I am deep in the middle of a very important assignment at the moment but I had to stop and blog. And once again I am not going to blog about the passage of the health care reform as planned. However, rest assured there will be no mention of Justin Bieber nor will there be any ranting about my roommate. Instead I just have to comment on this story I discovered while researching for my PAF project*.
At the University of Oregon two football players were recently arrested on assault charges. One player in particular beat up his girlfriend. Earlier in the year, another player was arrested for theft. The player guilty of stealing two laptop computers was banned from playing for the team. The players guilty of abusing women were only suspended for one game. The punishment for stealing a laptop is more severe than the punishment for assaulting women.
Something is horribly wrong with this reality. And it is the reality in our society today because violence against women is still widely overlooked or downplayed by governments as well as law enforcement officials.
Two laptops are worth more than the wellbeing of two young women.
Violence in teenage relationships is a growing concern. What kind of message is the University of Oregon sending on this issue?
I am disgusted. I am disgusted that this has been allowed and I am disgusted that the only mention of it has been in local Oregon papers (I obviously am not in Oregon but was researching recent domestic violence cases and stumbled across an article from the Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon on the subject).
I hate that we still live in such a misogynistic society. My friends derisively label me a feminist as if that is a bad word. Yes, I'm passionate about the issue as I'm passionate about many social justice issues** and I wish more women and more men shared my passion. I see that on the surface, and even now it is beginning to spread below the surface, women and men are standing on a level playing field. But this situation and many others reveals the very subtle, relatively well hidden concrete foundation of misogyny that is still ingrained in our society. I just wish we could take a jackhammer to that thing already.
A woman's life should be worth more than a laptop.
*PAF is my Analysis of Public Policy class. It is a lot of work but I actually love it so much that I am considering changing my major (my Journalism major that is, I would never dream of changing my English major). Instead of just writing about what is going on I could be helping to form public policy and affect change myself. The bleeding heart, Catholic-influenced, advocate for social justice in me is drawn to this option because I'm just one of those people who come out of Catholic schooling, not religious but inspired to right all the wrongs in the world and filled with compassion for all those experiencing injustice. That is what I most valued about my Catholic upbringing--the emphasis on social justice and social responsibility. How could I live with myself if I didn't do everything in my power to help right at least some of the wrongs that plague our society. Just earlier today I received a Twitter update to my phone from CNN: More people die each year due to unsafe drinking water than die by any kind of violence including wars. How is such a thing possible? We have so much clean water we're bottling it up and selling it for $1.75 a pop. How can Americans and all those with access to clean drinking water be content to sit by as unsafe drinking water is the cause of so many deaths?
Ok, that turned into quite a tangent...
**I really am passionate about it. Amusing anecdote: Once when drunk, and I mean shwastey drunk, I was randomly struck by my passion and while writing a note for a friend went off on a tangent not unlike the one above about "our misogynistic, male-dominated society." The note went on for several pages, written in a sloppy drunken scrawl. I had no recollection of writing about feminism at all. I recalled writing a note but I thought I left a sensible note saying thank you to my hostess. My friend saved the evidence and likes to whip it out at social events and give a dramatic reading for the entertainment of our friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment