Status Updates From Women & Power: A Manifesto

“somewhere on the spectrum between spineless and scumbag”

Oh wow, Beard references her own rape to posit that we need to know more about how men self-justify their sexual exploitation of women. So it can be deconstructed as Beard has done for why silencing women’s speech and excluding women from power is tacitly accepted. I suppose Gisèle Pelicot’s choice of a public trial for her rapists as the fulfillment of that wish…

Interesting idea: “Decoupling power from public prestige… thinking of power as an attribute or verb rather than a possession: the ability to be effective, to make a difference in the world, the right to be taken seriously, together as much as individually.”

Women’s speech is not, according to the Classical tradition, public speech. Men get violent when women attempt to participate in serious discourse, presumably emasculating them by taking their place. Exceptions can be made when speaking as a victim or when speaking as a representative of women collectively, thereby not displacing a man. Jokes about the shrill tone of women’s voices are 1000s of years old