See You In The Funnies?

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One of the first things I do Sunday morning is sit down with the Sunday comics and a mug of coffee.  Most of the time it is pure leisure.  This week I found two timely toons.  One, unsurprisingly, is Doonesbury on the reporting of sexual assault in the military through the chain of command — and why it remains a bad idea.

(http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/archive/2013/12/8)

The next was a surprise.  It’s a strip called Baby Blues, and it’s about a family with small children.  The dad was teaching his son about field goals, and recollects an older, very popular cartoon.  Peanuts, as you probably know, would often feature Lucy holding a football for Charlie Brown, and yanking it away at the last minute.  The dad in Baby Blues finds that hilarious.  The son slumps inside, and tells his older sister that Dad finds bullying funny.

(http://www.babyblues.com/index.php, from Dec 8, 2013)

Considering the popularity and longevity of Peanuts, this felt like a jolt.  But a “right on” kind of jolt, when some behavior you’d taken for granted even if uncomfortably gets a label and suddenly is more clear (even if it is cartoon characters).

I’m certainly not saying we should toss Peanuts in the trash, far from it!  Everyone, at some point, feels like a Charlie Brown.  And you may know a Lucy Van Pelt (I worked for one once, and I sure did feel like good ol’ Charlie more than every so often back then).  It’s a reminder that there are callous folk out there who make promises and renege on them, for their own amusement.

And this was a comic.  And it was funny and poignant.  And some adults have a hard time recognizing bullying (unless they directly see the pain it causes to their own children, and even then not always).  Because it was OK as in normal, typical, kids will be kids.  They’ll get over it. 

Most will.  Some won’t.

How do you recount your past to the next generation?

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Should Female Soldiers “Expect” to be Raped? A Former Marine Says NO!

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A few days  ago I posted about a FOX News “pundit,” Liz Trotta, who expressed incredulity that women would enter the service and not be expecting sexual assault. The whole episode reminded me more of an old Monty Python routine (“NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!”) than real news commentary in how surreal Trotta’s opinions were.

Former Marine Sarah Anderson wrote a truly AWESOME piece about Ms. Trotta’s inane comments, and at the end asks us to sign an online petition demanding that FOX fire Trotter. I signed, and I highly recommend you do too.

I looked up “pundit” in Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary, hoping for some pithy and witty quip to quote. Nothing. I think it’s the season for a new, updated dictionary.

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Pittance of Punditry on Women in Military Service

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I really hate it when women in public positions spout off anti-feminist platitudes. For example, how does Liz Trotta think she got where she is, if not on the backs of women who pushed to be able to engage and be taken seriously in public discourse (i.e., “feminists”)?  Maybe you never heard of Liz Trotta either? I hadn’t, until I saw this video. Lis Trotta is a FOX News “pundit,” and here she’s opining about women serving in the US military who’d been raped while in service.

(if you received this post as an email and cannot view the video, you can see it on my blog online or at Media Matters. If you are using an iPad or iPhone, you may have to go to a computer that plays Flash.)

So much deliberate ignorance, packed into less than 4 minutes.  I’ll just point out the parts I consider most egregious.

  • She objects to how much is spent on issues around sexual assault. $113 million annually, she says. Is that a lot of money? It would be to me personally. However, the military commands a budget is somewhat larger than mine, and this military expenditure is fiscally comparable to my buying one plain old coffee, not even a latte (double short, non-fat milk, please).
  • She is astounded that people in the military are still people. Apparently, once you join the military you can be disregarded as having any real needs other than to protect Americans. Because the mission of the Army and other services is to defend and protect us, not those actually fighting the war. I am astounded at the sheer lack of humanity of that statement. Liz, the people sent to defend and protect us ARE US. 
  • She believes that rape just happens when men and women are in close proximity. Bull. People make the choice to rape. When “pundits” spout off that we can expect men to commit rape, they are giving their permission for rape to happen. 
  • She seems to believe that this is strictly a male-female problem. While a greater percentage of women in military service are raped, a far greater number of men are raped while in military service. Funny how she doesn’t mention that.
  • She objects to “feminists” wanting to be warriors and victims at the same time. Really? I’ve worked for years with women veterans who had been sexually assaulted. None of them wanted to be victims. Almost all of them were proud of their service to the United States, and wanted the wrongs done to them recognized and justice served. And isn’t that at the core of being American?

Adam Weinstein’s article in Mother Jones points out some fascinating facts of Trotta’s background that make her statements appear even more ludicrous.

You can help. One female military veteran has begun a petition on Change.org to ask the US House and Senate Armed Services Committee to change the way sexual assault is handled. Because rape should NOT be expected, or tolerated, when women sign up to serve. Please sign it today; remember that sharing is caring, so pass it along to your friends.

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