Historians appear to naively trust that what they are expounding are facts. But history is not factual and because of their innate humanity, historians are unreliable narrators. Their study of the past is a minefield of variable opinion. History, a social science, investigates societies and their interactions. The historian, the actual person writing the textbook, has his own point of view. What happened, the actual event, is the fact. The historian interprets the event and records it for others.
So, how do we know what is true. Gender is one determinant of point of view and in the field of history, the male gender is dominant. When the male gender traces history back through time he ends up at inevitably at myth, because myth is the beginning of it all. And myth is something that man dreamed up to clarify creation, to explain why we are here. So in America we end up at the Bible and the Bible is a story written by men with men in the starring roles. Therefore the term, His story, or, History, is accurate. I understand completely how we got to this woe begotten state of affairs. We just need to understand these facts so we can change them.
Rebecca Solnit’s new book, Whose Story Is This?, a book echoing this post’s theme, references an African proverb that is very much to the point. The proverb is:
“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
I’ve just started singing wimoweh. The words, “the lion learns how to write” sound pretty much like “The lion sleeps tonight.” And in the natural progression of my personal thought patterns and past, this leads logically to a writing break so I can sing The lion sleeps tonight and Wimoweh, pet the dog and cat, fetch a fresh cup of coffee and open the curtains to see what the day holds.
If you must know, it’s sunny with a heavy haze. But it turns out that according to Wikipedia, Wimoweh is a mispronunciation. Wimoweh is really Uyimbube, Zulu for “You are a lion” and the song was written in the 1920s by Solomon Linda, a man who was famous for a while in South Africa. American artists made the real money and credited the song to “traditional”. Does this aside prove my point? Yes, it certainly does.
Women are the new lions and they know how to write. Changing history and clawing our way back to pre-Biblical times when God the father was Goddess the mother will not be easy but I have faith in us. We can do it. We are, after all, the lions in this story.
In order for women to write the history books we will have to be believed and that’s a problem. It’s only slightly less of a problem than it was when Freud changed his mind and decided that all those women couldn’t possibly have been sexually assaulted or raped by family members and decided instead that the women must be hysterical, something to do with wombs and periods. They were dismissed as liars and storytellers.
There is an entire culture around silencing women. Men noticed that women like attention and think that when it’s not forthcoming they make up stories about sexual assault and rape. They think women also do this to get revenge on men for various reasons. The culture of silencing women who have been raped isn’t motivated by evil intentions. Rape is something that’s “not nice”. It’s not the kind of thing nice, well-brought up girls and women talk about. But not talking about it has gotten us nowhere. It’s a threat that holds us down and prevents us from exploring life to the fullest extent possible.
Unbelievable, the Netflix series and book are current and also directly address the problem women have in being believed. A serial rapist is on the loose but in his first rape of an 18-year-old girl, the older male detectives on the case decide she is lying. They are angry at having to waste their precious time on her and charge her with a misdemeanor for false reporting. She loses everything. She is essentially ruined as the rape apologists like to say of men who are accused.
Unbelievable, the series, is tied to a paperback also titled Unbelievable which is a rewrite of a hardback previously published under the title, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America, published in 2018 and available used. I read that one and also the original article, An Unbelievable Story of a Rape,
Also read Unbelievable: the quiet power of Netflix’s fact-based rape drama, a Guardian review of the Netflix series. We watch how Marie’s mind snaps as she shakes off visions of the man raping her. She tells the detectives what they want but that’s not good enough. The detectives go in for the kill. Two grown over 200 lb men corral her and she makes mistake after mistake which they interpret as lies. It’s a horrible reality but reality it is and it’s a common reality. I want to emphasize that this is not a rare type of rape. And this is a common reality not a one in a million horrible mistake. What is shown in this series with Marie is very true to how it actually happens.
Marie had already been trained to deny that things happened. Usually it made at least some of the bad stuff stop. My father brooked no defiance of his reality. My reality was to deny that it ever happened, to accept my punishment and continue to treat him with love or as if I respected and loved him. His only concession to reality was a tiny curl of a smile when I acquiesced. He loved his power. This kind of dissociation and denial is not uncommon in families. It’s pervasive. This is what Marie was raised on and she tried to please. The detectives were #$@&%*!. You will agree, I assure you.
The Cyprus Ayia Napa Rape Case I have been following since June, 2019 parallels the story in Unbelievable. I believe the young woman in that case. To see what I’m talking about, follow it here for the July newsletter, here for the August newsletter and here for the post itself.
There is mansplaining, sure, but this isn’t mansplaining. It’s something else and it’s evil. If a man says one thing is true, and a woman says another is true, who will people believe? Is it the man or the woman? It’s the man, especially if it’s a man doing the listening. After all, it’s History and History is His Story not Her Story or The Story. It’s a story and since it’s Her Story it implies in his mind that it’s fiction. Putting a His in front of the word, story, doesn’t make it fact. We can’t just read one point of view. That’s where we get into trouble in the first place. The evangelicals believe the bible is fact. They actually believe that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John sat down during their lives and wrote the new testament. I find this incredible. Each country, each religion is like that. History isn’t fact. Myth isn’t fact. Myth is believable. When we say something different which is what a woman says when she says that she was raped, it goes against the system. It’s out of whack. It’s UNBELIEVABLE.
Do you need more proof? Well, here it is. Just read Donald J. Trump’s tweets. They are clear examples of the dissociation that goes on with facts and fictions. Donald Trump, our president tweeted twice a defense of Kavanaugh @realDonaldTrump on September 15, 2019. In the first tweet, he wrote,
Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue. The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can’t let that happen!
and again
Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment. He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!
On the other hand NBC reports that “More than 20 individuals who know either Kavanaugh or Ramirez who has accused the nominee of exposing himself to her while the two attended Yale University, have not heard from the FBI despite attempts to contact investigators, including Kavanaugh’s roommate at the time and a former close Ramirez friend.”
And who is the person sitting in that chair at the Justice Department defending our country. It is none other than the chief misogynist patriarchal power monger, William F. Barr, Attorney General of the United States of America. Before being chosen to serve by President Trump, Barr took the time to write a blurb for his buddy, historian and professor of misogyny, KC Johnson. Johnson is the guy who was condemned by The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education for “attempting to screen out potential school teachers who held undesirable political beliefs.” And who were those undesirables? They were women, that’s who. Johnson also carries on no end about Peggy Reeves Sanday’s book, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood and Privilege on Campus. Johnson seems to believe fraternity drinking binges are good things. KC Johnson’s book which he co-wrote with Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a defense of the Duke Lacrosse team in a rape accusation that was a booby trap from the get go and never improved with time. All the boys accused in 2007 went on to excellent careers. The accuser is in jail. KC should be happy.
The blurb is below. Please especially read the bolded section.
The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process, a book written by KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor, Jr., Encounter Books, 2017.
“In this masterful account, Johnson and Taylor examine in detail how President Obama’s Education Department-promulgating regulations beyond its statutory authority, invoking erroneous data, and fanning the false narrative of a ‘rape culture’ on college campus-has created a regime of kangaroo justice. Male students accused of sexual misconduct are found guilty, and their lives destroyed, by campus panels operating without any information. Your blood will boil as the authors meticulously examine scores of cases where, in the name of political correctness, male students are sacrificed to the mob with academic leaders happily serving as hangmen.” William P. Barr, former Attorney General of the United States (1990-1993)
William Barr is certainly hot under the collar. Life is a farce. Thanks for reading.