Living in the United States is seeing a tweet from someone who survived being shot and the first comment underneath is asking him why more people didn't start shooting, you know, to keep everyone safe.
"I notice you and the other shooting victims did not pull out your own guns and shoot the shooter. Why not?"
I realize this may seem like a stretch to some, but I can't help but connect this to the police murder of Donna Dalton, a woman who did try to protect herself in a violent situation, and the highest likelihood is we'll see that murder justified and unpunished.
There's this rhetoric of violent self-defense as a good, and even an imperative, but when anyone actually tries to violently self defend against someone with more social capital, all bets are off.
This idea that victims of crime are in the wrong for not protecting themselves with weapons sits comfortably alongside all the #SurvivedAndPunished people in prison. No matter what, the victim is at fault.
It's as though angry men with guns are the weather or something, and the rest of us should have thought to bring a raincoat.
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I'm amazed that we're still treating Melania's complicity and fashion choices as an open question after that "I really don't care" jacket, except that white womanhood allows for near endless innocence.
An underdiscussed aspect of the "I really don't care" incident is the fact that there is literally no appropriate occasion for anyone associated with government to wear a garment with that slogan.
And it gets worse when you consider the gendered demands on a First Lady. The role exists as a national symbol of care. It's a messed up role and I hate it, but that's pretty much it. First Ladies are hostesses and national moms.
One thing I can't stop thinking about lately is how heterosexual marriage benefits men and tends to harm women but it's culturally framed as something women want and men resist.
*slaps roof of American culture*
this bad boy can fit so many misogynistic scams in it
Ah, well, once it starts moving it's probably best to cite. This isn't just like ~my opinion~ or something. In fact I've been in a largely happy hetero marriage for eighteen years. But anyway, some receipts tk.
OK, I have the speech up. I am going to go in order, with many digressions along the way. This is the sort of on-the-fly essay writing I do on here sometimes, so I may get things wrong. If I write it up, I'll correct.
Linked the wrong speech, so I'm trying again.
OK, here's the link to *this year's* speech to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. As I say, there are now other transcripts and video available to cross check, if you want. whitehouse.gov/briefings-stat…