“The Feminine Imperative is the pressure on society to accommodate women’s mating goals: first by maximizing their mate choice; and secondly by securing provision and protection for women and their children. The latter element of the Feminine Imperative is the Female Privilege to Care. Whenever an offense can only be conceptualized in terms of harm to women, the Female Privilege to Care is manifest.”
-Ciaran O’Connor, “DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Politicizing the False Accusation Culture”, Wed, Sep 10, 2014
By now, you all have seen, probably ad nauseam at this point, the “rest of the story” video footage of (now) former NFL Pro-Bowl running back Ray Rice literally knocking out his then-fiance’ and now wife, Janay Palmer-Rice, in an elevator on Valentine’s Day weekend earlier this year. On the off-chance you haven’t, here it is:
The pearl-clutching, righteous-indignation tsunami response on the part of those who partake of the blogosphere and attendant social media was to be expected, as was the CYAness of the NFL and Baltimore Ravens franchise in throwing Mr. Rice under the bus – this, despite the fact that his wife, Mrs. Palmer-Rice, has registered her great discontent at how her hubbie has been treated by the NFL and TMZ, the “news” organization that released the footage to the general public on Monday.
Astute watchers of current events will have noticed, however, that another event that took place on an elevator, the smoking gun footage of which was also released by TMZ and which also took place earlier this year, was treated in a completely different manner than the current Rice issue is being handled. In that instance, Ms. Solange Knowles, kid sister to pop icon Beyonce’ Knowles, viciously attacked Bey’s hubbie, rap mogul Jay-Z, barely restrained by a burly bodyguard. Right there on the tape, we see Solange trying to kick Jay-Z, throw punches and the like, while he remained cool and calm, and even tried to restrain Ms. Knowles, again, assisted by the aforementioned burly bodyguard.
While Mr. Rice’s career, for the time being at least, lay in tatters, Ms. Knowles not only didn’t get so much as a slap on the wrist for her clearly violent actions, there were people who openly speculated what Jigga “could have done” to PROVOKE such a visceral response on the part of Solange – the same people, in fact, who now ride high in their saddles, finger-wagging at Mr. Rice. Clearly, suggesting that a Woman could provoke a beatdown is worthy of being censured, even being fired; but suggesting that a Man could have provoked a Woman into going into full-on Mighty Joe Young mode, well, that’s perfectly A-OK.
For anyone out there who agrees with the punishment Mr. Rice has received for his actions on that fateful winter night earlier this year, you are a stompdown hypocrite with a capital “H” if you do not also support the full-on blacklisting of Ms. Solange Knowles from the music and entertainment business – but, of course, like Ms. Mary J. Blige before her, Ms. Knowles will go on with her life as if nothing had ever happened, continuing to ply her trade as a singer/entertainer, making a nice bit of coin for herself. Because, only Women count when it comes to domestic violence or spousal abuse.
In a previous post written last week, I argued that what Feminism boils down to in our time is “Who, Whom?” – not universal principles of justice, but rather, Identity Politics writ large, fostered by Special Interest Groups who have a terribly big axe to grind. This is why one couldn’t hear a mumbling word from all the supposed “activists” out there on the Feminists’ side of the aisle when Solange went Park Ape on Mr. Carter – because, again, domestic violence is an issue that is only for Women to be cared about.
One final point:
In a previous post I wrote barely a month ago, “Stephen A. Smith Was Right”*, I made the case that the Black community has a much more marked and acute situation when it came to domestic and spousal abuse, namely due to the fact that Black Women, far and away moreso than Women of America’s other ethnicities and races, were far more likely to “jump bad,” initiate aggression, and even seriously hurt and maim their male partners. I discussed a previous incident involving a (Black male) NFL player who was indeed harmed in this manner by his (Black female) partner, and which nary a peep was said about it in the media or among the SJWs in the blogosphere/social mediascape. “Who, Whom?” strikes again.
What the Rice situation proves is that far too often it is BOTH the Man AND the Woman who are at fault, often with the latter party escalating things to a point of no return. Black Women have imbibed so much of the Feminist Dogma that they don’t know, and often do not care, that such ideologies are literally dangerous – as Ms. Palmer found out the hard way back when. Nevertheless, far too many Black Women feel that it is perfectly alright for them to routinely violate the personal boundaries and space(s) of their male partners – and then want to play the role of Damsel in Distress, flopping all over the Fainting Couch when they literally get popped for it.
Until or unless society at large finally admits to itself that Women, in this case but in no way solely limited to Black, have the same capacity for aggression and downright mean-spiritedness that Men, regardless of color, do, and visit these behaviors most vividly onto those closest around them routinely in our time, there will be and can be no meaningful resolution when it comes to domestic and spousal abuse – all that will result is more of the same faux-righteous indignation, proffering of sacrificial lambs, and “Who, Whom?”ism on the part of the Feminist Lobby – White and Black.
In the end, everyone loses.
*It is interesting to note indeed, that while Mr. Smith was fired from his job for saying what has been long been known to be true in the Black community and that which Ms. Palmer-Rice has said herself in terms of playing a role in the events that took place in that elevator, Ms. Whoopie Goldberg wasn’t fired for saying the same thing Mr. Smith said and then taking it a few steps further – more proof of “Who, Whom?”ism in “A Woman’s Nation”. Deep!
Title image “RayRice27” by Keith Allison – . Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
