When I was a little girl, one of my grandparents made an unintentionally racist remark. For the life of me, I can't remember exactly what they said, but only my mother's explanation for it "You have to remember that people carry certain prejudices from the world they were born into." My paternal grandparents are only a few years older than John McCain. The fact of the matter is that unless you're an extremely open-minded person, you do carry certain ideas and prejudices with you from the world you were born into. People think it's an issue of humor how old John McCain is, but it's true that his attitudes, especially towards women, seem to be heavily influenced by a different time.
John McCain was born in 1936. That was really quite a long time ago. The last public hanging in the United States occurred in that year. Public hangings aren't something most people associate with the modern world. Let's see what life for women was like in 1936.
Under the ruling Buck vs. Bell, women could be sterilized against their will, and in some cases, without their knowledge. Minority women, especially, would often go into the hospital for minor surgery and discover years later they'd been sterilized during the procedure without being informed or asked permission. A husband could legally rape his wife in 1936, and for years afterwards.
In popular culture, the major event of 1936 was in December of that year when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson. Wallis Simpson was named "Man of the Year" by time magazine, the first women to receive that honor. Though her life story was very unique, Wallis Simpson, having been born white and upper-middle class, was very "lucky" for a woman of her generation.
Wallis's first husband had been horribly abusive, and was in the habit of beating her and then locking her in the closet for days on end so he could go drinking. When she told her family she wanted to leave him, they informed her "something was better than nothing", meaning that it was better to be with an abusive husband that to not be married at all. When she finally did leave him, she was cut out of her uncle's will and became a black sheep until she remarried.
She married her second husband, not out of love, but because she had no money and couldn't get a job (being a woman probably had something to do with that). She was still married to her second husband when she met the future King. They got involved in a relationship and once he was on the throne she tried to divorce her second husband. Under the laws in both Britain and America, it was easier for a husband to divorce his wife than for a wife to divorce her husband. It was like that up until the 1960's.
In 1936, Wallis Simpson became one of the most hated people in the world. The royal family refused to meet her, and called her an "adventuress" (Victorian euphemism for slut) and the "lowest of the low". She was accused of the worst things a woman could be accused of at that time, being promiscuous and being outspoken. Stories spread that she'd had an abortion (which I'm sure John McCain would agree was a serious crime), and that she was a Nazi spy. When King Edward abdicated, everyone blamed Wallis, even though she'd told him not to make any rash decisions and was out of the country at the time.
In 1936, everything was the woman's fault. If she got pregnant, even as a result of rape, she could be sent to a mental institution for the rest of her life, if she wasn't forced to marry the father. If a woman was divorced, she carried a heavy stigma much worse than the stigma for a divorced man. There were very few job choices for women, and all of them meant less pay and opportunities than men's jobs. We live in a sexist society today, but in 1936 every major inequality was there and 100 times worse.
Now, it's unfair to say John McCain agrees with every injustice of 1936, but, like my mother said "people carry certain prejudices from the world they were born into". Now, there are many, many open minded older people do not have those prejudices and never had them to begin with, but John McCain has shown us time and time again with his opinions on women's rights that he is not among them. He is against reproductive rights and against equal pay. He has been heard to joke about rape. John McCain clearly carries many prejudices from the world he was born into, where divorced women were "adventuresses", forced sterilization was legal, women couldn't work with men, and rape was either not a crime or partially the victim's fault. Do we really want to let those ideas loose in the White House? I'm not saying John McCain supports forced sterilization and he's made it quite clear he has no issues with divorce, but I still think that people carry certain prejudices from the world they were born into.
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My grandparents are good people and I love them, but I still think it's funny when they refer to WWII-era things like "the Japs". And they're incredibly open-minded for people their age. They have the internet and a cell phone when most of their friends don't. McCain won't even use a computer. I don't think its ageist to question whether or not somebody born in 1936 who is unwilling to use a computer is prepared to lead America in the 21st century.
Someone should make fire with a lighter in front of him and record his horrified and amazed reaction.
I'm not sure if you've heard about this site but it's one of the funniest things I've ever read. http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/
And Entomologista, word up. My grandma sounds similar to your grandparents, but there is no way I would want her leading the country (even though she is an awesome lady) it just doesn't make sense.
wait, how do we know that McCain won't use the computer? I'd love to see an article on that! anyone have one????
He said he doesn't know how to use a computer and doesn't want to learn not too long ago in an interview. I didn't bother to look it up though. He probably thinks the internet is a bunch of tubes like that one congressman...(him explaining the tubes is one of the best clips ever. I would look it up on the daily show website or youtube).
here it is:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-admits-he-doesnt-k_n_106478.html
Ageism lol
Stepehen A:
You know why ageism is better than sexism? Because the recipient's don't have to deal with it for very long.
Seriously if McCain didn't actively live out ageist stereotypes some of us wouldn't go for such below the belt slams on him. As it is he might as well wear an onion on his belt and tll people to get off his lawn.
Stepehen A:
You know why ageism is better than sexism? Because the recipient's don't have to deal with it for very long.
Seriously if McCain didn't actively live out ageist stereotypes some of us wouldn't go for such below the belt slams on him. As it is he might as well wear an onion on his belt and tll people to get off his lawn.
I, for one, am afraid that if he's elected president he's going to give away billions of dollars to elder scams and telemarketers.
And what if we did need to have a nuclear war? I'm pretty sure that there is a computer involved, not some giant toggle switch like in the original Frankenstein.
I dunno wth that partial double post is about.
Senior moment.
I think it would be perhaps more representative to look at what the world was like in the mid 1940s when McCain was a young child and forming his first impressions of the world rather than what things were like the year he was born. Sadly it appears that Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosie the Riveter had very little influence on his attitudes towards women.
I wasn't trying to be ageist, but John McCain has shown us time and time again that he has very outdated views about women. I was just examining how women were treated the year he was born and how those attitudes may have influenced his current opinion of them. I said in my post that there are open-minded older people who aren't as influenced by the prejudices of the world they were born in, John McCain just isn't one of them.
RiotGrrl, thanks for the article!
Good points, my grandparents are the same age... and either of them ruling a country is a scary thought. I enjoyed this on NPR over my lunch break last week:
The Digital Divide Between McCain And Obama
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93185393
I encourage a listen.
This was a great post and a really interesting way to consider McCain. I don't think it is ageist. It's similar to saying something like, "Obama grew up/has lived in many places--he probably has a very broad, international perspective."
Thanks for posting!
It's not so much his age that bothers me, he is just so out of touch (and I also don't like his stances on just about everything). Even my grandparents use the internet...
I agree with the general point about McCain having outdated views, and I think looking at what's going on in the year of someone's birth is sort of an interesting puff piece, but I'm really not sure about giving it any real weight in the sense of just identifying stuff that happened in X year with person born in that year. I mean, obviously that's superficial and kind of silly. We could do it with Obama (what year was he born?) We could do it with me -- what was going on in 1983? Besides, I'd think the stuff happening about 15-20 years after someone's birth would be way more directly influential on them than what's happening when they're brought home from the hospital.
P.S. Lodging some serious distaste for Logrus's post. Jeez.
It's not ageist not to give McCain a free pass for holding sexist beliefs. It's obvious that people raised in a different time period may have outdated views, but I feel like society has created this "right" older people somehow have not to be called out on their shit.
Honestly, I don't particularly care if some 75 year old nameless dude I don't know living on the other side of the country thinks women belong in the kitchen. But McCain is a politician and a presidential nominee. His beliefs have the potential to affect my life. My right to be respected and treated as a human being trumps his "right" to be a stick in the mud.
Sorry, this is unrelated but something you said got me thinking.
"A husband could legally rape his wife in 1936, and for years afterwards."
Isn't it still the law in some states that a women can't withdraw consent once it's been given? If I'm not mistaken there are places in the United States where it is STILL legal for a man to rape his wife because the law doesn't see it as rape.
I understand completely that those in their 60's and beyond were born and raised in a "different time", and I have often heard that same explanation from my mother. That is all well and good. Problems arise however when someone from such a drastically "different time" want to run things during this time.