A vote for Arnold is a vote against women
From the Editor, Laura Tate
Editor’s note: This view does not reflect the opinion of The Malibu Times or publisher Arnold G. York. It is solely the viewpoint of the author.
Women have made great strides in the past 100 hundred years.
We can vote. We can work. We can have children, or not. We can have an identity. Separate from a man.
We have freedom.
We have control of our bodies.
Well, almost.
Walking to a car in a garage, a woman can be attacked, beaten, forced to have sex. Or the violation of a woman’s body can be as simple as a man in an elevator reaching out, grabbing her breast.
Granted, this can happen to men. But more often it is against women and children that these gross violations take place. Where the victim has no say- either because of being overpowered by strength, or because the attack happens so quickly the shocked victim has no time for recourse.
But, still, women are progressing in society.
Or are we?
A man who has been accused of the above-committing uninvited, unwanted physical molestations against women-is vying for the title of Governor of California.
And, the polls have been showing, he could most likely win the recall race.
“Many feminist scholars consider sexual harassment to be a form of oppression that men use to maintain male-dominated power structures … it contributes to lower achievement by women in society.” (Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2003)
Hmmm. Women moving ahead?
The media has been blasted for printing these accusations just before Election Day. Accusations fly that this is all the work of “Democratic sleaze artists.” A smear campaign. But, if you step back, and take a look, you cannot deny that these accusations have a certain degree of veracity. These accounts from the victims have been corroborated by witnesses. They are not arbitrary.
Some question why these women speak out now, instead of when the attacks happened. Shame and shock might be two reasons. And the fact that the man in question is a megastar, not to mention extremely rich-a man of power that one would dare not cross-might have predisposed these women to accept their fate. Also, in many instances, witnesses did nothing at all in protest or to protect the victims from their attacker at the time, which did not help these women gain any courage to fight back.
Some people are laughing it off. “Boys will be boys,” they say.
“Oh, everyone has skeletons in their closet. It’s no big deal.”
“Transgressions from the past. Why bring them up now?”
But these accusations against this man occurred as recent as three years ago.
If a senator can be forced to resign from the U.S. Senate because of similar charges, as former Sen. Robert Packwood did in 1995 after the Senate Ethics Committee voted to expel him on charges of sexual harassment, how can one reason it is perfectly alright to put this sexual predator in charge of a state?
There’s a reason these women are speaking out.
You put this man in office, you are in effect saying to all men that it’s OK to treat women like that, to disrespect them, treat them like they are nothing but property, to do with as they wish.
You, too, can run for Governor some day. Just because you copped a feel here or there against a person’s wishes, or pressed your groin up against a young flustered woman, leaving her in tears, or maybe even stuck your hand up a woman’s skirt as she walked by, it’s OK, all is forgiven, as long as you “apologize.”
After all, boys will be boys.
Hey, maybe even some day, you can run for President.