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Uncharacteristically, I failed to make note here of International Women’s Day yesterday. I have had many conversations lately about how misogyny and sexism have never completely gone away, been dormant— in some parts of the world it is everpresent. But it is always ready to rear its ugly head, and we are in a horrible time right now. I have lived long enough to see cultural misogyny ebb and flow, and am aware of it in daily life. In movies and advertisements it’s rampant. Notice Hollywood’s new skinny standard for women, which is making women appear frail, fragile and small. Yes, there is more global pushback from when I was a young adult, we have way more male allies than 20 years ago, and we are hearing more women’s stories. But for the moment, we are in a dark place and need to keep calling it out.
On this subject, I saw a fantastic documentary yesterday called “Cutting Through Rocks” about an Iranian woman trying to make change in a small village. It’s a microcosm of what every community— and our larger society— has to deal with. And, as the movie makes clear, it’s about constantly chipping away at accepted norms and traditions.
It is up for an Oscar on Sunday.
Trump’s War is the personification of machismo and misogyny on steroids: he thinks he is the savior, the white knight, that he alone will fix everything, only his ideas are worthwhile. MAGA is all about this. There are efforts here in the US to take away a woman’s right to vote, and certainly we know of the continuing war on abortion.
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Trump claims he started his Iran war for regime change, and if asked, I imagine he might say something about rights for women in that country—if he even is aware. He’s probably not, he just sees Iranian leaders as people who won’t play ball with him financially, won’t kiss his feet, so he wants to bomb them to death. He killed the Supreme Leader, but the new leader soon to be installed is apparently even more hard-line conservative and repressive when it comes to rights for women.
Mojtaba Khamenei has been voted to be the new Iranian Supreme Leader, succeeding his father. Reformists in the country were urging the country to wait to elect a new leader, at least until there was a full in-person meeting of the Assembly of Experts, the 88-strong clerical body elected to choose the new leader. This rush to pick a leader signals to me the instability of their ruling body. And certainly, Khamenei is a target for assasination.
It is day ten of Trump’s War.
People are dying, being displaced, markets are tumbling, oil prices jumping considerably and Trump says it is “a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY.”
Chaos. From one deranged man.
A seventh American has died in the war. Not to mention thousands of citizens in the region. A girl’s school was bombed in the first strike, killing over a hundred people, including children. When asked, Trump blamed Iran for it, when in fact reasearch indicates it was one of our munitions that landed next to the school.
At least 83 children have been killed and 254 wounded in Lebanon since the Israeli military began targeting the country with airstrikes in response to missiles launched into northern Israel by the Iran-back Hezbollah, according to Unicef, a UN agency. Officials estimate that since 2 March, 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – have been displaced from their homes.
Epstein: not finding much new, except this story on NPR is interesting about how Epstein and Maxwell used an elite youth arts camp.
Voting Rights Groups are educating people in the South about their rights in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling on a key provision of the 1961 Voting Rights Act. It may get much worse for Black communities in the south.
Thanks for being here. I hope your week is starting off well. Stay strong, keep informed! You all are the best and I am so glad you are here.
One last drawing for you about how women’s rights change but we are certainly not there yet.
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