at nine o’clock. Characterized as “Mike Wallace in a dress,” she was tough and didn’t suffer fools. She was, as the saying goes, “one of the boys,” a moniker that has been applied to me a time or two prompting me – then and now – to consider what it means to be a boy, a man. What constitutes “masculine” behavior, especially today when there are…
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Dolly Parton, Ireland, Jeannie C. Riley, Movies, Nell McCafferty, Northern Ireland, Sexism, The Troubles
Momma Still Sockin’ It – To Ireland & to the Harper Valley PTA
Yesterday President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins signed into law the Thirty-Sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, repealing what have been some of the strictest abortion laws in the world. A historic moment for Ireland, this is also a moment to acknowledge how things have changed for women over the past 50 years – at work, at home, in the bedroom, and even in the pub. In the late 1960’s, I was a little girl concerned mostly with riding my bike and making daisy chains. I was often oblivious to The Troubles that dominated the news and even more so to the double-standards that affected the women in my life, most of…
