Dear Helen Mirren, you need to re-think your words on rape

You know, I love Helen Mirren, and when I read something like this, and I face-palm. It’s funny, because I happen to know a beautiful, successful woman who was raped pretty much in the way that Helen Mirren was raped, multiple times, and then turned around and said “it wasn’t a real sexual assault. I just forgot about it. It’s what I had to do.”

And I understand that perfectly. When you’re living in a society where women not only “bring it on themselves” but are furthermore forever tainted by even an implication of rape, this is what you do to cope and move on. You have to. It’s the only way.

But going on to decide who is or isn’t a rape victim? Who can or cannot press charges? No. Just no.

I don’t want to get armchair-y on you, but it seems like it’s just the pain talking. The idea that “I couldn’t press charges, so why does SHE get to?”

“She” gets to because we are trying to move on.

Please help us move on. We need your help. I need your help. The women and girls and yes, boys and men, being raped today – they all need your help. Not your judgment.

Hexy Gets Angry

And the results are here. Please read.

All of this has me wondering, why does Heart get to initiate a tug-of-war between s e x workers and prostituted women? I mean, both exist. Both need and deserve help and the basic rights that are routinely denied to them by a society of sexists and s l u t-shamers. Who is Heart to say, “these concerns are important, these aren’t”?

I don’t comment over at Heart’s, because she censors and edits her commenters. She claims she does it for everyone’s own good, but I find that both control-freakish and extremely patronizing. Adult women don’t need den mothers. At the very least, I certainly do not.

So, I’m going to say this right here:

Heart, you’re not Every Woman, and you don’t get to decide. Hexy has every right to be pissed off at you. And no, it’s not because she’s a patriarchy-pleasing dumb little fembot who doesn’t know what’s good for her.

All women matter. Both the ones who agree with you, and the ones who don’t.

P.S. And way to go in accusing Saorla of being an evil sexpat, Heart. Some of us happen to know this woman, and have been corresponding with her for a very long time. Are you really this unintelligent or do you merely want to throw some dung and see if it sticks?

“I’m getting better and better at recognizing people like you” – Cancer Man from the X-Files called. He wants his creepy shtick back.

Bristol Palin and the Meaning of the Word “Choice”

I don’t know if Bristol Palin wanted to keep this pregnancy, though I hope that she did and that she does well for herself no matter what. I don’t want to speculate, but then again, half of the United States is celebrating her decision to keep the baby, so yes, it is being used as a political tool, no matter what.

It’s funny how this decision is being celebrated using the word “choice.” Funny also that Sarah Palin, who is pro-forced pregnancy, said that she would “choose life” if her daughter were to become pregnant as the result of a rape.

The only reason why you folks are able to “choose” anything is due to the fact that abortion, right now, is legal.

If people like you outlaw it, then “choosing life” won’t be an option. There will be no choice. You won’t get to make decisions. You won’t get to celebrate anything. You will be baby-making machines, doing what the government tells you.

Think about it.

Renee has more on Bristol Palin’s pregnancy and the hoopla around it. I like what she says about Bristol Palin’s race and class being important in all of this. We all know that it’s much easier for the GOP to “celebrate life” when white, relatively well-to-do young women are giving birth.

Now, I don’t want to hold up Bristol Palin as a symbol of anything, but she is already being used in this fashion and how to stop that? I don’t even know. Be well and good luck, Bristol Palin.