More "the West Wing" posting... Which means social activism posting, as well.
Bravo just showed "The Women of Qumar" again.
I expect watching that episode will always make me so angry my heart pounds and my jaw clenches. I don't imagine I'd like myself much if it didn't. I wonder, though... How many times will I see it before it no longer makes me cry...?
Obviously more than the twelve or thirteen times I've seen it already.
So... In this episode (for my non-west wing viewing readers) CJ (played by Allison Janney) spends most of the episode entirely and righteously pissed off over the fact that the government is selling tanks, missiles, and fighter jets to a fictional regime called "Qumar" which bears a striking resemplance to a blend of cultures in the (real) middle east... Most notably Saudi Arabia and certain "pro-taliban" nations. CJ rails on and on about the injustices done to women in this fictional country as a means of highlighting human rights violations, and illustrating the question of whether or not we should be selling weapons to such a country.
At various times in the show she makes the point that, under their law, when a woman is raped she is typically beaten by her husband and/or sons as punishment... She alludes toward the fact that they can't learn to read or write or drive a car... she points out "They beat women. They hate women... The only reason they keep... women alive it to make... (more) men. ...Apartheid was an Easthampton clambake compared to what we laughingly refer to as the 'life' these women lead."
Allison Janney, who's won a double-armload of Emmys over the years for this role, plays the part of CJ so very powerfully in this episode... Even typing out the lines here, I cry. Of course, the subject matter would bring angry tears to my eyes on it's own. But her performance... gawd.
Then there's the prostitution issue, and gawd help me, I'm still of no absolutely clear opinion on that one. No, worse, I tend to find myself leaning toward Josh's argument.
The subject is a treaty that, in part, condemns "forced prostitution". The character Amy works for a major women's lobby and they want the word "forced" removed, citing all protitution as evil and degrading to women. Josh argues the side that sex work is legal in many allied countries, and whether to accept that means of employment should be the choice of the woman in the situation.
Ok... So it's a despicable business. But how much of that fact rests on that illegality of it? How much less dirty and vile would it be if it were not illegal...? If it were heavily regulated, both due to the liklihood of public health risk and the liklihood of employee abuse?
How do we get off telling someone their job should be illegal or immoral for no better reason than because we don't like it or wouldn't like to work it? We saw how well that worked with circus and carney "freaks".
Amy says "I don't know one little girl - and neither do you - who wants to be a prostitute when she grows up."
Fair enough... But I personally don't know any little girls who want to be fast food fry cooks, or migrant farm workers, or janitors, or hotel maids, or economists either. While all those jobs may be offensive and unpleasant and demeaning, and while we, the "enlightened women" may not want to hold any of those jobs (with the possible exception of the latter ;-), we (meaning the market as a whole) need them. I certainly wouldn't say we "need" prostitutes, but the market demand is there, and it's not going away, and it will be met. The deterrant effect of the illegality is practically nil. So what purpose is served in sending the people who meet the demand to jail?
Further, little girls aside, I have known adult women (and men... lots of men) who wanted to be prostitutes... And if I've known a few in my life and times, it stands to reason there are a lot more out there.
Without getting into a huge discussion about the evolutionary and inherited sexual imperatives of human males and the proclivity of both males and females to explore, experiment with, and enjoy sexuality, I feel safe in saying that nothing short of generational brainwashing and opressive conditioning made possible by the greatest violation of human rights in history is going to change the market for sex... The most (and probably best) we could do is to open minds and mores enough to make it safe and free.
No, I think my position would have to be that forced protitution is a terrible evil that should be treated and punished as kidnapping and rape at the very least... And is probably increased by the illigalization of consensual, regulated prostitution. Sex workers shuold be regulated and protected, not marginalized and criminalized.
And what about Sam's sub-plot...? He wants a tough, federal, primary offense seatbelt law to save five thousand lives a year... He talks to everybody he can about it, and as I watch and listen, I know, deep down, that while there are certainly other reasons, there is no better reason that I have to get a poli-sci degree and a juris doctor, magna cum fucking lauda, than to stop well-intentioned people with ideas like this.
Perhaps I should have prefaced this section with "don't. get. me. started." but, then again, the same could be said of this entire essay. Simply put, mandatory seatbelt laws (and their ilk) are evil, and they are the beginnings of legalized government opression. I'm not kidding.
Precedent is the foundation on which law is built, and this is a horrific precedent... The idea that the government can prosecute you, levy fines against you, and eventually lock you away from society because you were doing something that, while it would hurt no other person, might indirectly hurt you... If you can't see the Pandora's Box of grim legal possibility that idea opens, well, ask me. I'll be all too happy to elaborate.
But I never get to think these things through that far while watching the episode... Amy talks about prostitution, Josh talkes about prostitution, I think about prostitution... Sam talks about seatbelts, I think about freedoms... Then CJ talks about the Women of Qumar, and I forget all about prostitution, and seat belts, and I think about gender-based slavery, mutilation, and murder... And about wanting to personally go to war to stop it.
I expect watching that episode will always make me so angry my heart pounds and my jaw clenches. I don't imagine I'd like myself much if it didn't. I wonder, though... How many times will I see it before it no longer makes me cry...?
Obviously more than the twelve or thirteen times I've seen it already.
So... In this episode (for my non-west wing viewing readers) CJ (played by Allison Janney) spends most of the episode entirely and righteously pissed off over the fact that the government is selling tanks, missiles, and fighter jets to a fictional regime called "Qumar" which bears a striking resemplance to a blend of cultures in the (real) middle east... Most notably Saudi Arabia and certain "pro-taliban" nations. CJ rails on and on about the injustices done to women in this fictional country as a means of highlighting human rights violations, and illustrating the question of whether or not we should be selling weapons to such a country.
At various times in the show she makes the point that, under their law, when a woman is raped she is typically beaten by her husband and/or sons as punishment... She alludes toward the fact that they can't learn to read or write or drive a car... she points out "They beat women. They hate women... The only reason they keep... women alive it to make... (more) men. ...Apartheid was an Easthampton clambake compared to what we laughingly refer to as the 'life' these women lead."
Allison Janney, who's won a double-armload of Emmys over the years for this role, plays the part of CJ so very powerfully in this episode... Even typing out the lines here, I cry. Of course, the subject matter would bring angry tears to my eyes on it's own. But her performance... gawd.
Then there's the prostitution issue, and gawd help me, I'm still of no absolutely clear opinion on that one. No, worse, I tend to find myself leaning toward Josh's argument.
The subject is a treaty that, in part, condemns "forced prostitution". The character Amy works for a major women's lobby and they want the word "forced" removed, citing all protitution as evil and degrading to women. Josh argues the side that sex work is legal in many allied countries, and whether to accept that means of employment should be the choice of the woman in the situation.
Ok... So it's a despicable business. But how much of that fact rests on that illegality of it? How much less dirty and vile would it be if it were not illegal...? If it were heavily regulated, both due to the liklihood of public health risk and the liklihood of employee abuse?
How do we get off telling someone their job should be illegal or immoral for no better reason than because we don't like it or wouldn't like to work it? We saw how well that worked with circus and carney "freaks".
Amy says "I don't know one little girl - and neither do you - who wants to be a prostitute when she grows up."
Fair enough... But I personally don't know any little girls who want to be fast food fry cooks, or migrant farm workers, or janitors, or hotel maids, or economists either. While all those jobs may be offensive and unpleasant and demeaning, and while we, the "enlightened women" may not want to hold any of those jobs (with the possible exception of the latter ;-), we (meaning the market as a whole) need them. I certainly wouldn't say we "need" prostitutes, but the market demand is there, and it's not going away, and it will be met. The deterrant effect of the illegality is practically nil. So what purpose is served in sending the people who meet the demand to jail?
Further, little girls aside, I have known adult women (and men... lots of men) who wanted to be prostitutes... And if I've known a few in my life and times, it stands to reason there are a lot more out there.
Without getting into a huge discussion about the evolutionary and inherited sexual imperatives of human males and the proclivity of both males and females to explore, experiment with, and enjoy sexuality, I feel safe in saying that nothing short of generational brainwashing and opressive conditioning made possible by the greatest violation of human rights in history is going to change the market for sex... The most (and probably best) we could do is to open minds and mores enough to make it safe and free.
No, I think my position would have to be that forced protitution is a terrible evil that should be treated and punished as kidnapping and rape at the very least... And is probably increased by the illigalization of consensual, regulated prostitution. Sex workers shuold be regulated and protected, not marginalized and criminalized.
And what about Sam's sub-plot...? He wants a tough, federal, primary offense seatbelt law to save five thousand lives a year... He talks to everybody he can about it, and as I watch and listen, I know, deep down, that while there are certainly other reasons, there is no better reason that I have to get a poli-sci degree and a juris doctor, magna cum fucking lauda, than to stop well-intentioned people with ideas like this.
Perhaps I should have prefaced this section with "don't. get. me. started." but, then again, the same could be said of this entire essay. Simply put, mandatory seatbelt laws (and their ilk) are evil, and they are the beginnings of legalized government opression. I'm not kidding.
Precedent is the foundation on which law is built, and this is a horrific precedent... The idea that the government can prosecute you, levy fines against you, and eventually lock you away from society because you were doing something that, while it would hurt no other person, might indirectly hurt you... If you can't see the Pandora's Box of grim legal possibility that idea opens, well, ask me. I'll be all too happy to elaborate.
But I never get to think these things through that far while watching the episode... Amy talks about prostitution, Josh talkes about prostitution, I think about prostitution... Sam talks about seatbelts, I think about freedoms... Then CJ talks about the Women of Qumar, and I forget all about prostitution, and seat belts, and I think about gender-based slavery, mutilation, and murder... And about wanting to personally go to war to stop it.