“Male violence is not only tolerated, but celebrated; women’s violence is not only discouraged, but stigmatized.”
Mary Anne Franks
I can now announce my short story “The Patriarch” will come out in next spring’s Family anthology from Writing Bloc. The anthology was originally planned for fall, and I had planned to submit a story about a Thanksgiving dinner gone horribly wrong called “Plus One”. It’s a good story, but it didn’t accomplish what I wanted, so I came up with a new story to submit at the last minute earlier this year. It’s a murder mystery set in 1968, and unlike anything I’ve ever written. I plan to include both stories in my next personal collection alongside “Queen Bees”, which is currently available exclusively on Kindle.
I’m recovering from a breakthrough Covid infection. My family was hit about a week before the boys were scheduled for their first vaccine doses. I shudder to think how badly things might have progressed had I not been vaccinated. I have friends and family who are still waiting for their sense of smell and taste to return to normal. For me, that particular side effect lasted days. The fatigue, occasional cough, and shortness of breath remain. Fortunately my son with a history of severe respiratory infections is on the mend.
His lips once turned blue from an infection that led to a stay in the hospital. I remember his pain and my fear when the media glorifies staff who refuse vaccinations, like a NICU nurse the writer gushed over because she was in a commercial once. Babies in the NICU may have underdeveloped lungs and other risk factors for severe illness. As a parent of former NICU babies, it’s scary enough without worrying a nurse or doctor will prioritize politics over patients. The vast majority of medical professionals are vaccinated, but the media amplifies an outspoken minority on this and every other issue.
Public schools are under fire again (always), and the media delights in fanning the flames with lies and sensationalism. They’re more interested in creating the news than reporting it, and in amplifying the same bullies who already have outsized influence. One wonders if they miss reporting school violence so much, they’ve decided do what they can to encourage it. The bitter irony is the same people who claim to distrust the media hang on their every word. Why listen to an actual student or teacher when some rich dude who never set foot in a public school tells you what’s going on?
People who complain about so-called “cancel culture” have ramped up efforts to ban and even burn or criminalize books, in particular books written by women, minorities of any gender, and/or members of the LGBTQ community. Teachers and administrators in some states have been suspended following accusations regarding CRT. Critical Race Theory is one of many theories taught in law school, and examines the impact of racism on the legal system, but the term has been weaponized by political operatives as a catch-all for anything that makes some white people uncomfortable, like the factual instruction of history or even observable reality.
Nobody needs to read a book or go to law school to see evidence of systemic racism or sexism. We’re soaking in it.
I live a few towns away from a rapist who just walked after the judge “prayed” on his sentencing (to Beelzebub, one supposes) because his life matters more than the lives of his victims. Elsewhere, the justice system once again upheld the rights of some to acts of vigilantism. Meanwhile many victims of physical and/or sexual abuse get denied the opportunity to argue self-defense in court.
As much as some people carry on about the importance of guns and self defense laws for women to protect themselves, the statistics indicate women are still more likely to be victims of gun violence, and many of those who do protect themselves get thrown in jail. There’s a certain (predictable) irony that a politician cited in the Franks piece offered a job to the guy who chose to go somewhere to escalate problems, but does nothing in defense of girls and women charged with shooting abusers they could not otherwise escape.
And these are the discussions people in positions of power seek to silence.
Meanwhile a house representative from Arizona with known ties to white supremacists posted an anime clip edited to depict violence against another representative who happens to be a woman of color. Though he was censured (for something that would have cost anyone else their job), over two hundred representatives took his side. Most (all?) were the same representatives who opposed the Violence Against Women Act of 2021.
Some can instigate violence.
Others are perceived as inviting assault simply by existing.
It’s not just Covid that’s making me tired.
