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Kinder, Kuche, Kirche

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  • Kinder, Kuche, Kirche

    The rise of the far right and their attacks on womens rights:

    What do Donald Trump, an Italian court and Jair Bolsonaro have in common? They have all suggested some women are too ugly to be sexually assaulted.

    Brazil’s far-right, populist President Bolsonaro publicly abused a female lawmaker, shoving her and telling her she was “too ugly to deserve rape”. The US president suggested the women who have accused him of sexual assault are too ugly for him to attack. And an Italian appeals court initially overturned a rape verdict by arguing the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim.

    All of the above are examples of how unapologetically aggressive misogyny is pushing its way into the mainstream. This can be partly attributed to the lurch towards the far right that we have seen in recent years. From the parliamentary gains of far-right populist parties in Europe to those authoritarian demagogues that have gained power at the national level – such as in Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, the Philippines and the US – it is neither hyperbolic nor fearmongering to say the far right is growing.

    And while there is no denying that the explosion of populist neo-fascism is troubling for many reasons, it’s also clear that women are not faring well from it. After all, male supremacy is at the very core of far-right ideologies.

    Of course, it is not just women who are aggrieved by the rise of the far right. It is everyone. Even those who are taken in by the drug of fear, which sadly can be easier to digest and more intoxicating than hope, are hurt by it. This new breed of proto-fascism is not only sexist but also racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic and ethno-nationalist, and we all suffer because of it.

    But these far-right leaders and the movements which are becoming increasingly emboldened – and legitimised – by their electoral success subscribe to a dangerously conspiratorial view of feminism, plagued by needless paranoia and mistrust that paints all feminists as misandrists, and sees feminism as an intrinsically toxic ideology vying for world domination at the expense of men’s needs, desires and goals.

    Recently an ultra-conservative Spanish group used an image of Adolf Hitler wearing make-up with the symbol of feminism on his military cap to launch a grossly offensive bus campaign against feminism that branded women’s rights campaigners “feminazis”. If this is not proof of this kind of neurotically delusional thinking, I am not sure what is.

    We must unpick where this warped, topsy-turvy view of victimhood stems from. Fascists might be getting better at PR and sugar-coating their views – after all, white supremacy has now been rechristened white nationalism and the far right is now the “alt right” – but the deeply problematic ideology that underpins their ideas has not changed.

    The plan to achieve white male supremacy is strengthened by a focus on the “nuclear family” in which women are first and foremost breeding machines. This stretches back to the famous Nazi slogan Kinder, Kuche, Kirche, which was centred around Hitler’s belief that women’s lives should exist around children, cooking and church.

    Women across the board – and in particular those who are not rich, white, straight and cisgender – are already being badly hurt. To put it simply, the rise of the far right means women’s basic rights are coming under fire from all angles. Freedoms we took for granted are being clamped down on.

    Anti-abortion activists are waging war on women’s bodies in the US and trying their utmost to overturn Roe v Wade – the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalised abortion nationwide in America in 1973. This is by no means beyond the realms of possibility now that we have new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – both Trump appointees – sitting on the Supreme Court.

    Last month, legislation was introduced in Alabama that would make carrying out an abortion at any stage of the pregnancy punishable by 10 to 99 years inside the least sweet and homely place going: American jail. The strict abortion ban, which has been branded a “death sentence for women”, would even criminalise performing abortions in cases of rape and incest. Trump himself sparked mass fury on the campaign trail by calling for “some form of punishment” for women who have an abortion should it be outlawed in the US.

    Depressingly, the so-called free world is not alone; the backlash against women’s rights is a global phenomenon. We are seeing more and more policies explicitly championing the family in places like Italy, Brazil and Hungary. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, who has been called “Trump before Trump” by Steve Bannon, has proposed “a comprehensive agreement with Hungarian women” to bear more children. The leader, who has earned the moniker of “Viktator”, promotes debt-free education for women but only if they have at least three children.

    Over in Spain, Vox, an anti-immigrant nationalist party gaining electoral clout, vilifies “gender ideology” as a threat to heteronormative, Christian and white family values. They want to annihilate subsidised feminist groups, create a Ministry of the Family and introduce “an organic law protecting the natural family, which shall be recognised as an institution that came before the state”. The party, which is making calls to abolish laws which protect abortion and gay marriage, and repeal gender measures, has declared “war to women” and seeks to turn them “into slaves at the service of men”, according to a manifesto signed by hundreds of feminist associations.

    This hatred for feminists – which could arguably be linked to the recent rise of strongman-style leaders worldwide – was echoed by crowds at Bolsonaro rallies who chanted they would feed feminists dog food. And then you have world leaders like Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, who has been called the “Donald Trump of the east”, “joking” to Filipino soldiers in 2017 that because he had declared martial law on the island of Mindanao, they could each rape up to three women with impunity.

    I could keep going but you probably get the point. The far right is both belligerently and systematically attacking women’s rights. And while the far right spectrum is in no way a unified, monolithic global movement, parallels and patterns need to be drawn between the growing number of raging rabble-rousers who are managing to permeate the corridors of power.

    When you think about the proliferation of the far right, it is tempting to picture a balding man in his forties sat in the basement, receding from real life like his hairline recedes from his head, using his mum’s iPad to abuse female politicians or even female journalists such as myself from behind the safety of his Twitter avatar. (For the record, every 30 seconds, a woman is abused or harassed on Twitter, according to a report from Amnesty.) But it is actually men in suits, rather than tracksuits, inside global governments, who are setting the most damaging cogs in motion. While they are in power, women will never truly be free.


    “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
    “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
    “not all there” - you know who you are

  • #2
    I just skimmed through the propaganda.

    I think there was a complaint against people who pushed woman toward abortion mills.


    There was something about fascism -- I guess this is like the situation of the media and Big Tech working with the US and State governments to push through fraudulent votes for Biden.

    This is from some radical feminist site isn't it? Or it is some spoof maybe? where do you find these extremist right people you are talking about? what percentage?

    The more I skim through this, the more it sounds like a radicalized extremist view that seeks to divide the people. This was like an article Hypatia posted which talked about Nazis and then, without any real connection with Trump, started to make Trump guilty of similar behavior. It was a subtle approach in the article -- a juxtaposition of topics instead of making an overt accusation that Trump is Nazi-like. (The article lacked any true logical argument)

    I would suggest you stay away from such articles lest the FBI suspect you of being a radical extremist.
    Last edited by mikewhitney; 12-09-2020, 03:38 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by mikewhitney View Post
      I just skimmed through the propaganda.

      I think there was a complaint against people who pushed woman toward abortion mills.


      There was something about fascism -- I guess this is like the situation of the media and Big Tech working with the US and State governments to push through fraudulent votes for Biden.

      This is from some radical feminist site isn't it? Or it is some spoof maybe? where do you find these extremist right people you are talking about? what percentage?

      The more I skim through this, the more it sounds like a radicalized extremist view that seeks to divide the people. This was like an article Hypatia posted which talked about Nazis and then, without any real connection with Trump, started to make Trump guilty of similar behavior. It was a subtle approach in the article -- a juxtaposition of topics instead of making an overt accusation that Trump is Nazi-like. (The article lacked any true logical argument)

      I would suggest you stay away from such articles lest the FBI suspect you of being a radical extremist.
      This article:
      https://www.independent.co.uk/voices...-a8908851.html

      It seems that many right-wing Americans don't realise how extreme their views are; maybe not actually evil, but shallow and clueless, and easily herded by Trump and his kind.
      “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
      “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
      “not all there” - you know who you are

      Comment


      • #4
        Ouch. You, and may be the independent, do not recognize how radicalized and divisive this feminism of the article is.

        There indeed are feminists and most other radical leftists who seek to maximize abortions and the abortion-mill industry.

        Like I mentioned earlier, there is no evidence being presented that women voting against abortion makes those women into extreme right people who want their "rights" taken away.

        This was another Hypatia-like article with no substance to it... just a wild rant. Sure it would have been nice to have a president without a sordid history, but we have not had anything better than Trump for 20 years. We certainly have to be happy we don't have a Trudeau.

        It sounds like this author is anti-family, anti-children. The author basically sounds like she favors a pro-communist-dictator.

        Thanks for exposing the degree of destructive communist intent that is happening in Europe.
        Last edited by mikewhitney; 12-09-2020, 04:36 PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          So let's take a look at a few things in this article:
          Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
          The rise of the far right and their attacks on womens rights:

          And an Italian appeals court initially overturned a rape verdict by arguing the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim.
          So I tried to look around for information on this. But the articles that turn up are, by and large, just repeating these claims but without a way to try to verify them. No one links to the opinion, for example. Granted, I'm sure it would be in Italian but that would be a critical primary source so this statement could be seen in context. Was this actually the reason they overturned it, or was it just an unfortunate statement in the context of an opinion that gave other plausible explanations for it being overturned? (also, for the record, it didn't say they were too ugly, it appeared to say they were too masculine)

          It's worth noting, for the record, that the appeals court panel that overturned the rape verdict was entirely composed of women, which makes the article's complaint that it was "misogyny" feel rather odd.

          Anti-abortion activists are waging war on women’s bodies in the US and trying their utmost to overturn Roe v Wade – the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalised abortion nationwide in America in 1973. This is by no means beyond the realms of possibility now that we have new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – both Trump appointees – sitting on the Supreme Court.
          It's hardly "far right" to think that Roe v. Wade, a blatantly incorrect decision, should be overturned for being a blatantly incorrect decision. Sure, a lot of people who support it or oppose it do so because of their personal policy preferences, but setting aside whether the societal impact was good or bad, that doesn't change the fact that the decision's reasoning was incredibly weak. John Hart Ely, one of the most-cited constitutional scholars in US history and a staunch pro-choicer, declared that it had been decades since the Supreme Court made a decision so obviously not based on the Constitution ("At times the inferences the Court has drawn from the values the Constitution marks for special protection have been controversial, even shaky, but never before has its sense of an obligation to draw one been so obviously lacking. Not in the last thirty-five years at any rate.") Plessy v. Ferguson is far more defensible as a judicial matter than Roe v. Wade is.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by firstfloor View Post
            The rise of the far right and their attacks on womens rights:




            The truth is that misogyny has never gone away. An English friend [now retired] who used to lecture in linguistics told me of a task she would give her first year under-grads. She would ask them to note down all the slang and/or pejorative terms [in English] for women and men, and then compare their lists. Needless to note that the list for women was much longer. I doubt that today there will have changed.

            In fact, I would note that In some respects present day society is worse than when I was studying back in the 70s and 80s.. I now read of of horror stories occurring in student accommodation or during the first [Fresher] weeks that I cannot recall ever hearing about forty+ years ago. There is also a worrying trend among young men [and teens] to display violence [including verbal] towards women. Then there are these single men who appear to hate all women [I cannot recollect the term/acronym] but I think Jordan Peterson was, for a time, rather popular with some of them. Such an attitude is again is a phenomenon I do not recall encountering forty years ago.

            The article is an opinion piece and touches on several things but the problem is complex and is deeply laid within our societies. She's also wrong re Kinder Küche Kirche. It predates the Nazis.
            "It ain't necessarily so
            The things that you're liable
            To read in the Bible
            It ain't necessarily so
            ."

            Sportin' Life
            Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

            Comment


            • #7
              Leftist pearl clutching...
              That's what
              - She

              Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
              - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

              I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
              - Stephen R. Donaldson

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post

                The truth is that misogyny has never gone away. An English friend [now retired] who used to lecture in linguistics told me of a task she would give her first year under-grads. She would ask them to note down all the slang and/or pejorative terms [in English] for women and men, and then compare their lists. Needless to note that the list for women was much longer. I doubt that today there will have changed.
                I think this rings true. As I understand it, women are strong verbal attackers of other women. Now, if only a woman could be more like a man.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Bill the Cat View Post
                  Leftist pearl clutching...
                  I do enjoy a bit of inappropriate humour myself, well done.
                  “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
                  “And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
                  “not all there” - you know who you are

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by firstfloor View Post

                    [... ]

                    It seems that many right-wing Americans don't realise how extreme their views are; maybe not actually evil, but shallow and clueless, and easily herded by Trump and his kind.
                    It seems that they don't realize it and many observers are still having a hard time understanding or accepting it. Again, and again and again people I talk to are asking "Is this really what is going on in USA?", "Are they seriously going to continue to support this man?", "Is this really what American Christians really believed when they told us to repent and join their religion of love?"

                    And we continue to be surprised even after Trump lost the elections since... Well, it is embarrasing... But now they are so addicted to the "fake news" and "alternative facts" that the losers are not even capable of understanding that they lost.

                    "Yes. President Trump is a huge embarrassment. And it’s an embarrassment to evangelical Christianity that there appear to be so many who will celebrate precisely the aspects that I see Biblically as most lamentable and embarrassing." Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler Jr.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by mikewhitney View Post

                      I think this rings true.
                      Given that the task was regularly undertaken it is a fact - ergo it is true.



                      "It ain't necessarily so
                      The things that you're liable
                      To read in the Bible
                      It ain't necessarily so
                      ."

                      Sportin' Life
                      Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Bill the Cat View Post
                        Leftist pearl clutching...
                        Was this a stream of consciousness post or was it in reference to any particular contributor?
                        "It ain't necessarily so
                        The things that you're liable
                        To read in the Bible
                        It ain't necessarily so
                        ."

                        Sportin' Life
                        Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post

                          Was this a stream of consciousness post or was it in reference to any particular contributor?
                          Inquiring minds want to know...
                          That's what
                          - She

                          Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
                          - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

                          I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
                          - Stephen R. Donaldson

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Bill the Cat View Post

                            Inquiring minds want to know...
                            Not particularly. It just seems somewhat eccentric to make remarks that apparently have no relevance.
                            "It ain't necessarily so
                            The things that you're liable
                            To read in the Bible
                            It ain't necessarily so
                            ."

                            Sportin' Life
                            Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post

                              Not particularly. It just seems somewhat eccentric to make remarks that apparently have no relevance.
                              Oh, it has relevance...
                              That's what
                              - She

                              Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
                              - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

                              I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
                              - Stephen R. Donaldson

                              Comment

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