Tuesday, June 4, 2013

More women in Congress . . . please !!

Today, we have a record number of women in Congress:   20 out of 100 in the Senate (20%) and 78 of the 435 in the House (17.9%).

In addition, the number of women on the Senate Armed Services Committee has increased to 7 of 26 (26.9%).  It's making a big difference, currently most dramatically in the way the committee is dealing with sexual assaults in the military.   But it's still not enough.

They have a lot of educating to do, just among the committee members, however.   Here's what Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said to top military officials who were appearing at an Armed Services Committee meeting.

Chambliss was calling on them to crack down on the rape of young women in the military, but then he revealed his "old boys" thinking when he added that it may be difficult to stop because:
"The young folks who are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So we've got to be very careful how we address it on our side."
Let's be clear about what Sen. Chambliss is saying.   Let me translate:
'OK, Generals.    This is a situation we can't let go on.   We have to protect these little ladies in the ranks.   But, you know, [wink, wink],  Don't be too hard on the boys.   Boys will be boys, given all those hormones raging through their bodies.   So go easy on them, you know?   After all, it's Mother Nature's fault, not theirs.'
He doesn't differentiate between sex for mutual pleasure and rape. Listen up, Senator.   Sexual rambunctiouness is not the same as rape.   Men do not rape women just to relieve their nature-driven sexual tensions.  Rape is about power and violent feelings, not sex.

Well, Sen. Chambliss isn't running for re-election, so he'll be gone in another 18 months.   Let's do something really radical.   Let's put women in charge of the Armed Service Committees and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ralph

PS:  At the hearing, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) set the generals straight, insisting that they stop "mushing together" data about "non-wedded sexual behavior" and "rape."  "Looking at somebody sideways when you're not supposed to, and pushing somebody up against a wall and violently raping them are not the same thing at all.  We need to know how many cases of violent sexual assault are occuring against women and men;  and you're reporting them all mushed up together, so we have no idea how many cases of violent rape are occuring.   Rape is not about sex;  it is about dominance and violent assault"  Brava !!

Without women on the committee, it's not likely we would have gotten such clear thinking.  It certainly didn't come from Chambliss or the generals.

2 comments:

  1. lMeanwhile, a House subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee debated, passed, and sent to the full Judiciary Committee a bill that would ban abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy all across the U.S., with the only exception being to save the life of the mother.

    The gender makeup of the subcommittee: All Male.

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  2. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) chimed in his ignorance on violent rape, trying to explain it as "We live in a culture that's awash in sexual activity," and citing the sale of sex magazines both on base and nearby off base stores.

    NO, NO, NO, you guys. You just don't get it -- which makes you part of the problem as senators on the Armed Services Committee dealing with an alarming amount of rape in our military forces.

    Millions and millions of men have testosterone coursing through their bodies, and millions of them probably by sexy magazines. The vast majority (something like 99.99%) of them do not and would not rape women -- or men.

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