Home

equal rights

The Real Heart of "Chivalry"

Thu, 2010-08-26 08:15 — figleaf

In an op-ed commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment ratification that gave women the right to vote Christine Stansell, in a NYT op-ed dredges up a… pretty telling quote explaining exactly how men in the region who were nominally most committed to the “women as the fair flowers” sex really felt about them.

Thirty-six of the 48 states then needed to ratify it. Western states did so promptly, and in the North only Vermont and Connecticut delayed. But the segregated South saw in the 19th Amendment a grave threat: the removal of the most comprehensive principle for depriving an entire class of Americans of full citizenship rights. The logic of women’s disenfranchisement helped legitimize relegating blacks to second-class citizenship.

Female voters would also pose practical difficulties, described bluntly by a Mississippi man: “We are not afraid to maul a black man over the head if he dares to vote, but we can’t treat women, even black women, that way. No, we’ll allow no woman suffrage.”

She said it here

Lest I seem to be singling out southerners it’s worth remembering that 52 years earlier, in 1868, the text originally proposed for the 14th Amendment had to be watered down in order to pass in southern or northern states: Stansell reminds us the original words prohibiting the denial of voting rights to “any of the inhabitants” of the states was changed to “any of the male inhabitants” of the states. Still, I’m pretty sure the earlier, nation-wide exclusion of women wasn’t so much to avoid “mauling them over the head” to keep them from the polls.

Sigh.

Proposition (Gr)8: When Marriage is About Partnership and Not Property the Sexes of the Partners No Longer Matters

Thu, 2010-08-05 16:41 — figleaf


Image by Aaron G on the thoroughly enjoyable GraphJam.com.

Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, echoing something I was muttering to myself in the car this morning, nails why marriage equality is now a good idea even if, in the past, the whole idea might have seemed as incomprehensible as the idea that commoners and the aristocracy went to the same heaven. (Oh, wait!)

There are many parts of Judge Walker’s decision overturning Prop 8 that are delicious reading, but the most interesting part was how Walker repeatedly stressed that marriage had already changed—-that strict gender roles that justified restricted marriage in the past have already gone away.  We all know what he’s talking about: men don’t legally own their wives anymore, no-fault divorce degenders divorce legally, women are allowed to work and men to care for children, the legal restrictions on women’s rights in marriage have mostly fallen away.  Spouses aren’t legally distinct anymore, so there’s no reason to say they have to be different genders. 

She said it here.

Wives were once a man’s property in exactly the same way (in fact in exactly the same Biblical Commandment) as a man’s house or his servants or his cattle. And so when ‘wingers speak in outraged tones that once gay marriage was allowed the marriage between men and dogs might be next they don’t see it as that big a leap.

Since marriage is no longer a purchase, and brides no longer become the property of the groom “to have and to hold,” after the father “gives her away,” the tradition underlying “traditional marriage” is already dead. Instead marriage is now a partnership between equals rather than an acquisition of property or livestock. And being a partnership between equals the sex of those partners is no longer relevant.

Works for me!

(Graphjam image via David Kurtz and Breakup Girl.)

Yes on Marriage for Everyone

Sat, 2008-10-25 12:50 — figleaf

Peggy Comstock of Comstock Films, who’s company raised $4,000 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is now raising money to oppose California’s Proposition 8, a statewide anti-universal marriage ballot measure.


Image from noonprop8.com. Okay, this going to work pretty much exactly like the Hurricane Katrina Red Cross Fundraiser we did back on September 14, 2005.

This time it’s going to be from Tuesday, Oct. 28, 12AM Eastern to Oct. 29 3AM Eastern. 27 hours, 100% of the purchase price on our erotic documentary DVDs (excluding S&H) going to the No On Proposition 8 Campaign.

More details, and catalog links, here.

This is not the only way to support everyone’s right to marry if they choose — in a moment I’ll add a list of other ways to participate. But I admire the Comstock’s commitment to representing real adult sex in erotica, which from what I know of their work and their writing is consistent with their their strong overall commitment to human rights in general. So if you’re into supporting marriage for everyone and you think you might like to give non-industrial porn a try this would be a great opportunity.

If their erotica isn’t your cup of tea but you’d still like to support the proposition that all humans are created equal (as opposed to Proposition 8 with decidedly does not) please consider supporting one of these other no on Prop-8 resources instead.

Marriage: not for everyone but for everyone.

Syndicate content