Bullying, Slut-Shaming, the Country and Me

Recently I saw a poster of a subdued girl on a bus with a bunch of guys jeering at her.  This image brought back everything I endured as a girl in a small town. Riding the bus to school was an agony as every boy on the bus -- or so it seemed -- harassed me.  We lived in Merced, California, which was at the time a tiny town known as "The Gateway to Yosemite".  The populace at that time was about  20 thousand, surrounded by ranches of all sorts, and many of those rich ranchers' sons remind me now of G.W. Bush.

I ruled the playground for the first several years of grade-school, but then I was forced to get glasses.  My popularity vanished almost overnight. I was a smart, dorky girl for a period from 4th grade through 9th grade, when my mom got me contact lenses. Before this occurred, I'd learned that the shy and weak attract aggressors. As I grew more attractive the whole creepy thing just got worse. We lived on the outskirts of town, and I had about 1 1/2 miles to walk to school, a good part on a truck bearing roadway.  Fun, huh?

Guys honked and whistled and shouted obscenities -- it was AWFUL. As I became much more willing to take a stand the violence surrounding me grew. Things were so much different then.  Girls sat primly on the grass, forced to wear SKIRTS in the worst of weather. Seriously, it didn't matter how hard it was raining or how freaking cold it was - our legs had to be bare or we had to wear those primitive stockings and GIRDLES -- oh the horror!

For those who are too young to know what these atrocities are, look 'em up, the ghastly things.  There were no comfortable leggings or tights for us. I doubt that anyone gave any thought to the girls and our comfort, and I remember the feeling of unfairness that my legs and I endured throughout my school years.

The boys, however, could of course wear pants and sprawl around as they pleased. I've always liked  lying around, so it occurred to me one day to relax at lunchtime like the guys! Within minutes people were throwing tomatoes and other foods at me, and even some rocks.  When I got up later I found a dead bird in my purse. My companion, an exchange student from Spain, was so furious he wanted to cause mayhem.  How could this happen in the great America, he wondered. 

These memories are coming up again, and there are a lot of them. The shaming didn't just come from the boys/men either. The dean of girls called me a "witch" in front of a few hundred people.   My senior history teacher made inappropriate remarks about me when he caught me day-dreaming, intimating that I was day dreaming about last night's SEX. Oh please. If that isn't sexism, pure and simple, I don't know what is. "Slut-shaming" is its more "mature" and uglified self;

These few stories are a tiny fraction of that kind of behavior and its effect on my life, or on the lives of others who've had the same sort of experience.  I have been sexually assaulted and experienced the kind of "slut-shaming" that is occurring once again in our land. This was years ago, and in some ways I do not think I am over it. I still automatically crosses the street when I see more than one man hanging out  together on a sidewalk. I am still shy in ways that I think I ought not to be and a lot of this scarring originates from the YEARS of that kind of vicious sexism. I prefer now to live in a more isolated fashion.

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?  Hell yes -- I am.  Being chased down a country road near Sacramento by the ZODIAC KILLER didn't help.  But that story is for another time,

I think -- yes, it seems that at this time our culture is even more severely degraded. The very real victims of a society gone wrong are its children. I look at the faces of the kids who've been scarred, at home or at school, and wonder what the hell is wrong with us, as individuals and as a country.

Professor Rush-Bo The Hutt and the Public Discourse

It's time; it's more than time, to find a way to cleanse the public Airwaves.  We suffer from tiresome pollution of the radio by obscene trash-talking shock jocks, and this has risen into a virulent flood as the elections near.  As I am incurably naive I had thought - had hoped - that the chilling, graphic scenes of hatred would be absent from the 2012 elections - why I certainly don't know.

Education is a topic on the public consciousness these days. The President has asked everyone to try for at least another year of training after high school.  There is so much opportunity and necessity to absorb other content than vicious political ads and diatribe.  God I am sick of vulgar programming by vulgar people that have been allowed to, indeed been welcome to run amok on the radio, becoming the de facto Political Science professors of this country, forming people's viewpoints with poisonous bile. 

It is a sobering thought, if you give it some attention, that people like Limbaugh and his ilk are busy educating people who spend hours a day in cars, trucks or home behind the range. These Americans, whose minds are perfectly active and hungry for education, are literally soaking up distorted, uglified politics as though these "facts' - were tried, tested and absolutely TRUE. 

Are we aware that we are providing a very poor but effective type of "adult education" on the airwaves of the land? If we are aware of this, do we feel this sort of brain-food is appropriate for our ever less educated population? Who do you think is responsible for the fact that more of the South than EVER thinks the President is a Muslim/follower of Islam?  Does the Free Speech Amendment guarantee this staggering manipulation of the public airwaves and of the public trust??

My god, Advertisers; there will be hell to pay if you let that noxious Pot of Bile continue to shame and demean the Daughters of America. We have heard and witnessed a 3 day assault on a young woman of obvious breeding and character!  How would you feel if Sandra Fluke had been YOUR daughter?   

I personally would have felt an intense pride in either of my daughters, both of whom are about the same age as Ms. Fluke, for standing up and speaking out in the glare of the public spotlight.  I would also have felt, as I do now, a sense of utter, unmitigated rage at the verbal rape by Mr. Limbaugh of a woman of integrity.  

He and his radio brethren have attacked women so often and consistently and we have become the perennial victims of the Airwaves.  I doubt that many women enjoy his anti-female shtick this stuff even if they're identified with guys in some way.  Those raised in extreme climates have to make do, and those women are TOUGH. A girl raised among 7 brothers will have a different perspective than an older daughter of a younger brother, or one sister among another three others.  My point is that we are half the world's population, that we are the Mothers and the Grandmothers, the Lovers, the Sisters, the Comrades at Work.

We are coming into own as the Spiritual Counselors (except at places like the Vatican, where we count for nothing at all), the nurses, midwives, scholars and teachers -- and are because the "powers that be" are allowing it.  

When we realize what an effect listening to this sicko belittle our contributions to our society - the "slut-shaming", we have to stop and know this:

WE have let him get away with it, and shame on us if we continue to submit ourselves to this sort of harassment and degradation.  I mean, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD HIM TALK ABOUT WOMEN without using the terms "Femi-Nazis", "itch-Bays” or unt-Cays?" I haven't, but I will confess that I cannot tolerate listening to him for more than a few moments.

I say it's time to get more creative and put something else on radio other than grumpy hate-fests and shock jocks. I've had midnight encounters with obscure, brilliant programming stuck where nobody hears it, whereas Rush is out there front and center, a hate-filled, bilious representative of "America the Beautiful". 

There are so many people with positive points of view.  My simple suggestion is that we put more cool, educational and stimulating programming out there to fill the vacuum that will occur if we can get rid of Limbaugh and his ilk, RIGHT OR LEFT. Let's get educational content on the airwaves, no more toxic, inflammatory crap. PLEASE!! We NEED it from any source we can find!  Our school systems are degenerating; let's make use of the airwaves.

Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, PLEASE STOP ADVERTISING WITH LIMBAUGH, FOREVER.

He hates women more than anyone, even minorities, and that probably has something to do with his known problems with ED.  Google "Rush and Viagra" -- I don't want to go further!