"If we care, we must consider them human beings, period." re: women

[donsu]

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/06/21/MissingWomen/

How We See 'Missing Women'
Why were they made vulnerable?
If we care, we must consider them human beings, period.


There's a war against women in our cities and on our lonely highways. And while the media focus on terrorists and saving Afghan women "over there," the women "over here" are missing and in many cases, murdered. The "missing women's" case refers to women missing from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and from numerous parts of British Columbia. A parallel case is occurring in Alberta where again, women have left behind concerned families and friends. The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) estimates that more than 500 women have gone missing in the last 20 years.

-snip-

Without being recognized first as human beings and then as women and mothers, daughters, wives or sisters, their humanity becomes secondary, and instead roles which are both legitimized and illegitimized as in prostitution and drug-addiction become distinguishing features of their identities. Women's rights are human rights. That's the demand that was voiced so long ago and that gained prominence at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

-snip-

Yet, violence against women transcends any hierarchy. Whether it is in the massage houses, the escort services or the streets, the violence is there. Just as violence is a reality for women inside and outside heterosexual unions sanctioned by church and state, it is ever-present in lives of girls and young women who fail to show signs of adhering to heterosexual norms or who are somehow categorized as "different." Violence against women is rampant. All the statistics bear this out -- and even if the rates of female homicides are down, the rates of sexual harassment are up. The continuum of violence persists though its manifestations adjust themselves according to what is rendered acceptable and passable.
-snip-
------------------------------------


and the violence comes from - men

in the year 2006 men are still considering if women are human

SCREAM

[jobycom]

1. Hey, at least we decided you are!

Now if we can just start acting like it...

(I agree, it's pathetic, and it goes right over most people's heads. Even here.)

[Warpy]

2. When men stop thinking of themselves as predators, as

mighty hunters and of women as prey, maybe some of it will stop.

When men realize they can't control it all and that they can't control any other adult in the world, maybe some of it will stop.

Then again, most of them feel ENTITLED to this stuff and are horribly threatened when it's pointed out.

[applegrove]

3. All predatory men should be MRI scanned, have DNA samples taken,

and be fitted with bracelets when they travel. Now that a predatory man cannot marry a passive woman and break her down.. domestic abuse laws interrupt the process.. we need to think ahead and identify the areas where predators will hunt. And legislated to make it impossible.