lara logan should have stayed home because she is a mommy

[niyad]

Lara Logan Should Have Stayed Home Because She is a “Mommy”


. . . . . .

In “Women with Young Kids Shouldn’t Be in War Zones,” Worthington suggests that mommy status means that women need to think of their children (typical conservative claptrap) and just stay home:

Apparently, against the advice of her bosses, Logan insisted on staying with the crew when they returned to Egypt.
. . . .

As I read this incredibly sexist assertion, I kept waiting for him to suggest that men had the same responsibility to put their children ahead of their careers, but of course that was just wishful thinking. The truth of the matter is that it takes a man and a woman to create a child, but it is only mothers who are set up with the narrative that they must be continually self-sacrificing. We appease women by claiming to celebrate Mother’s Day once a year, but this demands that women continually put aside their personal desires or ambitions. It depoliticizes motherhood and keeps women compliant.
. . . . .


I also believe that part of the angst regarding Lara’s rape is the fact that she is a white woman. Historically speaking, the hyper-feminization of the supposedly frail white woman has helped to limit opportunities offered to them, whereas no such concern is offered to women of color in similar situations. Consider the fact that when Jessica Lynch, a white female private first class was captured in Iraq, she quickly became a media darling, while Shoshana Nyree Johnson, the first Black female prisoner of war serving in the United States military, was quickly forgotten–even though a video of her being beaten by her captors was released to the public. Where was the concern that her womanhood should necessarily preclude such treatment? The fact of the matter is that, despite the suggestion that we now live in a post-racial world, Black women are resoundingly considered un-women who are unworthy of concern. When Worthington talks about women avoiding dangerous employment, he is really directing his commentary at white women, because they are overvalued at the expense of women of color. The rape of women of color continues to be ignored because our bodies have been socially constructed as available for assault, while white women continue to be assumed the property of white masculinity. The horror to many is not that Logan was raped and assaulted, but that it happened at the hands of men of color.

The conversation surrounding Logan’s rape serves as even more evidence that the fight for women’s rights needs to continue. We have yet to reach a state of gender parity if a woman’s motherhood can still be employed to trap her in her home. We have also failed to reach a state of racial equality, because the motherhood of women of color is not considered valuable. Men continue to dominate both national and international discourse, allowed to frame the narrative about women, our bodies and the various roles that we play in society.
. . . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/02/23/lara-logan-should-have-stayed-home-because-she-is-a-mommy/

[femrap]

1. Can we please go

after THE RAPISTS, you know, THE CRIMINALS? :wtf:

Are women just supposed to stay indoors for their entire lives? Let THE RAPISTS roam free?

And I presume women should put bars on their windows and doors so THE RAPISTS can't get inside? Gee....isn't that like PRISON FOR THE WOMEN????

[Cant trust em]

2. Conservatives always say that its the individual that commits the crime, unless its rape.

To conservatives, the issue is never about society or culture, but what individuals choose to do. To them, its not poverty that explains crime, but it's that individuals who commit crimes are bad people.

This hold up for them in every instance except rape. When it's rape, it's that Lara Logan shouldn't have put herself in that situation, or that girl shouldn't have been wearing that short skirt. She induced those men to rape her.

[XanaDUer]

3. That's b/c vaginas are usually involved

Republicans hate vaginas. Maybe being married and having kids should disqualify men from all sorts of jobs, too.

[LiberalLoner]

4. OMG I love that quote - "Republicans hate vaginas" - truer words have never been spoken! n/t

[LeftishBrit]

5. Good point.

Most right-wingers are preoccupied with being tough on crime, and 'protecting the victims' - unless the victims are women who don't 'know their place'. Actually, support for crime victims can diminish markedly when the victims belong to *any* marginalized group and can be portrayed as 'not knowing their place'.

[niyad]

9. or, as was said years ago, "since men are the ones doing the raping, THEY are the ones who shou

should be confined to their houses"

[Cleita]

6. If that is true, then in the spirit of gender equality so

should daddies of children as well. You can see this argument has no merit.

[niyad]

8. that point was made in several responses to that idiot.

[SoCalDem]

7. It's all a personal choice for the woman and then also a corporate choice by her bosses

I remember seeing Christiane Amanpour being interviewed once, and when she was asked why she rarely reported in war zones anymore. She replied that once she had her son, she decided it was too too dangerous, and she wanted him to have a Mom for as long as possible.

She was still good at reporting, and her bosses would have kept sending her, but she chose to not go anymore.

Those same choices are probably made by men and their families as well, when there are children. "Getting the story" may lose its glamour, if people decide that being in a safe place also has benefits. The field is always being "cleared" for more young, unencumbered bold people, until they too have their "moment", and remove themselves from the battlefield.

There's not much glory in being killed, when you get right down to it.

[niyad]

10. . . . .