Thursday, January 26, 2017

Vulgar, vile and evil

The utter cluelessness of Donald Trump's supporters is beyond mind-boggling.  In Franklin, Tennessee, the owner of a knitting store put up a Facebook post saying:
With the recent women's march on Washington, I ask that you if you want yarn for any project for the women's movement that you please shop for yarn elsewhere. The vulgarity, vile and evilness of this movement is absolutely despicable. That kind of behavior is unacceptable and is not welcomed at The Joy of Knitting. I will never need that kind of business to remain open. Two wrongs will never ever make it right. 
As the owner of this business and a Christian, I have a duty to my customers and my community to promote values of mutual respect, love, compassion, understanding, and integrity. The women's movement is counterproductive to unity of family, friends, community, and nation. 
I do pray for these women. May the God work out His love in their hearts and continue to heal and unite Americans.
Say what??? "Vulgarity, vile [sic], and evilness?"  What exactly is it that is vulgar, vile and evil about the Women's movement?  To the contrary, the marches last week were 100% peaceful.  No violence, no arrests.  What could possibly be wrong with that?

Well, the Washington Post has a clue:
“This is starting to undermine their efforts,” Poe said. “I think if you want to get your point across you need to do it the right way and I just think that walking around dressed as a vulva is gross. Hatred is not acceptable speech.”  [Emphasis added]
Say what???  I presume that she is referring to the so-called "pussy hats", but seriously, has this woman ever even seen a vulva?  Pussy hats look nothing like vulvas, they look like cat ears, which is what they are intended to look like.  They are called "pussy hats" to rhyme with "pussy cat", not the kind of pussy that Donald Trump like to brag he grabs women by.

Here, let me show you:


Pussy Hat


Pussy Cat

I was tempted to post a picture of a vulva for comparison but ultimately decided that I want to keep this blog family-friendly.  If you don't know what a vulva looks like, enlightenment is just a Google search away.

Even if these women were dressed as vulvas (which they weren't) where in the world do you get from there to hatred?  Dressing up like a pussy (of either sort) isn't hatred.  This is hatred.

[UPDATE] Apparently there were a few people actually dressed up in vulva costumes at some of the marches, though I didn't see any at the one I attended, and I didn't see any coverage of this in any of the news reports I saw.  I had to go looking to find them.  You know what?  I actually agree that these costumes are vulgar (though I wouldn't go as far as "vile" and they certainly aren't "evil").  I guess the Trump camp does not have a monopoly on cluelessness.  Honestly, people, how on earth do you imagine that dressing up like genitalia is going to move the needle in a positive direction?

But I still don't understand how refusing to sell yarn to women's movement members is supposed to help.  None of the vulva costumes I was able to find pictures of looked like they were made out of yarn.  Elizabeth Poe's facebook post didn't ask for people to not buy construction materials for vulva costumes, it specifically asks for women's movement members to shop elsewhere for yarn:
I ask that you if you want yarn for any project for the women's movement that you please shop for yarn elsewhere.  [Emphasis added -- obviously.]
The most charitable interpretation I can come up with is that because there were a few tasteless apples out of millions who attended the marches, Elizabeth Poe wants to refuse to sell yarn to anyone if they want to use it for making "any project for the women's movement."  Seriously, can there be any doubt that she had pussy hats in mind when she wrote that?

The irony here (it has been a long, long time since I have been able to make any observation about the political right without using the word "irony") is that but for the advances made by people like the ones Elizabeth Poe wants to exclude from her business she wouldn't even have a business to exclude them from.

2 comments:

Sven on Senta II said...

Hi Ron, long time !

Actually quite a few "vulva" costumes were used. The ones I really didn't understand were the ones that even included the sphincter at the very bottom.

Ron said...

Well, that's news to me, though not too surprising I suppose. You know what? I actually agree with Elizabeth Poe: those are vulgar (though I'm not sure I'd go as far as "vile" and I certainly wouldn't call them "evil"). But if that is what Ms. Poe was referring to, how is refusing to sell yarn to people for pussy hats supposed to help?