We need to talk about misogyny

[The Traveler]

18. Yet when misogyny is on parade in daily political life

as it really has been for these last several years, it is specious to claim that there is no relationship between policy, the conduct of politics, and outcomes of this sort.

You have US congresscritters and senators and pundits spewing highly similar feces from their mouths on a daily basis. Shall review the "slut shaming" of Sandra Fluke? How about the "Abortion Barbie" narrative aimed at Wendy Davis? Do I need to go on? Because if you wish, I could ... for megabytes and more.

The world is full of nut cases. They will always be able, if sufficiently determined, to act out on their fantasies. We can make it harder (and should) by establishing better controls over ownership of weapons and ammunition. (I am a recent convert to gun controls ... I was pretty much a 2nd Amendment advocate. But the mass shootings and the spectacle of assholes roaming restaurants with assault rifles has pretty much disabused me of that conviction. This crap has gotten out of hand, and something really must be done. But I digress.)

And that, I think, is what my friend RQ is trying to get at. When civic leaders are able to express so blatantly their need to dominate, exploit, repress, and devalue women (and a great number of them are so able), then the nutcase can be assured his feelings on the matter are not so extreme. And that assurance can then be the basis for justifying acts.

So I think you missed her entire point, and in a tangential way, by doing so actually further established it.

Trav