Just when you think you have a handle on something, along comes a comment by Yamiche Alcindor, White House Correspondent for NPR, on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Sunday, June 30, 2019. The panelists were discussing the writer E. Jean Carroll’s recent accusation against Donald Trump of sexual assault and what, if any, impact it would have on the election.
Ms. Alcindor’s contribution to the discussion was as follows: “One in three women … are also sexually assaulted, though. And I think that there are a lot of women in this country who have told me, personally, ‘I won’t hold this president to a standard higher than my uncle or my father or my husband.’ And that, to me, is troubling.”
What the hell? “Troubling” doesn’t begin to cover it. Apparently women are giving passes to uncles, fathers, and husbands for sexual assault. That in itself is horrifying, but then by means of some twisted logic, they posit, Well since I accept abuse from these men in my immediate family, who am I to be mad about Trump doing the same thing? By means of what cultural degradation have these women fallen so far in their ability to reason?
Yikes!
The figure of “one out of three” has held steady for years. If we look at the total population of women in the US based on the 2011 Census of 157,000,000 (figures rounded), that presents us with 52 million women and girls who have been sexually assaulted. 52 million women. And girls.
Why is this not a national emergency? A social Ebola outbreak, if you will? Every parent in the nation needs to look closely at their baby daughters and ask, “You, too? Will you be the one in three?” What physical and psychological reverberations will she have to deal with throughout her lifetime? And who will care?
Fifty-two million. What if suddenly 52 million men were to come down with prostate cancer? Currently, it’s only about 17 million (based on the 2011 Census of 153,000,000 men, divided by 1/9, the number of men expected to get prostate cancer in their lifetime, according to www.webmd.com.
OMG. Flags would be flown at half-staff. President Trump would use the power of his executive orders to free up billions to respond to this national crisis by throwing money at universities for research. Biden’s cancer moon shot would be funded to the hilt. Trump would appear on the Fox News Telethon for Prostate Cancer to raise money and awareness. There would be no end to the effort to stop the carnage
But intense psychological and physical injury to 52 million women and girls at the hands of their male attackers?
Meh.
Rosie Sorenson is a humor writer in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can contact her at: RosieSorenson29@yahoo.com.
From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2019
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