…honestly though? Is that really what we’re taking away here?
People don’t usually remind someone that “you’re not actually under this person’s control even if it feels that way/you can bypass their attempt to control you in this way” if they’re “treating it as a given”.
I read it much more as an attempt to meet these women where they’re at. Because yes, what would be best for them would be to get the hell away from their partners but if they were ready for that, they wouldn’t *need* encouragement to exercise their freedom and protect their rights in the voting booth.
Yeah. I see where Solnit’s reaction is coming from, in the desire to make sure that the horror is pointed out, but the fact of the matter is that much like any other fucking domestic violence issue, the hand-wringing happening here is not … relevant to the problem that the messages are trying to deal with.
Whether or not we normalize it, it’s really fucking common, and it’s really fucking important for those women (and for that matter any adult but dependent children or other relatives that live in the home – or out of the home, for that matter! because it pertains to them too! -and so on) to know that their voting is secret, that their situation has been accounted for, that this is something that the entire system was set up to be aware of.
Yes, it’s horrible and we hate it, and there’s definitely place to point out “hey did you know that this is fucking abusive?” (because it is fucking abusive). But right now the much more important thing is to make sure that these women do actually know that their vote is secret.
And we don’t do that by combining that message with making them feel like freaks. Bluntly.
Does anyone remember when you weren’t supposed to tell people online your personal info and it was weird and suspicious to ask for it I miss that sometimes
Does anyone remember when strangers asking you what was in your pants would get mocked relentlessly
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amhrancas 