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Is Shawn Simoes a scapegoat?

May 25, 2015 by Jennifer Derwey 5 Comments

Let me first say that the #FHRITP trend is misogynistic and demeaning, and I applaud Shauna Hunt for not being cowered by the men who were harassing her. Shawn Simoes, the ridiculously unlikable man who has been fired from his job after being recorded supporting the #FHRITP trend, is not a popular guy at the moment with good reason, and I doubt he will be able to escape his social media footprint anytime soon. However, I wonder if firing him, though it is completely understandable, will actually address the underlying problem, which is misogyny itself. We have all united in our disapproval of Shawn Simoes, and this has provided us with the illusion that in terminating his employment (in which he earned a substantial salary of $106k, which is always highlighted in the news coverage to emphasize the high level of justice being carried out) all is once right again. But I have to wonder, is all right in the world once again?

We’re all appeased by the outcome: Man says vulgar thing, man is punished. But men do say vulgar things, a lot in my experience, and sexual harassment takes place in nearly every workplace I’ve ever been in or heard of. This is a problem, is it not? Violence against women? Misogyny? Is firing Shawn Simoes going to fix all that? I think French theorist René Girard would argue that it simply calms us back into accepting the culture and the society the way that it is, but leaves it ultimately unchallenged and unchanged. If Simoes is a scapegoat, “scapegoat” does not mean he’s innocent, simply that he’s fulfilling the role of being punished in order for the social order to continue unchanged.

Human beings are fundamentally imitative creatures. We copy each other’s desires and are in perpetual conflict with one another over the objects of our desire. In early human communities, this conflict created a permanent threat of violence and forced our ancestors to find a way to unify themselves. They chose a victim, a scapegoat, an evil one against whom the community could unite.

Again, “scapegoat” does not imply Shawn Simoes is innocent (he’s a jerk, we all agree), but should we, rather than being calmed down by his example, instead be ripping apart the seams of the culture that created him? There are millions who enjoy this degrading meme, and there are millions who are also watching pornography and the brutalization of women which therein informs things. Prostitution, trafficking, rape, the making of women into consumer products, this informs things. Firing Simoes doesn’t address this and can actually serve in the interest of furthering the REAL LIE, the REAL problem, the myth that mysogony is getting less and that women are better off now in our culture simply because they make more money. This affirms our culture, and tells us everything is okay when it’s not (I’m suddenly feeling like the reporter in that scene from Network!).

Shouldn’t we be getting mad instead of celebrating the sacrifice of our scapegoat?

Hunt

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Featured Media Tagged With: Media, misogyny

Apparently, I’m not alone

November 8, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek 1 Comment

After I wrote this post, I began second guessing myself. Was the media really so skewed toward Obama? Who am I–the Great Arbiter of Objectivity? Anyway,  thank you to the reader who found this story about How Obama can Win Over the Media–and check out the comments. I cut and pasted one which politely characterizes almost every single one: 

Win over the media? You guys have been his PR department for the past two years. Maybe you should do a story about how media can relearn the process of objective news reporting.

I may not be Miss Objectivity, but I am certainly not alone.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Media, Obama, objectivity, reporting

Giving thanks for tolerance, Québec-style

October 13, 2008 by Véronique Bergeron 1 Comment

[Turn on sarcasm]

A little while ago, I posted on the Conservative candidate in St-Bruno QC who was “outed” by Gilles Duceppe for having Catholic principles. Principles that do not reflect the open-minded ways of the Québécois people (a loose quote) according to Duceppe. Worst than being Catholic, Nicole Barron-Charbonneau was piloried for being a practicing Catholic, one that abides by the teachings of the Catholic Church. Gasp. My local MP was similarly outed by the local French paper for having — get that — a picture of the Pope in his office. And, believe it or not, a small statue of the Virgin Mary on his desk. Egad. Apparently, the chap goes to *Church* on Sunday. Not the mall, ladies and gentlemen, Church! We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to such devoted members of the fourth estate and the Bloc Québécois for seeking to save us all from principled would-be politicians. Because goodness knows that the only thing worse than a politician without principles is a politician that has some. Moral compass as a disqualifying factor in Canadian politics: another feature of our proud heritage!

[turn off sarcasm]

Yes, hum. My in-laws live in St-Bruno QC and volunteer on Nicole Barron-Charbonneau’s campaign team. I was asking them how the campaign was going, what was their feeling about the outcome, you know, small talk over the turkey. They said it was really sad because many of her campaign signs have been vandalized following Duceppe’s comments on her religious beliefs. Signs have been torn-down and “Opus Dei” spray-painted on others (Barron-Charbonneau is believed to be a member of this Catholic organization).

Vandalism as a virtue of open-mindedness. It reminded me of some of my family members who are so liberal, tolerant and open-minded that they can’t even talk about abortion or religion.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: faith, Media, Nicole Barron-Charbonneau, Pierre Lemieux, Politics, Religion, tolerance

Pro-life demonstrators? What Pro-life demonstrators?

May 9, 2008 by Véronique Bergeron Leave a Comment

Ottawa March for Life 2008

In local Ottawa news yesterday, 2 broken water pipes caused traffic nightmares. But if you were driving through Ottawa’s downtown core, as I was, in the afternoon, you could not miss the 8,000 marchers who paralyzed circulation around Parliament Hill. CBC radio was probably caught in some “ethical” dilemma, having to choose between reporting what goes on in Ottawa – 4 main downtown arteries filled by 8,000 people – and having to acknowledge pro-life demonstrators. Because driving down Metcalfe around 2 pm, I was shocked by the size of the March for Life. Up came the 2 o’clock local newscast and I was thinking “For sure, they’ll have to mention the march, if only to accuse it of clogging up downtown!” But no! Not a word! Not a word at 3 pm either. Not a word. The broken water pipes got the royal treatment.

See no evil Hear no evil
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Tanya adds: The Ottawa Citizen didn’t have a problem accepting money to advertise for the March for Life, though. Ahh, scruples…

http://shopping.ottawacitizen.canada.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=836404

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: 2008 March for Life, CBC, Media, Ottawa

Breastfeeding and intelligence

May 6, 2008 by Véronique Bergeron Leave a Comment

Now, I know that this is a prolife blog and breastfeeding isn’t technically prolife material. But hey, unborn babies eventually need to be fed. The link may be tenuous but here I go.

Like everything childbirth, those who have had the great privilege of (a) giving birth, and (b) deciding how to feed their infant, know that there is no easier way to be shot at than to unravel the breast vs bottle issue. (Well, actually, prolife blogging is a pretty sure-fire way of being called names–I would link to some of them but it seems that most pro-abortion bloggers cannot criticize without a generous helping of profanities, at least those who link to us.) But back to breastfeeding. McGill researchers have just published a study linking breastfeeding to higher intelligence. Read the news release here.

Now, for the disclaimer: I have 5 children, all of them were breastfed to a certain extent. 3 of them had their first bottle by their 3rd week, one of them was supplemented with formula from birth. Some of them were weaned the hard way, some of them weaned on their own. I’ve had about every breastfeeding joy and tribulation found in books and even some not found in books. And, dare I say it, all my children are brilliant AND cute as buttons. I honestly don’t care how you fed your baby nor for how long you breastfed. I only care that you fed your baby and if not, that child welfare authorities have been notified. Okay?

Back to McGill researchers. What I find interesting is that breastfeeding has been linked to higher intelligence. Given that breastfeeding is how human babies should be fed in the big scheme of things, shouldn’t we say that breastfeeding is linked to normal intelligence and artificial feeding linked to lower intelligence? On that topic, I found this article very interesting. Warning: do not follow the link if you don’t want to be challenged on breast vs. artificial feeding or if you can’t stand a white font against light blue background.

__________________________

Andrea compliments Véronique on her amazing knack for putting together a line of almost non-sequiturs and keeping me interested and laughing in the process. And I don’t even have children to feed. But I won’t read the link because of the light blue background–and their choice of font. Terrible.  

__________________________

Rebecca’s theory on breastfeeding and IQ: the intelligence flows straight out of the maternal brain, out the mammaries, and into the baby.

__________________________

 

Patricia adds: Hear, hear, Rebecca.

I have nursed to some degree or another all five of my kids, in most cases up to about 13 months. (All of my kids seemed to have lost interest at about that stage.) Each time, the first three months have been a grueling ordeal with pain rivalling childbirth and a host of attendant complications most of which are too gruesome to relate. Over the years, I have had help from professionals, La Leche, my breastfeeding friends, etc., so mine is not a case of being uninformed or unsupported. And, finally, every time, I have wondered why I insist upon putting myself, my husband, my other kids and my baby through the process, and I’m still not 100% sure that I did any of us any favours.

I’m read the press release from the McGill study and, while I’m no expert, I was not convinced that their “control” eliminated all the biases in favour of a certain type of mother. According to the press release, the study was “randomized by taking half of the mothers and subjecting them to “an intervention that encouraged prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding” while the other half of mothers continued with their usual maternity hospital and outpatient pediatric care and follow-up. Well, what type of mother do you think was most persuaded by the intervention in support of breastfeeding? I suspect it was mothers who accept that “what is best for their child” is what is recommended by a certain kind of expert, who relies more on those experts than the experience of her mother, who has the time and support to give to the breastfeeding process, who can persist when it doesn’t go well initially, who takes advantage of lactation consultants, etc. And I wonder how often this type of mother has a certain kind of intelligence and a certain determination to interact and stimulate her child that results in that child, at age 6.5, to do well in certain measures of intelligence.

There are all kinds of reasons to breastfeed – my personal favourite is that it’s cheap. (You might think it’s free, but I have such a voracious appetite when I’m breastfeeding that I’m sure there is an added grocery cost.) When it works, it’s lovely and convenient. But then, so is snuggling up to give your baby a nice, peaceful bottle, especially if it provides you with a break from stomach-churning pain. Let’s face it, infant formula has been around for a long time and was developed for a reason.

What I think really bothers me about the “breast is best” argument is that, for many, many women, it seems to set such a high standard of motherhood so as to make it unattainable, impractical, or something that they may undertake once, under the right conditions, but not something that they would want to have part of their lives on an ongoing basis. I’m sure that any woman who saw me weeping and literally gnashing my teeth as I struggled to overcome the pain involved with getting my infant to eat would think “thanks but no thanks” to whole process. To me, the whole argument has an association with a view of childrearing that says “we must have to best at all costs for our little prince/princess” from breast feeding at any price to the dupioni silk baby carrier (I saw one the other day when I was trying to buy a bib for my youngest). And if you can’t provide that, you’re really not trying hard enough to fulfill your child’s entitlement to the “best”. In some ways, that’s a very worthy standard, but it pretty much guarantees that having child will be seen as some extraordinary undertaking rather than part of everyday life.

And don’t even get me started on natural childbirth (which, incidentally, all of mine were, not by intention, believe me) or attachment parenting.

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Tanya agrees: Oh, Patricia, thanks for bringing that up. Didn’t I just feel like the devil the first time I hopped my 2 week old baby up on formula. When you are pregnant, no one seems to mention that breastfeeding might actually be really, really hard.

Here’s a good gauge, now that I have valuable hindsight: If you want to crawl under a rock every single time your newborn cries of hunger, you’re not alone. Breast is not best if it makes mom lose her sanity.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: artificial feeding, bottle feeding, breastfeeding, intelligence, language, McGill, Media

Librarian overreacts, blames Bush

April 9, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

When I saw this in The Toronto Star today, I knew I needed to do some additional reading. Could it really be that the Bush administration has time to clamp down on librarians, of all people? That he was up late the last couple of nights, wondering how to make it more difficult for medical researchers? 

A casual perusal of alternate news sources reveals that my headline for this post is likely more accurate than the Zerbisias column. Read the real news, here and here. Sounds like one overzealous librarian made a mistake and decided to blame–who else–George W. Bush.

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Tanya says: Agreed. After all, if Bush is opposed to abortion, why would he want to hide numerous findings from from POPLINE about the correlation between abortion and depression.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: abortion, Antonia Zerbisias, Media, POPLINE, search terms, The Toronto Star

ProWomanProLife on the radio

January 14, 2008 by Brigitte Pellerin Leave a Comment

Andrea and I are scheduled to be on Madely in the Morning tomorrow morning at 8:40 a.m. (Eastern). Listen live at www.cfra.com (or AM 580 if you’re in the Ottawa area).

[podcast]https://www.prowomanprolife.org/media/cfra_jan15.mp3[/podcast]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: CFRA, Media, Steve Madely

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