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On SB5 and Words I Do Not Use Lightly
Jun. 26th, 2013 01:56 amWhat is happening in Texas at this very moment is nothing short of tyranny. I have never been one to use such harsh language, because it means something VERY specific, very dire, and very important. But if Texas allows a vote to pass after midnight after breaking their own rules at least twice to do so, it's tyranny. No other way to put it.
Also things to note: white male senators on both sides of the aisle were given free reign to speak uninterrupted. Black and female senators were constantly, petulantly interrupted.
The senate President was utterly incapable of stringing together four words at a time without passing them through his female handler.
Remarks on sonograms and Roe V Wade were deemed not germane to the conversation about abortion and treated as strikes, while the senate President ignored the senate's own rules to say that there must be THREE strikes on the topic of germane-ness in order to table a filibuster. The other strike that counted was Sen Davis adjusting a BACK BRACE. Because fuck you, that's why.
This is what privilege is, in its rawest form. If you lose, fair and square, you get to change the rules, cheat, lie, obfuscate, and take votes after midnight and claim they happened at 11:59. Even when there is documented, photographic proof that this happened. Because white penis, basically.
Because white penis means you know what's best for womens' bodies, even if you can't figure out how the governing body that you belong to works. It means that a lone woman standing up for 13 hours can't eat, move from her desk, lean on her desk, sit, or take a restroom break because of RULES, but white dudes can disregard the rules of the proceedings as they see fit. Even when you win, fair and square, you lose.
This is what it is to not have power. You watch a bunch of assholes trample your right to bodily autonomy, and then you get to watch the biggest asshole present demand order, as though you were supposed to silently watch and accept your spot under his bootheel. You watch it dawn on him as he is shouted over that it sucks not to have your voice heard. You realize it won't change a damn thing about the way he treats others. Good god, Dewhurst has earned himself a plum spot in the hall of fame of cowardly assweasels for that one.
Did the networks cover it? No. They rehashed the Zimmerman trial. They talked about the Kardashian baby. I heard something about an immobilized cruise ship. CNN covered blueberry fucking muffins, I shit you not. No one but a local outlet or two thought to cover this epic filibuster begun by senator Wendy Davis, and aided valiantly by her colleagues senators West, Watson & Zaffirini, with the most MARVELOUS assist from senator Leticia Van De Putte-- who, by the by, came from her father's funeral to lay some smack down on these shenanigans. "Did the President hear me or did the President hear me and refuse to recognize me?" she asked after being passed over for another white dude. "At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?” Because of course, when talking about the female body, we need to hear from more old white dudes.
The networks did not cover thousands of protesters who interrupted the chamber for over a half hour with their cries to be heard, their screams of support-- "WENDY! WENDY! WENDY!" They are still screaming, hours later. I have never seen anything like it.
Twitter and FB were on fire. 170k people were glued to the livestream I watched alone, independently, and in the middle of the goddamn night. We understood we were watching history. We watched our elected officials break their own government's rules. (Which, side note, is why we should maybe have people stop swearing on Bibles and start swearing on the Constitution. Because PRIORITIES when you're responsible for making and upholding laws.)
And the major news outlets were mute. They silenced Texans by ignoring them altogether. I mean, it's not like it was important or anything. It's only something that will impact thousands of women. Whatever.
But hey. I now know that a blueberry muffin averages 350 calories. Because that's what my addled little female brain needs to know.
This is patriarchy. This is oppression. This is a national embarrassment. This is a travesty of justice. This is tyranny.
Note: not all of these ideas originated with me, though I seem to have paraphrased the collective anger of the entire Twittersphere. I tweeted and re-tweeted at length about it, and you can see many of the original tweets here.
ETA: As of 3:18 Eastern, 2:18 Texas time, it has been conceded that SB5 is dead. THANK YOU to all the journalists out there who took photographic evidence of the attempted voter fraud and were ears on the ground. Without you, they surely would have gotten away with it.
ETA 2: Karsten School brings us a from the floor report. Democratic microphones were cut off. There was an attempt at a closed-door caucus for lack of accountability. Some state police acted like flaming dickwads. Yeah, that's pretty much what tyranny looks like.
Also things to note: white male senators on both sides of the aisle were given free reign to speak uninterrupted. Black and female senators were constantly, petulantly interrupted.
The senate President was utterly incapable of stringing together four words at a time without passing them through his female handler.
Remarks on sonograms and Roe V Wade were deemed not germane to the conversation about abortion and treated as strikes, while the senate President ignored the senate's own rules to say that there must be THREE strikes on the topic of germane-ness in order to table a filibuster. The other strike that counted was Sen Davis adjusting a BACK BRACE. Because fuck you, that's why.
This is what privilege is, in its rawest form. If you lose, fair and square, you get to change the rules, cheat, lie, obfuscate, and take votes after midnight and claim they happened at 11:59. Even when there is documented, photographic proof that this happened. Because white penis, basically.
Because white penis means you know what's best for womens' bodies, even if you can't figure out how the governing body that you belong to works. It means that a lone woman standing up for 13 hours can't eat, move from her desk, lean on her desk, sit, or take a restroom break because of RULES, but white dudes can disregard the rules of the proceedings as they see fit. Even when you win, fair and square, you lose.
This is what it is to not have power. You watch a bunch of assholes trample your right to bodily autonomy, and then you get to watch the biggest asshole present demand order, as though you were supposed to silently watch and accept your spot under his bootheel. You watch it dawn on him as he is shouted over that it sucks not to have your voice heard. You realize it won't change a damn thing about the way he treats others. Good god, Dewhurst has earned himself a plum spot in the hall of fame of cowardly assweasels for that one.
Did the networks cover it? No. They rehashed the Zimmerman trial. They talked about the Kardashian baby. I heard something about an immobilized cruise ship. CNN covered blueberry fucking muffins, I shit you not. No one but a local outlet or two thought to cover this epic filibuster begun by senator Wendy Davis, and aided valiantly by her colleagues senators West, Watson & Zaffirini, with the most MARVELOUS assist from senator Leticia Van De Putte-- who, by the by, came from her father's funeral to lay some smack down on these shenanigans. "Did the President hear me or did the President hear me and refuse to recognize me?" she asked after being passed over for another white dude. "At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?” Because of course, when talking about the female body, we need to hear from more old white dudes.
The networks did not cover thousands of protesters who interrupted the chamber for over a half hour with their cries to be heard, their screams of support-- "WENDY! WENDY! WENDY!" They are still screaming, hours later. I have never seen anything like it.
Twitter and FB were on fire. 170k people were glued to the livestream I watched alone, independently, and in the middle of the goddamn night. We understood we were watching history. We watched our elected officials break their own government's rules. (Which, side note, is why we should maybe have people stop swearing on Bibles and start swearing on the Constitution. Because PRIORITIES when you're responsible for making and upholding laws.)
And the major news outlets were mute. They silenced Texans by ignoring them altogether. I mean, it's not like it was important or anything. It's only something that will impact thousands of women. Whatever.
But hey. I now know that a blueberry muffin averages 350 calories. Because that's what my addled little female brain needs to know.
This is patriarchy. This is oppression. This is a national embarrassment. This is a travesty of justice. This is tyranny.
Note: not all of these ideas originated with me, though I seem to have paraphrased the collective anger of the entire Twittersphere. I tweeted and re-tweeted at length about it, and you can see many of the original tweets here.
ETA: As of 3:18 Eastern, 2:18 Texas time, it has been conceded that SB5 is dead. THANK YOU to all the journalists out there who took photographic evidence of the attempted voter fraud and were ears on the ground. Without you, they surely would have gotten away with it.
ETA 2: Karsten School brings us a from the floor report. Democratic microphones were cut off. There was an attempt at a closed-door caucus for lack of accountability. Some state police acted like flaming dickwads. Yeah, that's pretty much what tyranny looks like.
