picture available from: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/127850I'll begin by saying (a little belatedly, perhaps) , that the New Paper did a mildly horrific spread of the experience I wrote on 2 months or so ago.
I've discovered, much to my pain, that when editors of this local paper deal with a single subject, they take the story on in any angle that they want, and with a sense of irresponsibility that is, unfortunately, disappointing. My point of view, in short, was abused.
So despite my calls for the education of both men and women in my conversations with the journalist, it perhaps fell on very deaf editorial ears. And the focus instead turned to painting women (or perhaps, just I) as hopelessly paranoid and pathetically reactive.
And so, I was presented with an article that was completely unrelated to the blog posts which had suprisingly touched more women that I thought they would.
Ah, the local papers. Perhaps bastions of education and knowledge should be found elsewhere.
As my experience has taught me, the journalists (as I suspect was the case for this article) and sometimes not to blame. Editors are pressured to sell the papers they direct - and sell they will.
But never the mind. I hope that one day, perhaps, some rights the women hold to would be taken far more seriously than they are now. And on a side note, that the AWARE debacle as presented in the local media would be replaced with a suggestion that the organisation has done more for women than our government perhaps has. And that rifts and in-fighting are, with any organisation, probably an unfortunate norm.
I once read about a pioneering female journalist known as Evelyn Cunningham. Something she once expressed will always remain with me: that women are the only oppressed group in society that lives in intimate association with their opressors.
So we live and learn intimately, perhaps, from the newspapers we read everyday. And for every editor who fails to stop up the daily, persistent trickle of prejudice, and who would rather fan the flames of diversionary controversy - shame on you.
