More AWESOME from ontd_political. Seriously, I want to just squish them, they're so awesome.

[rubykatewriting]

benita_butrell wrote this comment in response to Kira Cochrane's excellent article Now, The Backlash, which discusses the anti-feminist rhetoric (and blatant misogyny) abounding these days, freely and proudly (in most cases).

"It's coming. You don't feel the earth under your feet? I do, and you couldn't pay me to call myself a feminist.

This election has drawn a pretty deep line in the feminism sand (usually found in numerous vaginas). You have HillBillies, who want success for all women as long as they're named Hillary Clinton and consider her failures to represent the failures of all women, and you have the sane feminists who realize there's no law against Hillary running again in four years, who appreciate Barack's voting record even though they may not like him, and who are just as geeked at the thought of a woman vice-president as they are of a woman president. Those feminists are asking some hard questions: why, if this election was about breaking the glass ceiling, is Obama being warned against bringing Sebelius on the ticket? Why aren't feminists rallying behind Cynthia McKinney? Why haven't they embraced Obama on his pristine record involving women's rights, and what kind of feminists (or Democrats, for that matter) would vote for a man like John McCain? And why aren't you getting any answers to any of these questions?

It's never easy to watch the group you identify with and have worked so hard for become a gigantic, self-destructing ball of fuckery, burning out every ounce of respect and pride your group could once say it had. (I'm ex-Army JAG Corps. The knife in my heart STAYS twisted.) But as much as you love your heroes of feminism past and can barely believe whatthebluefuck is happening or why it's happening, there comes a time when you have to move on or risk inertia. HillBillies are too busy enjoying their newfound victim status. They'll lick their wounds and whine about how we're all second-class citizens because some rich white senator ran a shitty campaign and didn't get what she wanted, ignoring the fact that she didn't deserve it, didn't work hard enough for it and took the entire freaking election for granted. Those "feminists" are too tired or too lazy or too stupid to keep going, preferring to end the race under the tree of BAWWWWWWWWW!!!! But the rest of you will move on, muttering, "FUCK that, we've got work to do," and thanking the Great Goddess of Feminism that they're smart enough to 1) learn from the mistakes of others and 2) cut dead weight while bringing new blood along. Feminism isn't trendy (3rd wave), nor is it a burden (2nd wave). Like water, it's ever shifting, changing and powerful and - as evidenced by the Great Wall of Silence between white women and women of color - destructive. I think we'll be looking at a fourth wave in the next decade or so, and I think it'll be the strongest, move diverse wave this country's ever seen. But until more feminists call out their sisters on their shitty, petulant, childlike behavior, this wave is going to stick around for a long time."

This comes on the heels of yesterday's post concerning Pfc. LaVena Johnson and the atrocious handling of her murder at the hands of - most likely - her fellow soldier(s) while serving over in Iraq. She is, sickeningly, only one of 10 similar cases, wherein female soldiers, all sharing the common thread of rape immediately preceding their demise, are determined by the military to be suicides.

art_house_queen and ladypolitik are discussing ways to get her story out there on a national scale and force those in charge to give her family the answers they deserve. At the very least visit the blog linked above (via her name) for contact info for all of the senators and representatives on the Senate and House Armed Forces Committees and call and/or write any of those in your state/district.