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From: Tim Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Recently both Correta Scott-King and Betty Friedan died. Not too long
before that Rosa Parks died as well. All great losses to all Americans,
male and female, black and white. The contrast on their coverage, or lack
there of, by the media and our leaders shows how different America's views
on racial rights vs women's rights still are.
I shouldn't have to say this, but *this post is in no way a criticism of
Correta Scott-King or any other black leader, past or present!* Scott-King
deserves to be honored for her legacy, but objectively, who can deny that
Betty Friedan had a greater impact on America for her causes than did
Correta?
Friedan compares more to Rosa Parks (meaning the label the media have long
ago tagged her with) as the woman who "started it all". Friedan, as the
writer of "The Feminen Mystique" and founder of NOW, really started the
modern feminist movement. So how is Betty remembered? Lets start with
the end--the funeral. There was no CNN coverage of her funeral. While
many politicans and members of the Bush Admin. were as Scott-King's
funeral, there was only one former Congresswoman, Elizabeth Holtzman,
speaking at Friedan's. GW Bush mentioned Scott-King's passing in the
opening of his State of the Union address (although it was kind of an
insult to her memory to be in any way a part of that hidious speach). Do
you think he would have mentioned Friedan had she died before instead of a
few days later?
Some would say Friedan was not honored because of her association with
Marxism (though this was mostly in her youth), but this is not a
sufficient explaination. Martin Luther King was an advocate of
Socialist/Communist ideas late in his life and this did not do long-term
harm to his image. Malcolm X and others who opposed MLK's non-violent
stance still have their admirers. Friedan and most other feminists never
advocated violence against men. Some would also say civil rights pioneers
are thought of positively because many of them were ministers or otherwise
envolved in religion, but few feminists are/were athiests. Pauli Murray,
the co-founder of NOW, along with Friedan, was herself an Episopalian
minister. Does anyone remember her historically?
But the difference in how women's rights and civil rights are perceived is
not limited to our leaders and the media. The divide is still great
within the public as well. Think about your workplace for example. Few
workplaces would tolerate racist jokes, internet surfing etc. But how
often do you hear jokes about women made, not only by men, but by other
women as well? It has been common in my work experience. I would also
like to add this works the other way as well. How often do men have to
put up with man-bashing comments or sexist jokes made by women? Our media
shows men in demening sterotypical fashion just as often as it does women
IMO. Freidan was not a "man-hater", she wanted men as allies, not
enemies. I think it is actually more common and still considered
acceptable for women to make chauvanist comments about men than the other
way around.
Basically, America's attitudes on male-female relations still has a long
way to go compared to racial relations, and we are still far from
elimating racism.
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