December 14, 2016
Page 7
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O PINION
Being Treated as Human Beings That Matter
Why we still
need feminism
J ill r ichardSon
From his campaign
rhetoric to his tran-
sition appointments,
our next president
has placed himself
squarely in a con-
servative movement
calling itself the “alt-right.”
That movement, the Los Angeles
Times reports, “generally em-
braces and promotes white na-
tionalism, racism, anti-Semitism,
homophobia, transphobia, and
misogyny.”
As a privileged, white, and
heterosexual woman, I’ve nev-
er considered my rights under
attack to the same degree as the
other groups in that list. But to
this incoming bunch, feminism is
a dirty word.
For instance, Donald Trump’s
chief strategist, Steve Bannon —
a leading figure in the “alt-right”
media — called feminists “a
bunch of dykes.”
Maybe it’s time to review what
feminism is, and why it emerged
in the first place.
Odds are that most of us have
no idea how bad women once had
by
it. And men, before you check
out, let me assure you that this
is no man-hating screed. I have a
hunch we’ll be on the same page,
actually.
No doubt, you probably
know that women couldn’t
vote until 1920. And that
women were once expect-
ed to be homemakers in-
stead of pursuing careers.
But what else are those up-
and voted for the both of them.
And he had a legal right to her
body.
This is what the first feminists
opposed. Through their agitat-
ing, married women first won the
right to own property in 1848.
The right to vote followed in
1920, but marital rape wasn’t il-
legal in all 50 states until 1994.
Consider that. Just 22 years
ago, a Texas man could still le-
wasn’t one of them. In much of
the country, neither was domestic
violence.
Once married to your spouse,
you were stuck with them unless
they committed adultery, more or
less. If your husband beat you,
that was your problem.
Women who wished to work
were relegated to “women’s
jobs” like teaching, nursing, and
secretarial work, and those jobs
Through their agitating, married
women first won the right to own property
in 1848. The right to vote followed in
1920, but marital rape wasn’t illegal in all
50 states until 1994.
pity women whining about?
For starters, there’s the right to
own things — like our own bod-
ies.
At the founding of our nation,
women were bound by some-
thing called “coverture” — the
idea that a married woman’s legal
identity was subsumed under her
husband’s. He owned property
gally rape his wife as often as
he chose. How dare those crazy
man-hating feminists demand
they not be raped!
But wait, there’s more.
Until 1970, states only per-
mitted divorce when one of the
spouses was found “at fault.”
Only certain reasons were al-
lowed — and falling out of love
paid less than “men’s work.”
With men doing all the science,
it took until 1966 for the “dis-
covery” that women actually
have orgasms.
Married couples couldn’t le-
gally use birth control until 1965.
Since abortion was also illegal in
much of the country, and since a
man could have his way with his
wife as he chose, women had no
control over the number of chil-
dren they had. (Unmarried Amer-
icans only gained the right to use
birth control in 1972.)
Over the last two centuries,
those are the issues feminists
have fought for. So why does
feminism still exist?
Because women still earn less
than men for doing the same
work. And because our bodies
still don’t enjoy the full protection
of the law. To put a finer point on
it, the Stanford rapist served just
three months in jail for raping a
girl behind a dumpster.
Feminism isn’t about hating
men or burning bras. It’s about
women wanting to be treated like
human beings who matter.
So when the white national-
ist website Breitbart, under the
management of Bannon, asked,
“Would you rather your child
had feminism or cancer?” the
correct answer is outrage that
such a question is asked at all —
or that the one who asked it is al-
lowed anywhere near the White
House.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is the author of Rec-
ipe for America: Why Our Food
System Is Broken and What We
Can Do to Fix It.
Legal System Fails Girls When They Need Help
And then
punishes them
for the result
n ia n yaMweya
In every state in
the country, the right
to self-defense is
considered a mitigat-
ing factor in criminal
prosecutions. If you
use violence to defend
yourself in an extreme
situation, most Americans believe,
the law should treat you gently.
But not everyone gets to enjoy
this right. Just ask Bresha Mead-
ows, who was arrested earlier this
year for allegedly shooting and
killing her father. She was just 14.
Advocates say that prosecutors
failed to account for Meadows’
home situation. Her father, they
argue, was a violent and abusive
man who terrorized her family and
threatened to kill them. “In the 17
years of our marriage,” her moth-
er wrote in a court complaint, “he
has cut me, broke my ribs, fingers,
the blood vessels in my hand, my
by
mouth, blackened my eyes.”
She went on to warn: “I am 100
percent sure he will kill me and
the children.”
More troublingly, the evidence
suggests authorities had failed Bre-
sha and her family at earlier
moments of crisis. Bresha
herself cried out for help
to family members and
repeatedly ran away from
home to escape her situa-
tion. Yet law enforcement
never questioned Mead-
ows without the presence
of her father and sent her home ev-
ery time she tried to escape.
Now 15 and detained in Trum-
bull County, Ohio, Meadows fac-
es charges for aggravated murder.
Denied pre-trial release, she’s
been locked up away from family,
friends, and school for months. In
October, she was placed on sui-
cide watch.
Unfortunately, Meadows’ case
is not unique.
In fact, 84 percent of girls in ju-
venile detention have experienced
family violence. And the number
of girls in juvenile jail is rising,
especially for black girls. Even
as a national conversation around
mass incarceration and racial pro-
filing gains momentum, black
girls like Meadows are often left
out. That sends a harmful message
“Countless black women, girls,
and gender-nonconforming people
face similar matrices of interper-
sonal violence and state violence,”
the advocacy group Love and
...84 percent of girls in juvenile
detention have experienced
family violence. And the number
of girls in juvenile jail is rising,
especially for black girls. Even as a
national conversation around mass
incarceration and racial profiling
gains momentum, black girls like
Meadows are often left out.
that they aren’t valued.
The Meadows case is one of
many examples in a larger trend of
policies that criminalize girls and
leave trauma unaddressed. These
systems fail young girls when they
need help the most, and then pun-
ish them for the result.
Protect explained in a statement.
“Many, like Bresha, are criminal-
ized for choosing survival.”
Worse still, the juvenile justice
system doesn’t work to rehabilitate
anyone. Instead, it’s often damag-
ing and re-traumatizing, especially
for people who come from violent
homes. Affordable, communi-
ty-based solutions that prioritize
assessing family security needs
over sending teens that lash out to
prison would be far preferable to
incarcerating traumatized children.
Each day Bresha spends in
prison is a reflection that the law
doesn’t apply to everyone. “We
should be worried about Bresha,”
says Mariame Kaba, the founder
of Love and Protect. “With the
charges they put on her, it could
be 25 years to life.”
Though incarceration rates are
rising, violence against black girls
isn’t new. Our justice system has
been failing them for a long time.
A petition is circulating calling
for prosecutors to release Bresha
Meadows and drop her charges.
Like all victims of domestic and
family violence, she deserves
support. Meadows’ release from
detention would send a different
message: that black girls’ lives are
worthy of defense.
Nia Nyamweya is a Next Lead-
er with the Criminalization of
Poverty project at the Institute
for Policy Studies. Distributed by
OtherWords.org.