Bernie Sanders’ famous essay is below. I will reserve comment but I’d like your opinion on it. I will say that the press is handling this rather badly, at least at present, taking quotes with zero context, not addressing the meaning of the essay as a whole. Sanders says it was poorly written. Is it?<\/p>\n
by Bernie Sanders<\/em><\/p>\n Mid-February, 1972<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.<\/p>\n A woman enjoys intercourse with her man \u2013 as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.<\/p>\n The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday \u2013 and go to Church, or maybe to their \u201crevolutionary\u201d political meeting.<\/p>\n Have you ever looked at the Stag Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? DO you know why the newspapers with the articles like \u201cGirl 12 raped by 14 men\u201d sell so well?<\/p>\n Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves together. And it\u2019s necessary for all of humanity that they do so. Slavishness on one hand breeds pigness on the other hand. Pigness on one hand breeds slavishness on the other. Men and women \u2013 both are losers. Women adapt themselves to fill the needs of men, and men adapt themselves to fill the needs of women. In the beginning there were strong men who killed the animals and brought home the food \u2013 and the dependent women who cooked it. No more! Only the roles remain \u2013 waiting to be shaken off. There are no \u201chuman\u201d oppressors. Oppressors have lost their humanity. On one hand \u201cslavishness,\u201d on the other hand \u201cpigness.\u201d Six of one, half dozen of the other. Who wins?<\/p>\n Many women seem to be walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency, subservience, and masochism. How do you love \u2013 without being dependent? How do you be gentle \u2013 without being subservient? How do you maintain a relationship without giving up your identity and without getting strung out? How do you reach out and give your heart to your lover, but maintain the soul which is you?<\/p>\n And Men. Men are in pain too. They are thinking, wondering. What is it they want from a woman? Are they at fault? Are they perpetrating this man-woman situation? Are they oppressors?<\/p>\n The man is bitter.<\/p>\n \u201cYou lied to me,\u201d he said. (She did).<\/p>\n \u201cYou said they loved me, that you wanted me, that you needed me. Those are your words.\u201d (They are).<\/p>\n \u201cBut in reality,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you ever loved me, or wanted me, or needed me. (all of which I\u2019m not certain was ever true), you also hated me. You hated me \u2013 just as you have hated every man in your entire life, but you didn\u2019t have the guts to tell me that. You hated me before you ever saw me, even though I was not your father, or your teacher, or your sex friend when you were 13 years old, or your husband. You hated me not because of who I am, or what I was to you, but because I am a man. You did not deal with me as a person \u2013 as me. You lived a lie with me, used me and played games with me \u2013 and that\u2019s a piggy thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n And she said, \u201cYou wanted me not as a woman, or a lover, or a friend, but as a submissive woman, or submissive friend, or submissive lover; and right now where my head is I balk at even the slightest suspicion of that kind of demand.<\/p>\n And she said, \u201cYou\u2019re full of ___.\u201d<\/p>\n And they never made love together (which they had each liked to do more than anything) or never saw each other one more time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bernie Sanders’ famous essay is below. I will reserve comment but I’d like your opinion on it. I will say that the press is handling this rather badly, at least at present, taking quotes with zero context, not addressing the meaning of the essay as a whole. Sanders says it was poorly written. Is it? … Continue reading Bernie Sanders’ Essay<\/span>