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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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The Manipulation of Women and Children
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You hear the reference all the time. I heard it on the news tonight.
"The fire set by the young boy spread to nearby apartment buildings,
forcing residents to flee, including many women and children."
I heard it when U.S fighters hit Iraq a couple of months ago from Saddam
Hussein. "The Great Satan has killed many innocent citizens, including
many women and children." He held up part of a torched teddy bear for
emphasis.
I heard it when boarding a recent Greyhound trip. I was the only one
with a pre-purchased ticket. There was one seat left. No one else had a
ticket, and couldn't buy one, because the terminal was closed. They
wanted to pay the driver the cash equivalent of the ticket price, which
is allowed on Greyhound. I quickly snagged the seat. One of the women
shouted at me, "You're leaving women and children behind who could've
had your seat."
You know what I say to all of these examples? "So what?"
Now, I don't endorse the killing or abandonment or women and children by
any means. What I don't like is the way "women and children" is used to
make someone look subjectively more bad or evil.
"Women and children were forced to flee." So what? What about all the
men who had to flee? Objectively, what does gender have to do with
anything? Is the kid who set the fire any more the evil because his
victims happened to have included women and children? It's not like the
eight year old scoped out a building with higher concentrations of women
and children, versus men, just to be a dick. No, it just makes the kid
out to be more of a bad guy, and plays on the emotions of viewers who
watch sensationalist broadcasts.
U.S. fighter jets induce collateral damage, and a few women and children
get killed, while trying to protect the lives of thousands of Kurds. So
what? What about the men? Did we target women and children when we
dropped the bombs? Nope, but shit happens. Yet, Saddam has the ultimate
propoganda opportunity. He can rant and rave about us "killing his women
and children," and can rally all his loyalists and allies against us. He
can play to their emotions.
I caused "women and children" to be stranded because I selfishly took
the last seat on a bus. So what? I was the only one in the crowd who had
a ticket. I had been waiting for this bus for five hours, because I went
early to purchase a ticket before they closed. I planned ahead. My bus
was to arrive in my new hometown one hour before a critical job
interview. I could not miss this bus.
She arrived ten minutes before the bus arrived. She didn't have a
ticket. She didn't plan ahead. She was probably watching television
while I was freezing my ass off outside the closed terminal for five
hours waiting for the bus with my ticket. Sorry lady, but, your loss.
And what about the men, who also didn't plan ahead, and lost out on the
last seat? How could "women and children," plural, have benefitted by
one open seat if I had given it to them? Was the kid to sit in her lap
for ten hours on a crowded bus? No, she said it because she was pissed,
and it was an easy way to villify me in front of other passengers, and
those who also missed out, jsut to make her feel better.
There are literally thousands of more examples of "women and children"
in all sorts of stories. It's as though they are the weak - the lower
class - and that anything bad that happens to them is a victimization of
them. But it's really manipulation. It furthers the cause of those who
eschew it. It plays us for fools, because in reality, women and
children, as human beings, are no different from any other human being,
regardless of age or gender. Tragedy is tragedy, missed opportunities
are missed oopprtunitites, no matter what age or gender is involved.
The moment you consider any individual different than another is when
equality no longer exists. Isn't equality what women have been fighting
for for the last thirty years?
se7en
10/23/96
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