The Return of Women As Second Class Citizens

The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972, and is still not added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. The reason for that is, it has not been ratified by the necessary 38 states. Women 20 or more years younger than I am believe they have equal rights under the Constitution, and simply can't understand how men doing their job make more money than they do. We are led to believe that benefits us in some way since the men are being paid more and are our protectors. Maybe in some alternate universe this occurs, like the proverbial pigs ass?

In 2006 there were nearly 233,000 reported rapes. That same year nearly 1,600 women lost their lives to violence by spouse or significant other. Estimates on non fatal physical violence by husband or significant other range from 900,000 to as high as 3 million victims. These statistics are for the US alone. Guys, this is not what Olivia Newton-John meant when she sang "Let's get physical" in the 1970's. Trust me on that.

The angriest I ever got at someone I had contact with online was with John The Squabbler. He stated to me that this increase in domestic violence was a direct result of women wanting equality. While I don't remember that he outright blamed women for being victims, he skirted close enough to it that I was truly offended. The problem was his experience within his family as a child was different from mine.

I was raised in a family where Dad made all the decisions without any input from my Mom. This state of affairs was, along with his verbal abuse, why they found themselves in divorce court by the time I was 13. He created a situation where Mom was fully dependent upon him for transportation to everything and then he didn't like it. He chose the house we lived in which was on the outskirts of the city and not near stores or other family members homes. He undermined her attempts at learning to drive, belittled and yelled at her constantly. She was among the lucky ones in our circle of acquaintances.

Three of my childhood friends were sexually molested by their fathers. Our next door neighbor had 6 kids and was the clumsiest woman according to her husband. She had black eyes, broken nose, ribs, her arm and once was so badly beaten she had a concussion. My friend Carol's Mom who also had frequent bruising finally fell down a flight of stairs and broke her neck. We now know she was beaten and pushed by her husband. He admitted it on his deathbed. He did it between the time the kids left for school and he left for work. Carol and her brothers found her when they got home.

Mom's friend Anita had 2 boys she simply was unable to love. They were conceived through rape which in the 50's and 60's wasn't rape due to the perpetrator being her husband. Women didn't have the right to say no to their husbands and men had the right to force their wives to do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't kill them, men had the right to punish them as if they were wayward children.

None of this happened in ghettos or occurred in families living in poverty. This happened in middle class families where the men had decent jobs that allowed them to provide well for their families. This happened in families that attended church every Sunday without fail. The men were officers in the Air Force, General Managers in local mills, and in the case of my Dad, the city Codes Enforcer. There are no statistics for the frequency of occurrence during those years because no one ever reported it. Even rape victims would not go to the police because they would be treated as if they caused it to happen to them. Victims were actually asked if they enjoyed it or if they had an orgasm.

Here we are, half a century later and MEN, those we have elected to govern us are again trying to take away from women any right that we have gained. They even have support from women who have decided that bad things don't happen to decent god fearing women. Bad things only happen to sluts, bimbos and other women who dress provocatively and behave as if they're available to all takers. Bad things only happen to poor women who keep having babies so they won't have to ever work for a living since they live high on Welfare.

I was a normal average kid, in a normal average neighborhood, in what people believe now was a "kinder, gentler America". I find nothing kind or gentle in the lives of women who were and are treated as children to be controlled by the whim of her "better half". If we sit silently by and allow men to decide what we can and can't do with our bodies, then we are failing our daughters and granddaughters by forcing them to live without the right to be self directing within their own lives.