I Am Woman: Hear Me Roar
By Elena Greco
Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris speaking at the DNC
Image by Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Typical reading time: 4 minutes
August 26, 2024
This is a great moment in our country’s history. We are on the verge of electing our first female President. It’s high time we did! We are far, far behind the other evolved countries of the world in this regard. Iceland elected a female President in 1980, 44 years ago. And of course India had a female prime minister beginning in 1966.
Kamala Harris has been our country’s first female Vice President. I don’t think enough was made of the moment she took that office, a victory long overdue for women in the US. I wrote about that in a previous Newsletter, Elena’s Newsletter – 2021 No. 2 (click to read); in that issue, I talked about how life was for women in our country in the 1960s and 1970s, and my own experience of living through those times. Women had little choice and little possibility then. Roe v Wade changed everything for us. Women born after 1970 have never had to live with the restrictions we had, so I don’t believe they fully understand the importance of the rights that are at stake.
The significance of the nomination of Kamala Harris was captured in a beautiful photo (see above) taken at the Democratic National Convention by New York Times photographer Todd Heisler. In the photo Harris is at the DNC Podium, accepting the nomination as the Democratic candidate for President. We see Harris as if through the eyes of her young grand-niece sitting in the audience. The little girl’s pig-tailed head represents every young girl out there who now can look to the example of a woman speaking powerfully while running for President of the United States, allowing every little girl to dream of doing it herself.
And now our country is at a dangerous point, at the hands of theofascists and authoritarians in our government who would take back every right that women have won in the last seven decades.
The US is supposed to be the greatest example of democracy in the world, the frontrunner of human and social evolution. Unevolved third-world countries focus on subjugation, control and punishment of women. Evolved modern countries do not.
So why is the US so far behind in this regard? And why are misogynistic fascists so easily able to propose and take steps to subjugate women in the US and relegate them to an unrewarding existence, suppressing women’s potential and happiness, without an uproarious protest from every one of our citizens? And by the way, in addition to making women suffer, that lost potential of half the population is lost potential that would benefit our country and the evolution of civilization.
ONE HALF of the human population is female. Subjugating and disempowering females is essentially a war by males to dominate and control the other half of the population: Us (men) against Them (women). Attempting to wrest power away from half of the population and dominate them is literally war. Over 100 years ago women in this country fought to gain the right to vote and have a say in our country, half of whose citizens are women. In the 1800s, the male-dominated AMA made abortion illegal, with horrendous consequences to female death rates. It wasn’t until the 1960s that progress toward legalization of abortion was made. Finally, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision protected the right of a woman in any state in this country to choose to have an abortion. In 1984, Ronald Reagan started putting into play legislation to roll back women’s rights. And now, in 2024, we stand to lose all the rights we fought hard to win up to 1973 unless we unite to fight the anti-woman forces that want to dominate us.
The Taliban is well aware of the value to them of subjugating women. Witness the backward evolution and the complete suppression of women in a country that was once modern. And our Christian Taliban here in the US—the theofascists of the far right and MAGA cultists—are attempting to do the same. One of the hallmarks of authoritarians and fascists—and now the Republican Party—is cruelty toward and subjugation and punishment of women.
How can this still be happening in our country? Can we all please agree not to tolerate this for one second? If we do not take action, raise our voices, and make “good trouble,” they WILL take away women’s rights. Make no mistake: this war of the fascists against women is not about “protecting babies.” It’s about glorifying their hatred of women and making themselves feel—and be—powerful through endangering, controlling and dominating women. Let’s nip that in the bud once and for all, shall we?
In addition to electing our first female President, if we elect a Democratic Senate and House to help her pass important legislation and prevent the passage of damaging legislation, we’ll protect and guarantee women’s futures and safety, things that are very much in danger now and even more so in the future if we don’t win this election. So let’s win big all the way down the ticket! It really is possible.
If you haven’t already checked that your voter registration is current, do it now. Those who want to suppress women (and achieve other unsavory goals) really do want to stop you from voting and are keen to knock people off of the voter rolls.
And do check into down-ballot races in the crucial states, which are just as important as the Presidential election in protecting our freedom. Ruben Gallego for Arizona Senator and Elissa Slotkin for Michigan Senator come to mind….
Finally, you might enjoy a post I wrote a few years ago:
I Am a Feminist (and You Might Be One, Too)
Afghanistan
Afghan women in the 1970s (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Recent image of Afghan woman wearing a full burka,
which women are required to wear at all times when in public (Getty Images)
– Afghanistan Slides Into ‘Ever More Hellish Conditions’ After New Morality Law Enacted – Radio Free Europe
– ‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public – The Guardian
The Taliban, the religious fascists currently in power in Afghanistan, currently forbids women in Afghanistan from obtaining education, working, managing their own finances, going to parks or gyms, going out of the home without a male relative accompanying them, driving, taking a taxi on their own, looking at a non-relative male in public, and now … from SPEAKING in public. They must be completely covered, head to toe, and they must be silent. Their lives have been taken away. They exist, but they do not live.
In the 1960s and 1970s, these women were like any other. They dressed in a modern fashion, obtained higher education, worked in any profession, and lived their lives as they wished. The religious fascists (Taliban) who took over Afghanistan forced women into their current dire existence in just a few years.
In keeping with the theme of feminism and women, here are some great shows that are entertaining as well as educational and enlightening.
Mrs. America (Hulu). The story of the ERA. Learn about (or remember) the fight for women’s rights during the 1960s and 1970s. Also learn how the fight against the ERA provided an easy path for the extreme Religious Right to infiltrate politics and join Republicans to create a powerful anti-woman force. Enjoyable, some nice performances, and the soundtrack of 60s and 70s hits is terrific! With Cate Blanchett, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks.
Call Jane (Hulu) “A housewife is overjoyed with the news of her pregnancy–until she learns it poses a threat to her own life. She has nowhere to turn until she meets an underground group of women who risk everything to provide people like her with a choice.” This interesting movie tells it how it really was for women in this time, all the while entertaining us! With Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Hulu), a television on adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s great book of the same name. This series represents what can happen in a (formerly American) totalitarian society in which women are subjugated and treated as property, much as they are in third-world countries. Unfortunately, there is much that is now eerily familiar in this series. (Note: The sixth and final season is due out this year.) Outstanding production values and performances—including that of the ever-brilliant Elisabeth Moss.
RBG (Netflix) “With unprecedented access, filmmakers explore how her early legal battles changed the world for women.” It also reveals a lot about her personal life. This documentary was incredibly inspiring—as was Ruth Bader Ginsberg!
~ lyrics by Helen Reddy and Ray Burto
I Am Woman: Hear Me Roar
I Am Woman: Hear Me Roar
By Elena Greco
Image by Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Typical reading time: 4 minutes
August 26, 2024
This is a great moment in our country’s history. We are on the verge of electing our first female President. It’s high time we did! We are far, far behind the other evolved countries of the world in this regard. Iceland elected a female President in 1980, 44 years ago. And of course India had a female prime minister beginning in 1966.
Kamala Harris has been our country’s first female Vice President. I don’t think enough was made of the moment she took that office, a victory long overdue for women in the US. I wrote about that in a previous Newsletter, Elena’s Newsletter – 2021 No. 2 (click to read); in that issue, I talked about how life was for women in our country in the 1960s and 1970s, and my own experience of living through those times. Women had little choice and little possibility then. Roe v Wade changed everything for us. Women born after 1970 have never had to live with the restrictions we had, so I don’t believe they fully understand the importance of the rights that are at stake.
The significance of the nomination of Kamala Harris was captured in a beautiful photo (see above) taken at the Democratic National Convention by New York Times photographer Todd Heisler. In the photo Harris is at the DNC Podium, accepting the nomination as the Democratic candidate for President. We see Harris as if through the eyes of her young grand-niece sitting in the audience. The little girl’s pig-tailed head represents every young girl out there who now can look to the example of a woman speaking powerfully while running for President of the United States, allowing every little girl to dream of doing it herself.
And now our country is at a dangerous point, at the hands of theofascists and authoritarians in our government who would take back every right that women have won in the last seven decades.
The US is supposed to be the greatest example of democracy in the world, the frontrunner of human and social evolution. Unevolved third-world countries focus on subjugation, control and punishment of women. Evolved modern countries do not.
So why is the US so far behind in this regard? And why are misogynistic fascists so easily able to propose and take steps to subjugate women in the US and relegate them to an unrewarding existence, suppressing women’s potential and happiness, without an uproarious protest from every one of our citizens? And by the way, in addition to making women suffer, that lost potential of half the population is lost potential that would benefit our country and the evolution of civilization.
ONE HALF of the human population is female. Subjugating and disempowering females is essentially a war by males to dominate and control the other half of the population: Us (men) against Them (women). Attempting to wrest power away from half of the population and dominate them is literally war. Over 100 years ago women in this country fought to gain the right to vote and have a say in our country, half of whose citizens are women. In the 1800s, the male-dominated AMA made abortion illegal, with horrendous consequences to female death rates. It wasn’t until the 1960s that progress toward legalization of abortion was made. Finally, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision protected the right of a woman in any state in this country to choose to have an abortion. In 1984, Ronald Reagan started putting into play legislation to roll back women’s rights. And now, in 2024, we stand to lose all the rights we fought hard to win up to 1973 unless we unite to fight the anti-woman forces that want to dominate us.
The Taliban is well aware of the value to them of subjugating women. Witness the backward evolution and the complete suppression of women in a country that was once modern. And our Christian Taliban here in the US—the theofascists of the far right and MAGA cultists—are attempting to do the same. One of the hallmarks of authoritarians and fascists—and now the Republican Party—is cruelty toward and subjugation and punishment of women.
How can this still be happening in our country? Can we all please agree not to tolerate this for one second? If we do not take action, raise our voices, and make “good trouble,” they WILL take away women’s rights. Make no mistake: this war of the fascists against women is not about “protecting babies.” It’s about glorifying their hatred of women and making themselves feel—and be—powerful through endangering, controlling and dominating women. Let’s nip that in the bud once and for all, shall we?
In addition to electing our first female President, if we elect a Democratic Senate and House to help her pass important legislation and prevent the passage of damaging legislation, we’ll protect and guarantee women’s futures and safety, things that are very much in danger now and even more so in the future if we don’t win this election. So let’s win big all the way down the ticket! It really is possible.
If you haven’t already checked that your voter registration is current, do it now. Those who want to suppress women (and achieve other unsavory goals) really do want to stop you from voting and are keen to knock people off of the voter rolls.
And do check into down-ballot races in the crucial states, which are just as important as the Presidential election in protecting our freedom. Ruben Gallego for Arizona Senator and Elissa Slotkin for Michigan Senator come to mind….
Finally, you might enjoy a post I wrote a few years ago:
I Am a Feminist (and You Might Be One, Too)
Afghanistan
Afghan women in the 1970s (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Recent image of Afghan woman wearing a full burka,
which women are required to wear at all times when in public (Getty Images)
– Afghanistan Slides Into ‘Ever More Hellish Conditions’ After New Morality Law Enacted – Radio Free Europe
– ‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public – The Guardian
The Taliban, the religious fascists currently in power in Afghanistan, currently forbids women in Afghanistan from obtaining education, working, managing their own finances, going to parks or gyms, going out of the home without a male relative accompanying them, driving, taking a taxi on their own, looking at a non-relative male in public, and now … from SPEAKING in public. They must be completely covered, head to toe, and they must be silent. Their lives have been taken away. They exist, but they do not live.
In the 1960s and 1970s, these women were like any other. They dressed in a modern fashion, obtained higher education, worked in any profession, and lived their lives as they wished. The religious fascists (Taliban) who took over Afghanistan forced women into their current dire existence in just a few years.
In keeping with the theme of feminism and women, here are some great shows that are entertaining as well as educational and enlightening.
Mrs. America (Hulu). The story of the ERA. Learn about (or remember) the fight for women’s rights during the 1960s and 1970s. Also learn how the fight against the ERA provided an easy path for the extreme Religious Right to infiltrate politics and join Republicans to create a powerful anti-woman force. Enjoyable, some nice performances, and the soundtrack of 60s and 70s hits is terrific! With Cate Blanchett, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks.
Call Jane (Hulu) “A housewife is overjoyed with the news of her pregnancy–until she learns it poses a threat to her own life. She has nowhere to turn until she meets an underground group of women who risk everything to provide people like her with a choice.” This interesting movie tells it how it really was for women in this time, all the while entertaining us! With Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Hulu), a television on adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s great book of the same name. This series represents what can happen in a (formerly American) totalitarian society in which women are subjugated and treated as property, much as they are in third-world countries. Unfortunately, there is much that is now eerily familiar in this series. (Note: The sixth and final season is due out this year.) Outstanding production values and performances—including that of the ever-brilliant Elisabeth Moss.
RBG (Netflix) “With unprecedented access, filmmakers explore how her early legal battles changed the world for women.” It also reveals a lot about her personal life. This documentary was incredibly inspiring—as was Ruth Bader Ginsberg!
~ lyrics by Helen Reddy and Ray Burto