To celebrate Women in Sports, especially with the Women's World Cup (soccer) coming up this summer, Secretary Clinton delivered the following remarks:
Now you know, I am a HUGE soccer fan. And I was able to attend the semifinals in DC of the World Cup of which Sec. Clinton spoke. In fact, President Clinton was at the stadium at the same time I was, watching the match. There was even a flyover with fighter jets - cool! Oh, and the US obviously won, since they went on to win the World Cup in the dramatic fashion Sec. Clinton mentioned.
This is a great time, this celebration. But wow, do we still have a long way to go.
While Secretary Clinton is reflecting on Women and Sports, a "Gay Girl in Damascus" was allegedly kidnapped in Syria. In Egypt, another woman journalist was almost killed in Tahrir Square last week, saved by a police officer, who was then beaten himself for rescuing her.
A Libyan student in Australia received only THREE YEARS in jail for sexually assaulting four women, and two girls, one of whom was only 13. Why? Well, you know, it is a whole cultural thing. The way these women dress, oh, my, it just upset him SO much, and made him excited, all at the same time. So he did what any man would do - he attacked them. Oh, wait - most men do NOT do that:
Libyan Almahde Ahmad Atagore, 28, was sentenced to three years behind bars yesterday for sexual assaulting a number of young women in Melbourne in August and September last year, the Herald Sun reports.
Atagore was shocked by the cultural differences and felt isolated and depressed, particularly as he did not have a mosque nearby, said County Court Judge Margaret Rizkalla.
He told a psychiatrist he did not like how Australian women dressed, leaving him angry but also aroused. [snip] (Click here to read the rest.)
Women, and girls, participating in sports is important, there is no doubt about it. And it is very cool that the US does sports exchanges with other countries. The benefits to girls and women who participate in sports are numerous, with higher self esteem and better overall health at the fore.
But it is not enough when men still think they can overpower women, see women purely as sexual objects, or violate them in a sexual manner as a show of power (though it really highlights the man's weakness, IMHO). It is not enough when they are seeing a very different message coming from the media, and from our political parties. When the Democratic elite are still supporting a complete sleazebag like Anthony Weiner, what kind of message does THAT send to our young women and girls? When judges in countries like Australia grant a short amount of jail time for a man who assaulted several women, and two girls, as a nod to his neanderthalic view of women based on his religion, how do the girls and women in Australia feel? What is the message being sent to them?
I am glad we still have Title IX in this country, and am happy to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Our girls and women deserve it. But all girls and women, here and around the world, deserve to be treated better than we are. We deserve to not have some slimeball US Representative texting a college woman with a photo of his private parts. We deserve for men to serve the time for the crimes committed against us, not some slap on the wrist. We deserve to be able to do our jobs without threat of DEATH because gangs of men descend upon us.
We deserve better. We deserve better from men, we deserve better from the women who support these sleazeballs, we deserve better from our elected officials.
To follow up on Sec. Clinton's suggestion, and while I can still post videos from YouTube (our illustrious US Senators are threatening to make it a felony to embed videos), I want to honor the US Women's Soccer Team. Below is look back at the '99 World Cup win, and the iconic moment of Brandi Chastain scoring the winning goal for the US Women over China for the Gold:
May the US Women play hard, play clean, have no injuries, and bring back the Gold from Germany. Copyright © 2011 by Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy
3 comments:
It seems clear to me why the US Senators want to make it a felony to embed videos...they don't want their lies being spread all over the internet. How many times have they been caught saying one thing while campaigning and another thing after elected? When that shows up on video, they can't hide from it.
Regarding the Title IX, I think women still have a long way to go to be truly equal in the sports world...but we're getting there.
My biggest concern these days is that I feel that women's groups that fought so hard for women to be treated with equality and respect are losing ground because they lost focus.
When they supported Obama, even in view of his campaigning with the song "99 Problems" ("If you're havin' girl problems I feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one.") playing in the background, while NOW and NARAL remained quiet, I knew that women's rights had just taken about a million steps backwards.
Hillary should have called him on every single misogynist thing and action that Obama took, but she didn't because she was afraid to he a woman running for President and instead chose to be just a "candidate for President."
It's not that I don't respect Hillary when she gives speeches like this one, celebrating women and Title IX...but I wish she would think about us more than once or twice a year.
This is off-topic but when I saw it I laughed so hard! This is Cenk from The Young Turks speaking on Weinergate...showing POSITIVE PROOF that Weiner was hacked. HA! I can't wait to see his retraction, like there will be one, right?
http://youtu.be/t3BPnEwcfvo
ME, I thought the very same thing abt the Senators. They don't care abt someone's copyright infringement, they care abt the video evidence that they are big liars!!
Like Cenk - how can these people be SO wrong and still have jobs? And whom else has Rachel asked if they WANT to answer a question before asking it??? Good grief.
And, ME, yes, yes, yes, we have so far to go, in terms of women's sports (I guarantee you the pro women get nowhere NEAR the $ the men do, not even close, except maybe tennis).
That is a good pt abt Hillary running as a candidate, and as a woman. I will never forgive NOW and NARAL, though, for supporting Obama over her. That was reprehensible on so many levels. Cannot BELIEVE I used to give those groups money!! Talk abt selling women out. No wonder we are still having so much trouble - even the women's groups kowtow to the men. Pathetic. And infuriating...
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