The leggings "problem"

[sheshe2]

snip

That this is a pile of puffery barely needs to be said. What Mrs. White is doing is infantilizing her sons, positing that they have no control over any urges or desires which women wearing leggings might raise up in them. What does that say about what she thinks of them? That they’re just one legging away from being a rapist? Why would a mother think that of her sons and other mothers’ sons? And her solution for this is not to teach her sons how to treat women like equal human beings who have bodily and sexual autonomy, but instead scolding women for being teases who just egg on men to behave badly, as they inevitably will.

Of course, Mrs. White’s views are perfectly suited for a patriarchal culture. They absolve men of all responsibility, and give them carte blanche to police women’s bodies, in the interests of the broader society’s moral “health”. Patriarchy in all its forms and in all cultures wouldn’t be able to exist without the able assists from women like Mrs. White.

The women (and many men) of Notre Dame were having none of it. They’re not to blame if parents like the Whites teach their sons that women are temptresses and they have no control over their own actions. They’re not to blame that a patriarchy under threat wishes to coerce women into behaving the way that it wants them to. Women and their male allies have grown up in a culture where bodily autonomy is the norm, a norm now under peril. And like we’ve seen countless times in this Age of Trump, they’re fighting back, and fighting back hard.

Mrs. White: The problem isn’t the leggings. It’s the lessons which you teach your sons. You deprive them of the gift of moral agency. These are not men I would want around any woman. I’ve seen the story play out before, millions of times, down the millennia.

https://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2019/4/2/the-leggings-problem

Try teaching your children well, Mrs White. Sadly, people like you are the problem. Jaysus!

[Takket]

1. sounds like Mrs. White needs to move to Saudi Arabia. She would love it there.

[sheshe2]

2. True.

Good place for her, Tagget.

PS. I am in my 60's. I wear leggings and jeggings all the time. They are comfortable. I like how they hug your leg. Mrs White is an uptight ass.

[mcar]

3. How does she explain the rape of nuns, elderly women, babies?

This is so much crap I cannot. I'm the mother of 2 sons and we raised them Catholic, then Presbyterian. The idea that my poor, weak willed boys couldn't control themselves because they see a female butt is not only sexist, it's insulting to the vast majority of men who treat women with respect. And to her own sons.

[sheshe2]

4. Thank you mcar.

[Amaryllis]

5. Well, you know, if a male can't control himself, of course it's the female's fault for

arousing him, dontcha know?

[JCMach1]

6. Her body, her choice

Applies to leggings too

[sheshe2]

12. +1!

[rpannier]

7. The stupidity and silliness of the article rests in some odd idea that rape is a new phenomena

It has been going on for centuries, including the 16th-19th century when women were practically bundled up from neck to shoe
The argument about how they dress is not new. While growing up my late grandmother (b.1913), who never was construed as a fashion daredevil, commented how she remembered the hullabaloo over women showing their calves, the flapper skirt caused an outcry that women were being immodest and inviting sexual assault and so on.

They're flawed reasoning designed to protect a status quo that the writer, for some odd reason, seems comfortable with.

[LiberalArkie]

8. The status quo are the conservatives, the police

Etc. they are protect the status quo

[rpannier]

10. Very true

But I am always curious why people feel the need to preserve something so ludicrously archaic as what Ms White is doing.

[LiberalArkie]

14. Because that is how it has been.

[rpannier]

18. Yeah, the 'Appeal to Antiquity' / 'Appeal to Tradition' crowd

They are free to go find a cave and rub sticks together for heat and light

[dlk]

9. It's Important for Parents of Sons to Not Just Teach Them Respect for Women and Girls...

...it's also important to teach them that they, alone, are responsible for their decisions and behavior. (That's what their brain is for.) It's not ever, under any circumstances, someone else's job to manage their urges or keep them under control. Besides, isn't personal responsibility a popular Republican talking point?

[rpannier]

11. That pretty much died with Trump

At least when it comes to heterosexual morality
When it comes to money and homosexuality, then the wagging of fingers and the clutching of pearls is quite visible

[3catwoman3]

13. If I were a man, I would be insulted to have it assumed that I could not...

...control my behavior because of my genitalia.

I tired to teach our sons that "just because you have a penis, that does not mean you are entitled to a place to put it."

[customerserviceguy]

17. Well, there is

"Keep it in your pants." My advice to my son when he was high school age.

[3catwoman3]

19. At the pediatric office, when we do annual well visits...

...for adolescents, we discuss responsible social decisions. When I finished one of my brief spiels (I keep it short so as not to be tuned out), a very charming 17 yr old young man said, "I can do better than that. I'll tell you what my dad told me - stay in school and wrap your tool."

[customerserviceguy]

20. That's

a wise dad!

[LakeArenal]

15. My my. In the olden days....

We wore mini-skirts and hot pants (not to school) in worse places. Like hitchhiking to the mall or even to another city. My friend and I would ride the train unchaperoned to Milwaukee to shop downtown. Never once did we have a problem with men. For what it’s worth, my husband never raped anyone and he’s all man and he’s a son as well.