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#MeToo for All Women
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/193/p5239/Date Written: 2018-03-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2018 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23284 The #MeToo movement exposed systems that abuse and silence of women. It's important to note that these systems are not just individual professions or university administrations but they are enabled by the larger system of capitalism. Abstract: -- Excerpt: There have always been women who demanded that society recognize that their bodies had been violated and the perpetrators held accountable. Yet their accounts were minimized and dismissed; they were vilified or threatened. That was true for Recy Taylor, who was kidnapped and raped by seven armed white men in Abbeville, Alabama in 1944. Disregarding attempts to silence her, the 24-year-old mother testified before two grand juries.... The #MeToo movement broke through the pattern of silence and cover up with vivid accounts of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's bullying, intimidation and rape. Then women agricultural workers stepped forward with their stories of the daily danger they faced in the fields. The floodgates opened with women workers testifying about their harassment in restaurants, factories, offices, hotels.... Under capitalism the patriarchal system has evolved to empower even those who possess little except the fact that they are male. This pattern of "powerful" men (bosses, priests, physicians, union officials, coworkers, even relatives) believing they can arrange situations where women must defer to them - often posing as mentors or friends - works well because even when girls/women report the molestation, they are told they must have "misunderstood" what actually happened. |