The senate vote on Kavanaugh is a vote for female sovereignty.
Today marks the day that the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as a sitting member of the Supreme Court of the United States. This position is for the most part immutable and will be held until Kavanaugh retires, dies, or the majority of the House approves an indictment to impeach and convict him.
We've been following the on-going saga between Ford and Kavanaugh for quite some time and I've made quite a lot of commentary trying to remain unbiased throughout. Sadly, the truth will likely remain buried forever and the vote for confirmation is no longer representative of a vote for a man most suited to be one of the 9 most powerful jurists in the United States. It is symbolically a vote on whether it is okay to rape people.
What is supposed to be a political process is now a cultural one. The vote hinges on what is considered acceptable behaviour from a rich and powerful white man. Whether it is okay to rape people, or whether some people can get away with raping people, while others don't. It's about whether accusations of rape should be taken seriously, or whether they should be ignored.
This is what the vote is about. The orthogonality of cultural ideology and moral standpoint of female physical sovereignty. The moral standpoint that no matter who you are, how rich you are, how important, and how many other rich and angry people support you, you just can't rape women. Rape should be forever considered horrific and life changing to the victim. It deserves the social concern, outrage and consequences matching up to the crime.
No matter how rich, poor, weak, or powerful. Each of us own our own body.
There are a class of people who probably think that rape is wrong -most of the time- but at other times okay, especially for some people. It is by no coincidence that the Republican president is a confessed sexual assailant, and that his nominee represents the acceptance of rich white guys to continue sexually assaulting women.
The vote will go down as not just a vote for another supreme court justice, but a vote for permission. Permission to rape. And all the teenage Kavanaugh's in the US will get that message because that's just how culture works.
What does it mean if Kavanaugh is confirmed?
Well, it means every time a woman is out alone, and she sees a man walking towards her, she'll have to think a little bit more.
It means that every time a woman meets someone new, she'll have to think a bit more about whether it's safe to be alone with that person.
It means that every time your daughter goes to a party and has a drink, it's going to be that much easier for a stranger to shove her into a room, gag her mouth and change her life for the worse. And to make it worse, she'll forever live in fear of ever telling you, or anyone else for that matter.
The vote is not about confirmation to the supreme court. It's about whether half the population has to live in fear and uncertainty. It's about who really owns a woman's body. Is it the woman herself? Or is it the nearest drunk frat boy with a boner.
I watched and then rewatched clips from both of their testimonies and keeping my own political ideals out of it, it is very difficult for me to see how Kavanaugh could be voted in based on the answers he gave during the hearing.
Like you’ve said in the post, it likely boils down to he said, she said, but the way he acted during the hearing was appalling. For a man of his credentials he showed zero composure.
This really has come down to tribalism, and wanting your team to win so bad that facts become irrelevant. I hope for the sake of the nation that they vote based on evidence and testimony rather than party allegiance
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