Good and Mad

I received my books by Rebecca Traister yesterday and have already taken a deep dive into both of them, “Good and Mad” and her earlier book “All the Single Ladies”. I can already tell you that they are worth reading if you have any interest in women’s experiences past and present.  But as I have not finished them by any means my comments will be limited to my own consideration of women being angry with what is wrong in this world.

First of all let me say that most women I know do not show anger nor do they speak of it.  They may speak about frustrations and this is mostly personal frustrations as they deal with government bureaucracy of one kind or another. Men or women, people generally don’t get angry until it becomes personal and affects their lives. Sure, they can get riled up when taxes seem to rise but mostly people are lethargic about the circumstances in their life, their world, their country.

Then there are the ones who really do care, the ones who become activists, who get involved, who speak out and attempt to make a difference. And as Traister points out oftentimes women are at the forefront of such movements but are quickly suppressed from keeping the lead by male domination. A case in point MADD’S (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) CEO is a man. While I don’t have details on the Pro-Life movement I noticed many years ago that there were an awful lot of men at various protests which I find incredibly annoying for reasons I won’t go into here.

However women have stood strong in this last decade in staying at the forefront of movements such as Occupy, Black Lives Matter, MeToo, Times Up and the women’s march on Washington these past two years.  Women on the right have also had some movements, most notably their involvement in the Tea Party and suppressing the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment (not a good thing in my opinion).

As Traister writes women’s voices are not only suppressed but derided as strident and unattractive when they raise them in protest. Meanwhile men are considered strong and forceful when expressing their wrath. The recent display by Judge Kavannagh is a good example of how he was used as a victim of injustice while Dr. Ford was seen as some sort of lying tool because she spoke in a measured way about her experience, neither embellishing her story nor sounding angry. These double standards will still take a long time to eradicate but I can say this, Righteous Wrath is never wrong as Jesus displayed in the temple 2,000 years ago. And a reckoning is coming for women because we cannot continue on this path where we are not seen as equal citizens under the law in every possible way.

Indeed time is up gentleman and the ladies will have their say.

"It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent." —Madeleine Albright