Well folks it is the All Hallow’s Eve weekend and there is news aplenty busting out all over the place. Mueller is teasing us with his super-top-secret sealed indictment of someone (Manafort) connected to the Russia-sodomizing-the-2016-elections investigation. There’s the story of the super creepy super self-absorbed nearly human caricature of a human being who is shitting on the Resolute Desk everyday in the Oval Office, and this day he had the children of the WH press corps in for some Halloweeny good fun as long as it was all about the Ol’ Pussy Grabber and no one mentioned the piles of shit rotting on the Resolute Desk. There’s more breaking fake news about the Russian sodomizing of the American elections, and other breaking real news, too. Puerto Rico remains mired in the Neanderthal hell the racist sadist, the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, consigned them to for no apparent reason other than he’s a racist sadist and he could. Spain is descending into some unique sovereignty crisis as Catalan decides to be independent — why do governments keep allowing major decisions to be made by referendum, especially when the decision could be one they dislike and won’t allow?
But through it all is constant drumbeat and undercurrent of sexual assault. The stories are multiplying, not disappearing. The attempt at the illusory explanation of It’s powerful men has not blunted the momentum of the accusations. So much so, I wrote about it again this week in Poppy Bush: Poster Boy for Rape Culture & the ALL MEN Theory of Sexual Assault, and in the process of researching that story came across this gem: five cartoonist cartoon their stories of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Cutting through the illustrations is the humanity of the humiliation and shame of having been assaulted, the seeming futility of publicly confessing your assault via hashtag, and the emptiness of men flailing at being empathetic, understanding, and hoping no one realizes their transgressions.
Which cartoon resonates with you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. The frame of the boy saying I’m so sorry for my gender… you are goddesses! Hashtag respect women! Hashtag resist! Really resonates with me. I can identify with that lad. #IveBeenThatGuy, and I can tell you, there is one missing. He needs to then say, I can haz all of the sexes with you now? Because that seems to me the undercurrent of all such impassioned statements. The other thing that got me was the conclusion, The hashtag will come and go, but the problem will persist unless people make some difficult decisions. The cartoonist don’t mean people, she means, MEN make some difficult decisions, i.e. #IveBeenThatGuy.
I’m Tired of Performing Trauma: Five Cartoonists on #MeToo
by The Response Posted Yesterday (27 October 2017)
Continue reading at The Nib: I’m Tired of Performing Trauma: Five Cartoonists on #MeToo – by The Response
The Psy of Life 
right on target Jack!
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Howdy Francese!
I find these to be amazing. I come back and look at them frequently. It is the clear communication of emotions and thought that the illustrations and texts make possible. I find them very moving.
Huzzah!
Jack
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hey Jack…. thanks for the ” cartoons” these are priceless and very real…. I am sharing them with my grand kids…( my grown daughters are waaaaay tooo stuffy LOL LOL) and they have a priceless message for men and women
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They’d make good conversation starters.
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yeah ,,,, nice of you to cut the old fart a break, but it sends the wrong message to the rest of the world… and as a woman I would hope that you would be able to understand that
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Howdy Francese!
I assume this is in response to Suze? It just didn’t fall right in the embedded comments.
I would dearly love to hear back from Suze. She is a right good person who has a good take on things, so I would like to have some clarification on some of her comments. I think one of the issues on social media is the rate of being misunderstood due to typed interaction minus any non-verbal communication.
I’ve been meaning to follow up with her because I have had such excellent interactions with her before, respect her experience and intelligence, and know her to be a person of integrity, but my time is being eaten up by work and family right now.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Frances…I have been sexually assaulted. I have been raped by a trusted clergyman. I worked for almost twenty years counseling men who raped. I know poppy as he is called by his family. I worked on several committees with barb. I have had my own ass patted by Mr. Bush when he told a stupid “joke”. It is disconcerting. It is annoying. It is a bit embarrassing. I don’t equate it with the level of a sexual assault though going by my own personal experiences. Back in the 90’s barb failed to attend a meeting on time…this was hugely different for her. She was known for being five minutes early to any meeting regardless of circumstances. She was upset because her husband was diagnosed with incipient senile dementia…AKA alzeheimers. I don’t think the intent of Mr. bush is that of a sexual predator. And I thoroughly doubt any words or thoughts of mine could ever be elevated to sending the wrong message to the rest of the world. possibly 37 people, but certainly no more than that. Have a great day,.
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Howdy Suze!
I think you are right in that the actions Poppy has been accused of — grabbing women by the ass — is not as bad as the explicit sexual acts demanded by Harvey Weinstein and others. I’ve been grabbed by the ass before. It is disconcerting and surprising, and, while I’m not a woman who has had to put up with this type of BS most of my life, it wasn’t exactly traumatizing. Again, I’m not a woman. I didn’t immediately fear for my safety for example.
However, if it is true that he has been doing more than patting women on the ass, meaning he has been pinching their asses ala Italian and Spanish men, it is more than patting.
The point being that any unwanted unsolicited touching of a sexual nature — the David Cop-a-Feel joke sufficing testimony for the sexual or lewd intent makes it pretty hard to just say its okay.
If Poppy has Alzheimer’s, which I’ve not been able to find any positive reference to, then maybe we can set this one aside. But in my searching I’ve found some evidence that had he been diagnosed, you’d expect it to be mentioned in these stories, but it isn’t. There’s a study of presidential word usage changing over time as an indication of Alzheimer’s onset that used Poppy as a kind of control since he has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. During Jeb!’s recent presidential campaign, he explicitly used his mother-in-law’s Alzheimer’s as a campaign issue. I woulda thought he woulda used his father’s in that instance. The family may want to be keeping it secret for whatever reason, though.
I do have to say that people with Alzheimer’s have lucid days and confused days. His reported remarks including his joke and comic timing and doing these things in front of husbands and his wife suggests he was at least on a more lucid day.
I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I’m not getting there.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I want to know when women will stop raping little boys. https://elevenoneoneblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/another-10-female-rapists/
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Howdy Eleven!
I assume about the time men stop raping any one? I don’t see how this is relevant to the discussion, and one day I might could address this issue, but since this is a current events blog it will have to wait for a current event to occur. However, there are lots of female teachers having sex with 7th – 12th graders in which something can be addressed.
Without more information from you, I don’t know what else I can say here.
Oh, wait, I see you are one of those MRA guys who think some how women are the problem instead of trying to look at the entirety of the system. You might could consult my Rape Culture: ALL MEN evolution argument post. It might help clarify for you where the issues lie.
Huzzah!
Jack
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yeah interesting perspective. I would love to see the stats on this issue , especially compared to male on female rapes and the residual trauma issues as the results of this behavior, and the female on young males rape …. Any takers here ?
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Howdy Francese!
I visited this fellow’s blog. It is basically a men’s right’s hot mess of it’s all the women who won’t sleep with me even though I am a clumsy troll with bad breath’s fault. There ain’t much there but butt hurt and hostility and thinly veiled threats of violence and sexual assault.
Huzzah!
Jack
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as a former “victim” of sexual assault/rape, I am having trouble with the Bush fiasco. The man has Alzheimers…and as such hasn’t a clue what the hoopla is all about, and he is apologizing for actions that I doubt he remembers. I feel sorry for him.
I know women don’t report. I understand why they don’t report. BUT, there was a huge surge of empowerment within women in the workplace when he was president and people were reporting all over the country when they felt a touch or even a look was inappropriate. Why wait? It was the perfect time to report. Women were listened to for the first time and action would have been taken, even if it was the president doing the groping.
And frankly, I feel a bit of disgust for the women involved. I know it is a cognitive dissonance, tough beans. The “victims” are reporting stuff that was not even in my own mind sexually motivated or power motivated. A pat on the ass when he pats everyone equally on the ass? come on now.
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Howdy Suze!
I don’t think he has Alzheimers. In fact, I think his faculties are pretty darn clear. His body isn’t doing so well, but his mind seems to be. Correct me if I’m wrong. I very well could be, but I haven’t seen anything about him having Alzheimers anywhere.
That said, he isn’t patting women on the rears. He is grabbing himself a fist full of ass timing it to his “joke” about David Cop-A-Feel and the camera with husbands, Barb, and other witnesses near by. Those are not the actions of a mentally impaired man or of someone who pats people on the ass equally.
Nor are these people reporting his actions in from many years ago. These are since he landed in the wheelchair five years ago.
Poppy was a lot of things, but right now, as far as I can tell, he is assaulting women in front of their husbands while being photographed. There are real power issues happening in that dynamic kinda like when he used his speed boat to beat up some reporters to prove he was a tough macho man while running for president.
Huzzah!
Jack
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