The news frequently talked about pioneers Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, but there were a lot more women who broke glass ceilings. The first week of January is a good time to review the powerful work of powerful women who went beyond the limit:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/topics.ht ml?topic=/categories/people/2008-women-f irsts

In alphabetical order, here are some names worthy of mention in the canon of feminism:

How sad that sexists fought against women's right to be president (http://tinyurl.com/6ms9f7, http://www.allseasonsgallery.info/hrc/hr c.sexism.html). And sadder still is that they won-for now. Male domination (patriarchy) causes a lot of problems, but the worst is that it causes rape (http://tinyurl.com/9qy5z5). The horror of patriarchy continues because people did not vote for the candidate from the most oppressed group in the world.

The world would be a better place if Hillary Clinton was president because it would be a huge step forward against the patriarchy and for women and girls and also because Hillary Clinton was the best candidate, in my opinion, to repair the economy, ensure a strong national security and create compassionate social services. The great political lesson of this year is to support women candidates to end the horrors of patriarchy. I look forward to my next opportunity to vote for a woman! I know that it is right to vote to end male domination. As lightening rod feminist Alice Paul said:

"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."

Considering 51% of our population is female, it is harmful that only 16% of the Senate is women. Women's viewpoint should be equally powerful as men's viewpoint in the government because we have roughly equal numbers in the population, we have something different to offer and it will help end sexism. A lot of women have been considered to replace Hillary Clinton and, interestingly, three of the main candidates are named Carolyn (with different spelling). Which of these women are best qualified to replace Hillary Clinton as NY Senator?

CAROLINE KENNEDY is famous for being the child of president John F. Kennedy. Trained as a lawyer, Kennedy began her professional career in the field of photography. She has served on charitable boards and has raised millions of dollars for charity especially for public education. From 2002 to 2004 she served as director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education.

She entered the political fray this year endorsing Obama, going against the majority of NY citizens who favored Hillary Clinton and also against the majority of her sex who favored historic woman presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She co-chaired the Vice Presidential Search Committee which selected Joe Biden. Kennedy's famous family name is considered her prime qualification for Hillary Clinton's vacant NY Senate seat because her celebrity status may help her get votes in future elections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Ke nnedy

The photo of speechwriter Jon Favreau and his friend sexually grabbing a Hillary Clinton image is hate speech (http://tinyurl.com/5j3my5). Hate speech is wrong. Favreau should be fired for this act of hatred against 51% of our population.

First, remember women and girls are the most oppressed group in the world (http://tinyurl.com/6bk5rz). Men dominate women politically, economically, and socially. That is wrong. Women have a long way to go before we achieve political equality with men. Thus, lowering the status of women politicians in general is wrong.

The Favreau photo lowered Hillary Clinton's status in a vicious, cruel, and extremely disrespectful way. I believe most people would agree that portraying a politician as a sex object does lower the status of the politician. It reduces them to just a sexual being which takes attention away from or blots out entirely the mental part of the politician, the part that sets policy, that makes decisions, that creates a vision for our nation's future. The mental part of a politician is extremely valuable and is largely responsible for the politician's high status. Thus, by blotting out the mental part of a politician, the hate speech perpetrator seeks to lower the politician's status in the eyes of the viewer.

Today is Human Rights Day and the theme for 2008 is "Dignity and justice for all of us" (http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/2008/index.shtml). It's an apt theme because oppressed people suffer indignities and injustice. I believe among us one group has suffered more indignity and injustice than any other. That group is women and girls (http://tinyurl.com/6bk5rz).

So I focus on a particular human rights violation aimed almost exclusively at this most oppressed group: acid attacks. In Asia women and girls are often burned with acid if they act independently or seek to improve themselves such as by attending school. The threat of acid disfigurement is used to terrorize women to prevent them from trying to be equal to men. And victims are often blinded and disfigured so badly they have limited job and marriage options which limits their power. Thus, acid attacks maintain the patriarchy by frightening women into submission to male dominance and actually limiting women's power in order to make it easier for men to hold on to the majority of power.

I warn you that the following link has a photo of extreme violence inflicted on a woman victim: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/31 29887.stm. I wonder how men feel knowing that their male privilege is enforced by these acts, that male dominance has led to this horror. Different men feel differently about this. The more virtuous will decide to do something to end male dominance so our world can be rid of the horrors of patriarchy. Virtuous men will decide to help women any way they can through easy acts like voting for a woman president, senator and mayor; through harder acts like hiring a woman manager in their own company, speaking out against men who sexually humiliate women, and donating to women's rights groups; or through very difficult work such as a lifelong career working for women's human rights. Women have done a lot and continue to do the bulk of women's rights work. It would be helpful if more virtuous-minded men did a share of the work.

"Rape is not a natural act for men. A study by anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday found that in cultures with a high incidence of rapes, the economic, religious, and political structures are controlled by men. In Sanday's study of 44 societies that were not patriarchal, there was virtually no rape" (http://tinyurl.com/5peugt).

The evidence shows that male dominance causes rape. Men dominate women in our society politically, economically and socially, thus we suffer rape. I read one of Sanday's books about a gender equal society: the Minangkabau. The book called Women at the Center describes the Minangkabau society where women have as much power as men (http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~psanday/). Sanday lived with the Minangkabau for many years all summer each year and though she did a thorough investigation she found no rape and no domestic violence. There is division of labor so that women dominate some power centers and men dominate other power centers. For example, Minangkabau women inherit all property and have more economic power than men. But overall there is roughly equal gender power. Sanday said the people are very nice and the men are nurturing like women. Sanday wrote two books about rape so she's an expert (Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus, A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial). She says what motivated her to write about rape was the amazing difference she saw in the way women were treated in the gender equal societies versus the way women were treated in the United States. Her studies document that rape is a problem when men dominate women in society. Thus, to end rape it is necessary to end male domination. The Minangkabau people view rape as the ultimate evil and have structured their society in a way to prevent it. We must restructure our society to put women at top levels of leadership in order for us to have gender equality to end rape. It is important to note that in order to eliminate rape it is not necessary to achieve gender equality in all spheres of life, but it's necessary that women have equal power as men overall. The key word: overall. For example women can dominate a powerful sphere and men can dominate another equally powerful sphere so that overall women and men have equal power. Currently, men dominate all three major spheres: 1) political, 2) economic and 3) social (religion, arts, media, etc.) Because of that women must strive for 50% equality in all three spheres. The result of the striving is we will eventually have 50% of the power in one sphere. At that point women may dominate that sphere and continue to make gains until the point where the sectors that men dominate will equal in power to the sectors that women dominate. Or, we have the option of 50% power across the board in all spheres [edited to explain balance of power].

Researchers all over the world documented that male dominance encourages men to rape. Bernard Lefkowitz in his book about the rape of a handicapped girl in the affluent suburb of Glen Ridge documented the community's male dominance and said the rape and the community's general decision to support the rapists instead of the victim "reflected the values embedded in the larger culture." Those values are that men should dominate women. Anneka Van Woudenberg, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch who has documented the recent increase of military rape in the Congo where in some villages as many as 90% of women have been raped, explains that the rapes are about power: "This is not rape because soldiers have got bored and have nothing to do. It is a way to ensure that communities accept the power and authority of that particular armed group. This is about showing terror." Dr. Denis Mukwege, the director of Panzi Hospital in Eastern Congo, says of the rapes: "Sex is being used to commit evil" (CBS, War Against Women, Jan. 13, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/2ogl8s).

I just read a sexist quote from columnist Clarence Page:

It was not that long ago, after all, that he [Obama] was losing to Sen. Hillary Clinton two-to-one among black voters before he won the Iowa caucuses.
...
Obama turned his popularity around through persistent campaigning and excellent organizing to increase the public's comfort level with him. In the end, he turned a vote for Obama into something in which many voters took pride, just for being on the right side of history. http://tinyurl.com/5kor47

On one side was women's rights represented by Hillary (and later Sarah Palin). On the other side was black men's rights represented by Obama. Both rights are good, but Page must think women's equality is wrong, since he says those on the "right side of history" were those voting against historic women candidates. Perhaps he should write a column about why he thinks it's right for men to oppress women.

A speechwriter for the new administration is showing he is a member of the old boys club. Jon Favreau posted a photo..."where he's dancing with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of secretary of state-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and another where he's placed his hand on the cardboard former first lady's chest while a friend is offering her lips a beer." There are a lot of levels of hate speech and each level worse than the last indicates how much a person hates an oppressed group. You know a hater is filled with extreme, visceral hatred when they use sex to harm the oppressed group. Click here to view the hate speech against women and girls: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-tra il/2008/12/04/one_more_question.html

Favreau portrayed an image of himself in sexual foreplay with the image of Clinton in a public place. He is lowering Hillary Clinton's status in a vicious, cruel, and extremely disrespectful way. Women and girls are the most oppressed group in the world. Men dominate women politically, economically, and socially. Women have a long way to go before we achieve political equality with men. Thus, harming women politicians by lowering their status in this way is morally heinous (http://journaloffeministinsight.blogspot .com/2008/11/women-and-girls-are-most-op pressed.html).

A person who has used hate speech to lessen the status of a protected group, be it women, blacks, jews, etc. has no place working in the government.

Per request of the administrator I will explain in more detail why the Favreau photo is hate speech. In the second paragraph of my diary I had explained why it is hate speech: