A Message to Reject
Lately, the message to women has been more than a little disheartening.
First and foremost, the person who was somehow elected president, over a highly qualified woman, has groped women in the past and rates them using a numerical system. It was obvious to see Angela Merkel didn’t rate in his estimation.
His cabinet and Senate Republicans primarily consist of white males.
Those white males are voting to roll back women’s rights. Yesterday, with the help of Mike Pence, they approved a bill that lets states decide whether or not to fund Planned Parenthood. So, if you are woman in a state where Planned Parenthood is the only provider of women’s health services and that state does not fund PP, you are out of luck.
We’ve also found out that Mike Pence refuses to dine alone with a woman other than his wife. So business discussions over dinner are allowed only if you are a man.
Of course, this message – as well as others from this administration – must be rejected by us and by our children.
The Winter 2017 issue of the Wellesley Magazine made it clear the college would emphatically reject that message.
President Paula Johnson started the issue off with Facts Matter where she states
I want Wellesley to be the vanguard of the rigorous pursuit of truth supported by fact-based knowledge, to fight against the rejections of evidence-based argument. We intend to confront and challenge those who normalize a discourse that replaces reason and objectively proven fact with bias and a seemingly unchecked faith in “being right”.
The feature of the issue, Women Who Run, noted that almost immediately after Hillary Clinton’s loss, the talk turned to women running for office. There is a need to get more women in the political pipeline and get them to ask themselves the right questions.
When most women consider running for office, they ask themselves, “Am I good enough? Do I know enough? Can I win?” These are all reasonable questions, but they are the wrong questions. The right question is, “What will be lost for my not having participated?” – Victoria Hudson ’93
After the Election described a number of actions that took place on campus including those in response to the incident where two male students from Babson College slowly drove a pickup truck through the Wellesley campus with a large Trump flag on display while yelling out to students in a threatening manner. President Johnson advised students:
When we are feeling vulnerable because there’s some sense that we are at risk because of who we are, the best way to face that fear is through recognizing our power to participate actively in our democracy.
Then there was Raising Our Voices where it was noted that women’s voices are often labeled as shrill. How many times did you heard complaints about a Hillary’s voice when she is trying to make herself heard? Did you make that complaint? The article ends with this:
Women are often the most critical of other women’s voices – but instead of focusing on how they sound, on being quick to judge them on their youth or uptalk or vocal fry, let’s listen to what other women have to say. Because criticizing a woman’s vocal pitch instead of her ideas is the same a criticizing her body instead of her thoughts. Let’s treat women’s voices the same as we treat men’s – with respect.
The issue also quotes Hillary Clinton ’69:
Please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.
Don’t believe the message Trump & co are peddling. Keep fighting.
