Redneck Feminism

Last night was a dream come true for a redneck feminist documentary freak like me. The evening started out with a movie about Gloria Steinem on HBO. All those clips of women marching and protesting during the early seventies brought back memories of my own budding feminism during my pre-school years. I was four or five when I first recall parroting back some of the slogans I heard on TV. My mom had gone into Houchens to pick up a few groceries and left me in the car with my dad and brother. I don’t remember what the conversation was about but when I piped up and said women could do anything men could do they just laughed and laughed. I think I may have even gotten patted on the head. Attitudes about a woman’s role in rural Kentucky circa 1971 were closer to 1961 attitudes in the more liberal areas of the country. That’s what made the next documentary so refreshing to see.

I don’t think the women in Harlan County USA considered themselves feminists but the actions they took during the miner’s strike that started in June of 1972 showed that they could more than hold their own with any man. When Lois Scott whips that gun out of her bra, you know she’s more than capable of using it. Yes, they were standing by their men, but it was a fight for their family’s very survival. That’s what’s so sad about the women’s movement from that era. Somehow they got the reputation of being a bunch of man-hating, anti-family lesbians and that scared away a lot of strong women who otherwise might have been sympathetic to the cause. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened during the seventies if more redneck women had been involved with the movement.

The final film of the night, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, is heavy on the redneck but the feminism angle is a little more problematic. It focuses on the female members of the White clan, a violent, drug-using family who gained national renown for the mountain dancing prowess of patriarch D. Ray and his son Jesco. In some ways these women are the flip side of Harlan County USA. Instead of fighting the coal companies, they’ve taken the crazy check and dropped out of law-abiding society all together. When Kirk tells the story about the night she stabbed her boyfriend for sleeping with her cousin, it makes you realize that, contrary to all the rhetoric spouted early on about how women’s equality would make the world more peaceful, violence isn’t gender-specific. I'm not sure what this all says about the state of feminism today but I guess it does prove my point from 40 years ago. Women really can do anything men can, good or bad.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

I was shocked that Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik actually voiced what I and a lot of other Arizonans have been thinking for a long time during his press conference after the massacre in Tucson on Saturday. Watching health care town hall meetings degenerate into violence, citizens bringing guns to presidential events and hearing about the death threats and vandalized offices of our elected officials it seemed like only a matter of time before someone came along and took all the violent rhetoric spewing from the extreme right literally.

Sadly, their reaction to this general statement asking everyone to tone down the hate speech wasn’t shocking at all. The sheriff didn’t identify any person or group by name but evidently they know who they are because the attacks against Dupnik and others who even dared to contemplate that violent rhetoric might have contributed to a mentally disturbed young man thinking it was okay to commit murder started almost immediately. Rather than even stop for one second and consider the consequences their words might have had, they went straight to blaming the left for even bringing up the subject.

Mark Meckler, one of the tea party leaders said, "To see the left exploit this for political advantage -- some people have no conscience. It's genuinely revolting...I think it sinks to the level of evil." Uh, excuse me, but the only way the left could “exploit” this for political advantage was if they weren't the ones participating in the vitriol. The right has Sharron Angle suggesting 2nd Amendment remedies, Glenn Beck joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi and Sarah Palin setting her gun sights on fellow politicians. The left has what... Keith Olbermann electing the world's worst person? There's just no comparison. And ironically, Olbermann's the only one who apologized for anything he may have said to incite violence.

Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck had a little e-mail love fest that he felt the need to publicize on his radio show. Beck starts out by saying “Sarah, peace is always the answer” and then goes on to urge her to look into protection because an attack on Sarah Palin could bring the republic down. Sarah replies, "I hate violence, I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence. Thanks for all you do to send the message of truth and love and God as the answer." Please! Give me a break. This sounds more Lennon and Ono than Beck and Palin to me.

But in my view, Rush Limbaugh deserves the world's worst designation. He threw everything but the kitchen sink at his detractors in an attempt to deflect attention away from the hate he wallows in every day and what bothers me the most is that he actually had the gall to blame Jared Lee Loughner's parents for this atrocity. I can only imagine what kind of hell this poor couple's already been through trying to deal with their son's illness and to have some mean-spirited radio host who has no idea that it's virtually impossible to have someone involuntarily detained until AFTER they've committed a violent act attack them is beyond despicable.

I never expected all the right wing hatemongers to suddenly join together in a big group hug and start singing kumbaya by the campfire but I was hoping that at least one person might consider changing his or her ways. I just never imagined that one person would be Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. According to the Huffington Post website Ailes said, "I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don't have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that." I can't believe I'm actually typing this but I agree Mr. Ailes, I agree.