Misogyny and Sexism in the News

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Martina

Small newspapers are ways that communities maintain themselves. They do not report all the same news or from the same perspective. i do think that photoshopping women out without making sure that their presence is noted is rewriting history without women, which is misrepresenting it. i don't defend their right to do that.

But i think that if they don't want images of women because of their religious beliefs, then they don't have to put them in. Perhaps they should just not include pictures that origninally had women. But they have to struggle with that and the criticism they receive.

i do think it's a freedom of religion issue. It's one of the things i am proudest of about the U.S. If we didn't protect freedom of religion, we would suffer because fundamentalist Christianity would overwhelm parts of our public culture, especially in some regions.

In any case, it's an important basic freedom. Way more important than the fact that you or i might be offended by what they do.

And this is part of why I will never relent butting heads with religion.

Religious freedom is all fine and dandy, but I do not think religious beliefs should ever take precedence over the rights of individual human beings to be acknowledged for the achievements, their right to go about their lives just like everyone else etc.

Religion, whether or not the religious like to admit it, is a choice as well as a cultural issue (being raised a certain religion, f.ex.) Women, men, those in between, various races and ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, disabilities and so on...these are things people have no choice in. They are born as they are born and does not determine their own opinions and perspectives. A religious choice should not take precedence over a woman's right to be acknowledged for her own achievements. Misogynist religious beliefs should not be permitted to simply write women out of the public sphere or politics out of convenience or in the name of "religious freedom" without legal repercussions. Personally, I think every nation should have media laws put in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The press should not be permitted to knowingly mislead the public.